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Five outstanding Aussie wines under $25 for 2020

Katherine Scott

August 7, 2020 - 2.17am

Despite a record horror year in winemaking, Aussies can look forward to some superb-value drops in 2020s crop.

Wednesday marked the 2021 Halliday Wine Companion Awards, the veritable Oscars of the Aussie wine industry, following a year plagued with setbacks.

The past 12 months recorded the worst ever grape growing across the entire country — a reality that's certain to have repercussions on wine drinkers' pockets.

Wine tasting: glasses of white, rose and red wine — Despite a horror year in the wine industry, wineries maintained their ratings. iStock

"It was a cocktail of full-on drought, followed by extreme heat and windy conditions that badly affected flowering and fruit-set," wine expert James Halliday tells 9Honey.

"Then came the bushfires, feeding off the drought. Then, just when it seemed there could be nothing more, came COVID-19, which has been brutal in its impact on small to medium-sized wineries, the vast majority reliant on tourism for the bulk of their sales income."

Remarkably, all of these factors didn't reduce the rating of any single winery, and the wine panel found wines across the board to be rising in quality.

Australian rosé continued with its ascent, Hunter Valley vintages of '17, '18 and '19 stood out, and more producers moved towards more sustainable methods.

Aussie winemakers' resilience generally shone through, with bottles spanning Western Australia to Tassie honoured with a spot in the Halliday Wine Companion — many at exceptional prices.

Ben Thomson of Best's Wines pictured with James Halliday. Halliday Wine Companion

Taking out 'Best Value Winery of the Year' was Best's Wines in the Grampians, Victoria, with the Thomson family consistently producing expressive, regional drops year after year, praised for their exceptional value for money.

"There's a polish to the wines, an almost luminescence to the aroma, the flavour, with an unquestionable ability to live as long as you wish," Halliday says.

Despite being one of the most historic wineries in the region, established in 1868, Halliday says that old vines don't always translate to a higher price point.

"The pinot meunier is one of my absolute go-to wines. Best's has 1.2 hectares of pinot meunier planted in 1867, with 141 vines of pinot noir randomly interplanted at the same time.

"These are respectively the oldest plantings of the two varieties in the world, as phylloxera destroyed those in France — Burgundy and Champagne — and elsewhere in Europe."

No stranger to the Halliday Wine Companion, Best's Wines was also notably recipient of the 2017 Wine of the Year gong for their 2014 Best's Great Western Thomson Family Shiraz. This year was no exception, with eight of Best's 10 wines featuring in the guide and all clocking between 95 and 97 points, proving amazing wine absolutely does not have to be expensive.

Five outstanding Aussie wines under $25

We've whittled down this year's wines to a condensed list of just five value-driven drops, with each awarded James' 'Special Value' rosette — so you can enjoy the best in the biz without spending a fortune.

1. RIESLING: 2019 Best's Foudre Ferment Great Western Riesling, $25

2. PINOT GRIGIO: 2019 Hahndorf Hill Adelaide Hills Pinot Grigio, $23

3. ROSE: 2019 Deep Woods Estate Harmony Margaret River Rose, $15

4. SHIRAZ: 2018 Best's Bin No. 1 Great Western Shiraz, $25

5. CAB SAUV: 2018 Best's Great Western Cabernet Sauvignon, $25