We all know that wines from South Australia, Margaret River and Tassie are highly celebrated, but here's something for New South Wales wine lovers to cheers to – winemakers from NSW's Hunter Valley and Orange have won top gongs in one of our country's top national vino awards, the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion Awards.
NSW wine really made its mark this year – to start with, Liz Silkman from micro-winery Silkman Wines in the Hunter Valley was crowned Winemaker of the Year 2025, making her the first ever maker from the Hunter Valley to earn this prestigious honour.
Liz juggles a big day job as Chief Winemaker in her Hunter Valley family business First Creek Wines, which is responsible for producing more than a million cases of wine each year. Silkman Wines also earned another accolade, with the Silkman Blackberry Vineyard Semillon 2023 being named Semillon of the Year (with an impressive 98 out of 100 points).
It was a big year for wines from the Hunter region in general, with 47 per cent of Hunter Valley wineries that submitted to this edition achieving an incredible "5-Star status".
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Travel several hours south-west from the Hunter to Orange, and you'll find ChaLou Wines, which took home the title of Dark Horse Winery of the Year. We love Halliday's "Dark Horse" category, in that it celebrates producers who have ascended to five-star winery status for the first time.
As any wine aficionado worth their pinot knows, the Halliday Wine Companion, founded by James Halliday almost 30 years ago, is the definitive guide to Australian wine – and prizes served up celebrate the nation's top wines, winemakers, viticulturists and wineries after tasting more than 7,500 wines from more than 1,500 wineries.
“We’re blown away by the quality of this year’s winners and tonight we celebrate the strength and perseverance of the Australian wine industry with winners representing regions from across the country,” said Katrina Butler, Halliday's Head of Tasting.
Some fun facts from the 2025 awards:
- The Barossa Valley led the pack with the most 5-star wineries in the 2025 Companion.
- Victoria won awards for White Wine of the Year, Wine of the Year, Sparkling Wine of the Year, and Fortified Wine of the Year.
- Chardonnay was the most popular white wine, with 34% of the submissions.
- Shiraz/Syrah and blends were the stars of the red wine category, making up 37% of all entries.
- Chenin Blanc took the top spot for Other Whites & Blends for the second year in a row, showing its growing popularity in Australia.
- Riesling continued to shine as Australia’s best-value grape, with 59 per cent of entries earning the special value rosette from the Wine Companion.
- 61 new wineries made their debut in the 2025 edition.
The 2025 Halliday Wine Companion is available in stores nationally from 8 August. The 2025 edition includes more than 5,000 tasting notes and scores, with more than 7,500 new notes available online here.