Shortlist released for the 2023 James Halliday Companion Awards

The highly anticipated Halliday Wine Companion Awards for 2023 has released its nominees, and Australian wines have never been so good through bushfires, floods and the pandemic.

Local winemakers showed resilience through adversity to craft and produce their wines: James Halliday Australian Wine Companion’s chief editor Tyson Stelzer. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A rising-star female winemaker producing spectacular Tasmanian sparkling wine, old hands from Western Australia’s famed Margaret River and a triumphal return to the vine for many whose vineyards were smoke-tainted by the 2019 bushfires are among nominees for the 2023 James Halliday awards.

After a team of wine judges sniffed, swirled, tasted and quaffed their way through more than 8000 wines, the prestigious James Halliday Australian Wine Companion awards have released shortlists of nominees across key categories, including winery of the year, winemaker of the year, best viticulturist, best new winery and best value wines.

A shortlist for the highly sought after award for wine of the year, whose previous winners have included the classic Yarra Yering 2019 Dry Red Wine No 1 and Henschke’s Hill of Grace 2012, has not been released, keeping enthusiasts guessing until the winners are announced at a ceremony on August 3.

The publication’s chief editor, Tyson Stelzer, said many of the vintages judged for the awards were created through the emergence of the pandemic and Covid-19 lockdowns, with local winemakers showing resilience through adversity to craft and produce their wines.

“We are blessed in Australia to have winemakers as resilient and as courageous as they are,” Mr Stelzer told The Australian.

“And I think we have seen time and time again in history that when Australians face tough conditions, be it climatic conditions or economic conditions or social conditions, all of which we have had to deal with in recent years, Australian winemakers rise to the challenge and I’ve been greatly encouraged by the ones that I’ve tasted from across the country.”

He said because of challenges such as supply-chain bottlenecks, labour shortages and tricky seasons, you might have expected that would mean the wines tasted for the awards would be looking “a little bit worse for wear” but in fact the opposite was true.

“Australian winemakers are making the best wines that I have tasted across the board, from the Margaret River all the way to the Hunter Valley and down to Tasmania,” he said.

Mr Stelzer said highlights included some of the best vintages he and his team had seen in two decades from most of South Australia and Victoria.

Among this year’s nominees, Serrat, from Victoria’s Yarra Valley, is nominated in three categories, for winery of the year, winemaker of the year and viticulturist of the year.

Two wineries were nominated in two categories: Pooley, for both winery of the year and viticulturist of the year; and Yangarra, for both winemaker and viticulturist of the year.

Natalie Fryar, nominated for winemaker of the year, founded her winery Bellebonne in Tasmania after 14 years of working with the state’s sparkling legend Jansz and was delighted with her nomination.

She said it was recognition for hard work, and her brave decision to break out and start her own winery in 2015. “It’s remarkably both freeing, and dangerously terrifying to start your own winery,” Ms Fryar told The Australian.

“It’s wonderful to make every decision and be in full control of where I want to see the wines go, how I want the wines to be presented to the public – all of that is my decision, which is great.

“But then there is never the security; every time you get comfortable, you go, right well, we now need to reinvest in the business again, to reinvest in our own professional development again, and so therefore you bring back the risk, and it’s a huge responsibility but it’s wonderful, a wonderful thing. Because I love it, I love it with such a passion.”