2026 Halliday Top Rated

The best shiraz in Australia

By The Tasting Team

The Koomilya JC Block Shiraz 2022 has been named the best shiraz in Australia.

The Halliday Wine Companion Awards celebrate the top wines in Australia – as chosen by our esteemed wine critics who spend the year tasting and reviewing wine from across the country. Below, you'll find Australia's best shiraz, along with the ratings awarded by the Tasting Team.

Toni Paterson MW captured the essence of the bracket well when she said, ‘Wonderful to see so many expressions and personalities on the table." Shiraz is always a challenge to judge in this setting, because every wine represented in this category is worthy of being included; to try to split them is painfully difficult.

This decision, however, fell out easily. Clear as day, a victory by a large margin; the 2022 JC Block Shiraz from Koomilya is certainly one of Australia’s greatest wines.

2026 Best Shiraz of the Year in Australia

Koomilya JC Block Shiraz 2022, McLaren Vale

99 points (PD*) | Price when tasted $120


Yarra Yering Dry Red Wine No. 2 2022, Yarra Valley

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There are three single-block iterations of Koomilya shiraz: GT, DC and JC. All are superb, but it is the JC that is cementing its reputation as one of Australia’s greatest wines. The survey may be relatively short, but I’m convinced. The '21 was breathtaking and this its equal, or thereabouts. The JC has a distinct shape, a harmony, an engulfing perfume, a blend of flavour depth with spice and dusky florals, and an effortlessness. Then the fragrance in the mouth billows up, envelops, stops you in your tracks. It’s suffused with place, the bush-fringed site, with a sense of fallen gums subsumed into the soil, intertwining with the ripe but not juicy deep red fruits, along with a rusty iron note, salumi and panforte. As said, one of Australia’s great wines. – Marcus Ellis

Learn more about shiraz.

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The 2026 Halliday Wine Companion is available now. Secure your copy of Australia's most comprehensive wine guide at all good bookstores.

This is an edited extract from the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Katrina Butler, Marcus Ellis, Mike Bennie, Philip Rich, Shanteh Wale and Toni Paterson MW. Cover art by James Coe.

*Panel decision – score awarded by the Halliday Tasting Team at the annual Awards judging.


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