Best Australian red wines over $35
Our annual collection of Australia’s best premium reds includes an ‘utterly singular’ $900 bottle of WA Cabernet Sauvignon that brought this wine critic to tears. | FULL LIST
An $1180 bottle of Penfolds cabernet shiraz, an esteemed Murrumbateman legend, and a drop from the “criminally underrated” granite geology of the Perth Hills, are among the 20 best red wines over $35 in this year’s refreshed Drinks Issue of The Weekend Australian Magazine.
The annual issue, now helmed by magazine wine critic Nick Ryan, is a feast of all things vinous and offers a guide to the nation’s best and most affordable – and most luxurious – red, white and sparkling wines.
Among the featured wine is a bottle Ryan describes as having the ability “to make a grown man cry”.
“In any given year, when several thousand bottles are drained in the service of work and the pursuit of pleasure, I’ll consider myself blessed if I find a couple that pass across the palate and settle in my soul,” Ryan writes of the 2022 Cullen ‘Vanya’ Fruit Day Cabernet Sauvignon.
“This was one of them. It is a cabernet at its most ethereal, a wine that somehow manages to be both minutely detailed and utterly singular at once.”
The Cullen wine, at $900, is the second-most expensive drop on the list, and is the only wine Ryan has scored as a 99.
In the red wine categories, both classic varieties such as big-name shiraz and cabernet sauvignons are showcased alongside a spattering of up-and-coming varieties including viognier and a cabernet touriga.
Ryan says Australian winemakers are currently doing great things both in classic varieties as well as less-known styles.
“The diversity of Australian wine and the quality of Australian wine has never been better,”
he says. Ryan lists the $300 2023 Mount Pleasant ‘Maurice O’Shea’ as a pick among a quality field in the above $35 reds list.
“This is a beautifully polished Hunter shiraz,” he says.
This list is part of a broader series which sets out the best Australian wines of 2024 according to both price and quality. Discover more:
Best white wines over $35
Best red wines under $35
Best white wines under $35 - Saturday 16/11
Best spirits of the year - Saturday 16/11
Festive champagne guide - Saturday 16/11
