It’s the Yarra Valley cabernet blend – one of the best Australian wines of the century – and it crowns my list of Top 100 wines this year. 

The wine is made by third-generation winemaker Sam Middleton, whose grandparents John and Marli Middleton established the vineyard at Coldstream in 1971.

This is the pinnacle of Yarra Valley cabernet. It has such fine detailing. You can watch standard television, and then you can watch super high definition. That is what’s happening here. There is just so much detail, so much intricate etching this wine.

This is the sort of really special wine that we should celebrate in this country. 

The wine is a blend of 50 per cent cabernet sauvignon and 25 per cent merlot, with splashes of cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot.

Mount Mary’s Quintet is our most eloquent rebuttal to accusations Australian wine is all bombast and bluster. This is a blend without a single stitch or seam.

For Sam Middleton, recognition of the wine is a “huge honour”.

“As is the case with all our wines, the Quintet is made 100 per cent from estate-grown fruit,” Middleton says. “We control every single step of the process ourselves, onsite at Mount Mary.”

Like many Australian wine stories, Mount Mary’s is one of family dedication to craft and quality. Sam Middleton may be the vineyard’s senior winemaker, but Mount Mary remains a closely held family affair, with his parents David and Vicki Middleton owning and operating the property and his sister Claire Middleton also working there.

“As a family we are very fortunate to farm such a special patch of land and we don’t take this for granted,” Middleton says. “Our wines live and die by the quality of fruit we grow each and every year. Viticulture and growing the absolute best quality fruit we can produce  is our core focus.”

He says recognition for the Quintet is special not only on behalf of his family — and the wine — but because family operated wineries are under threat in an era of multinational winemaking.

“The landscape has changed in Australian wine in recent years and sadly there are fewer and fewer family owned and operated businesses,” he says. “We are extremely proud to say we are still 100 per cent family owned and operated.”

He says he’s delighted for the recognition of a family winemaking story.

“The higher echelon of Australian producers are making some of the best wines in the world and savvy and educated Australian wine drinkers and collectors understand that. 

“We need to continue to engage the younger demographic, and educate them on how important wine has been culturally for hundreds and hundreds of years. 

“The brilliant stories behind the generational family winegrowers in this country need to be told and admired.”

That storytelling is  crucial. And Mount Mary has a special connection for me.

Mount Mary was established in 1971 — the year of my birth

The wines look a lot better than I do. Mount Mary, cheers, and thank you for your efforts.

It’s in the spirit of celebration that we have put together this year’s Top 100 wines list. The quality and diversity of the annual list is something any wine-producing nation on Earth would need to work very hard to match. The depth is there, too. 

Stand out themes from the 2025 list include the world-beating South Australian varietal, as well as some of the bizarre innovations in winemaking, and discover which wine region and varietal has recently experienced a vintage bestowed upon it by what I can only call divine benevolence.

Also available through the links below is our list of the nation’s Top 20 Best Beers and Best Spirits, both published yesterday. Enjoy.

Some of the greatest Chardonnay on the planet

Flametree SRS Wallcliffe Chardonnay 2023
A really strong field and so much great white wine across the country that we looked at this year, but there was always going to be a strong chance of it being a Chardonnay out of Margaret River from the outstanding vintage of 2023. This is the 2023 Flametree SRS Chardonnay from the Walcliffe sub-region of Margaret River and the great Cliff Royle. There’s a lot of very attention-grabbing and high-profile Chardonnay out of Margaret River and brilliant producers, and there are several other ‘23 Margaret River Chardonnays in this year’s list, but there’s just something about this wine. I’ve always loved the Flametree wines. I’ve always loved the way Cliff goes about it. There’s a finesse and a subtlety to his wines, as well as giving you all that great complexity and power and drive that we love about Margaret River Chardonnay.

So for this year, Best White Wine, and as a result, the Best Western Australian wine as well. Even the most hardcore Burgundy heads might have to admit that the most exciting Chardonnay producing region in the world right now is Margaret River. And, I think across the country, we’re making some of the best Chardonnay on the planet in places like Adelaide Hills, Yarra Valley and Tasmania. But for me, Margaret River is just kicking goal after goal after goal when it comes to Chardonnay. This one stands out for its finesse, precision and a quiet calm. It’s not as flashy as some of the others, but very finely detailed. I just think it’s fabulous, and I can see it looking even better in about five years.

• $95
• 12.9% alcohol
• 97 points

Grenache that is changing the world 

S.C. Pannell ‘Sunrise 99’ Grenache from 2022
Grenache is a purely South Australian thing. Just like saying d-ah-nce and ch-ah-nce properly, and serial killers. This year I’ve seen so much great Grenache, especially out of McLaren Vale and the Barossa. So it’s hardly surprising that the South Australian wine of the year is a Grenache. It’s actually the first-ever release of this particular line. It’s the S.C. Pannell ‘Sunrise 99’ Grenache from 2022. Steve Pannell has done more than most people to elevate Australian Grenache over the last decade or so, and we are at a point now with the stuff that Steve does, what Peter Fraser has been doing at Yangarra, what Amelia Nolan is doing at Alkina, what Marco Cirillo is doing in the Barossa, what David Gleave and Renae Hirsch have been doing at Willunga, and Giles Cooke at Thistledown – that there are so many great Grenache producers. Julian Forwood and Bernice Ong of Ministry of Clouds have got something pretty special that just missed the cut-off this year in terms of time. But I’ll be doing something on that in the coming weeks. Right now, Australian Grenache is having a moment, and it’s because of guys like Steve Pannell who have taken these great old-vine Grenache resources we have in South Australia and elevated them beyond the afterthought that they once were. The great Grenaches we produce now have structure to them as well. People used to say Grenache was a poor man’s Pinot Noir. I think sometimes it’s even more useful to think about great Australian Grenache in Nebbiolo terms, in the variety’s fragrance, tannin and structure.

• $250
• 14.5% alcohol
• 98 points

The weirdest and wackiest wines of the year

2023 Super Gertie Riesling
I wanted to shine a little light on some of the more interesting winemaking methods being deployed around the country, and some interesting stylistic shifts. In this year’s list is a little ceramic jug that looks like the kind of thing an old western hobo would be drinking from. It’s actually a beautifully made little ceramic bottle, and it contains the 2023 Super Gertie Riesling from Ben Marx, who makes some of the best Cabernet Franc in the country. This is pretty wild and wacky Riesling. It’s skins-y. It’s a little wild and ropey. It’s not the classic, conventional, linear, clear Riesling you expect, with that purity of citrus and slate. It’s an incredibly interesting wine, lots of texture, some really interesting aromatics and flavours through it. I think Ben is trying to encourage a relationship with ongoing customers, so there is a process where these can be recycled and refilled.

Another highlight is the Subsea Estate ‘Pure Ocean’ Semillon 2024.  Now, one of the things that’s been quite a bit of a trend in wine around the world the last few years is putting bottles under water for a kind of subsea maturation, so to speak. This is the next step up. These are actually wines that go in fermenting vats that are anchored to the ocean floor, that move with the ocean currents. So it’s an unfinished wine going down under the ocean, not bottled wine, but wine still in its fermentation vessel and then sitting among an old abalone lease off the coast of Margaret River. Really interesting stuff. Whether everyone’s going to be doing this in 10 years, I kind of doubt it, but I love the thinking behind this, the vision behind this, and the bravery behind this, and it comes up with a pretty fantastic result.

• $125
• 11% alcohol
• 95 points

Cabernet Sauvignon: Wine that’s ‘cheaper than a pizza’ but still packs a punch

Jim Barry Barry & Sons Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
There’s a lovely sort of ironstone spine running down the middle of all great Clare Valley Cabernet, which I also happen to think is the best red variety in the Clare. This wine, the Jim Barry Barry & Sons Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, at this kind of money, shows that off with great varietal definition, balance, purity, and finesse. This is a seriously good glass of wine for $22. Prices may vary in your local region, but that’s around the ballpark we’re looking at – in other words, cheaper than a pizza. Why not buy two? And that’s a wine that was shown at the Clare Valley Wine Show with a very high-calibre judging panel. An amazing job. The other well-priced red wine of note is the Balnaves ‘The Blend’ from Coonawarra. Coonawarra is one of the great regions on Earth for Cabernet and its kin. In this, it is just a slightly fleshier fruit and a soft, fluffy sort of tannin through the finish. So, two great wines. One is slightly sterner, the other a little gentler, but both are great expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon in their respective regions, for a price that, even if you thought you didn’t like Cabernet any more, might just bring you back. Beautiful.

• $25
• 14% alcohol
• 95 points