Decanter Best Australia Specialist 2023

What better way to celebrate our sixth consecutive Decanter award as Best Australia Specialist than with Halliday’s Wine of the Year.

The Decanter Retailer Awards recognises and celebrates the very best wine retailers in the UK. From the best wine shops to national retailers, in-store and online, the awards offer wine drinkers an indispensable guide to outstanding retail experiences across the nation.

Applicants are invited to submit their respective entrance(s) along with supporting evidence ahead of the judging, which is lengthy (June to August) and super-rigid. Everyone goes through a three-round process before final decisions are announced.

Unquestionably, Decanter is the most important, global retailer awards – the Oscars of our industry. With great honour, we are thrilled to be declared Decanter's Best Australian Specialist 2023, an award which we have now won six-years in succession.

‘You feel secure buying from them, they know what they’re doing – the range is fantastic and it was a pleasure using the website,’ said one judge of The Vinorium. ‘Great range and depth,’ said another."

We are thrilled to share the 99-point Yangarra Estate Vineyard Old Vine Grenache 2021 (McLaren Vale) for a snip at £33.95 per bottle…

In the recently published 2024 Halliday Wine Companion awards, the panel of judges (made up of James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Mike Bennie, Ned Goodwin MW, Philip Rich and Shanteh Wale)  reported that,

“You could have blown us over with a feather. The same grape variety, from the same producer, has somehow managed to win our Wine of the Year for the second time in the space of only a few years. We taste over 8000 wines each year. When we sit down the judge the Awards, we have no idea what the wines are, from start to finish.

The chances therefore of a grenache from the same estate in McLaren Vale making it through all the various stages and discussions to come out on top, twice; well, they’re somewhere between Buckley’s and none. And yet Yangarra Estate has done just that. Its High Sands Grenache 2016 took out the Wine of the Year in 2020; this year its Old Vine Grenache 2021 has achieved the same feat. On top of that, the voting in favour of this year’s winner was emphatic.”

99 Points

"It’s a giant killer. It’s not the top wine in Yangarra Estate’s own grenache hierarchy and yet in an independent review, against wines at all price levels, it reigned supreme."

James Halliday “Ex 1946 Blewitt Springs bush vines planted in a deep sandy dune that Yangarra call The Beach; dry-grown, bunch-sorted, wild yeast, open fermented and basket pressed. Bright clear though deep crimson hue; scented/perfumed, and I'm gone for all money without even tasting it. And I haven't fooled myself.  Its red fruit sundae glistens with dew drops on a spider's web, yet also has a savoury echo towards the finish.”

Campbell Mattinson “It’s a giant killer. It’s not the top wine in Yangarra Estate’s own grenache hierarchy and yet in an independent review, against wines at all price levels, it reigned supreme. It was grown on bush vines that have been doing their thing in the Blewitt Springs subregion since they went into the ground in 1946. James Halliday, when he first put the wine near his nose, said ‘I’m gone for all money without even tasting it’. This wine has it all: scent, fruit, savouriness and structure. It is rock solid, rolled gold, quality.”

£33.95 per bottle

Also available Under Bond @ £153.75 per 6 pack

All duty paid orders will be dispatched on Thursday for arrival on Friday 29th September.

Please select a later date when checking out if Friday is not convenient.