Halliday’s 2015 scores – over the top as usual

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James Halliday announced the annual Wine Companion awards on Tuesday night this week, at an invitation-only ceremony in Melbourne. This is the prelude to the release of the 2015 Wine Companion due out on Friday August 1.

Six major awards were presented:

  • Wine of the Year: 2011 Xanadu Stevens Road Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon, WA (Sponsored by Qantas epiQure)
  • Winery of the Year: Hentley Farm, Barossa Valley, SA (Sponsored by SMEG)
  • Dark Horse of the Year: Haselgrove Wines, McLaren Vale, SA (Sponsored by Nikon)
  • New Winery of the Year: Flowstone, Margaret River, WA (Sponsored by Kennards Wine Storage)
  • Winemaker of the Year: Castle Rock Estate’s Rob Diletti, WA
  • Best Value Winery of the Year: Hoddles Creek Estate, Yarra Valley, VIC

Halliday’s Scores compared to the Winefront’s

Halliday also announced his best wines, and Gary Walsh at the Winefront wrote a note on WF’s Facebook page that compares Halliday’s scores with some of the Winefront’s. I’ve said more than once that Halliday’s scores are consistently 3 – 6 points higher than the WF’s, which covers several brackets. That’s a serious issue in the 100 point system since you only have a range of around 10 points to work with (87 – 97):

Halliday’s Scoring System Our Scoring System
97 – 99 – Exceptional 99 – 100 – Perfection
95 – 96 – Outstanding 95 – 98 – Outstanding
94 – On the cusp of gold medal status 91 – 94 – Pretty damn good
90 – 93 – Highly Recommended 87 – 90 – OK to Good

Take the Grosset Polish Hill Riesling below. Halliday’s score puts it near the top of the outstanding scale, while the Winefront’s score says it’s highly recommended. That’s 3 brackets further down in the Wine Companion Scoring System. As an aside, the same wine didn’t make the cut at a recent Gourmet Traveller Wine Riesling tasting (90 points) so it scored a plain old  Recommended (We checked on what happened to the big guns HERE). So these three scores effectively cover 5 categories, which boggles the mind.

We should add that we’ve found the guys at the Winefront the most reliable reviewers out there.

The Rest of the Wines

Here’s how the scores compare to those reviewed on WineFront (Gary Walsh, Campbell Mattinson and Mike Bennie):

  • Sparkling Wine: 2004 House of Arras Grand Vintage (97 points) vs 95+ Mike Bennie
  • Riesling: 2013 Grosset Polish Hill Clare Valley Riesling (98 points) vs 93+ Campbell Mattinson
  • Semillon: 2013 Thomas Braemore Individual Vineyard Hunter Valley Semillon (98 points) vs 95+ Gary Walsh
  • Chardonnay: 2011 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Margaret River Chardonnay (98 points) vs 93 Mike Bennie
  • Sauvignon Blanc: 2011 Flowstone Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc (97 points) vs 92 Campbell Mattinson
  • Pinot Noir: 2012 Bass Phillip Reserve Pinot Noir (99 points) vs 97 Gary Walsh
  • Other Reds: 2012 SC Pannell McLaren Vale Grenache (97 points) vs (NOT YET REVIEWED)
  • Shiraz: 2011 Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz (98 points) vs spritzy bottle not yet reviewed – sans spritz around 93 Points Gary Walsh
  • Cabernet Sauvignon: 2011 Xanadu Stevens Road Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon (99 points) vs 93 Campbell Mattinson.

Several other wines singled out by Halliday for special mention

  • 2004 Tahbilk 1927 Vines Marsanne, 97 points (Other Whites and Blends) vs 94 CM
  • 2013 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier, 98 points (Shiraz Viognier) vs 96 CM
  • 2012 Yarra Yering Dry Red Wine No. 2, 98 points (Shiraz Family) – NOT REVIEWED
  • 2012 Cullen Diana Madeline, 98 points (Cabernet Family) vs 97 GW
  • NV Rockford Black Shiraz, 97 points (Sparkling Red) – NOT REVIEWED
  • 2013 Bellarmine Pemberton Riesling Select, 96 points (Sweet Wine) – NOT REVIEWED

Kim

  • Slick Nick

    Great comment about the Mesh Kim…I too have always thought it has been the kings new clothes of wine and no one dare stick their hand up and proclaim it’s shh….not very good so thanks for being the little boy who points at the king!

  • Damo von Tasmanien

    If you subscribe to the WC website, you can do a vintage search. I think there is a bit of an issue there of ‘bracket creep’ as they say:

    1998:
    1717 wines reviewed
    75-79 4 0.2%
    80-83 196 11.4%
    84-86 463 27.0%
    87-89 398 23.2%
    90-93 422 24.6%
    94-100 234 13.6%

    2010:
    8077 reviewed
    75-79 21 0.3%
    80-83 211 2.6%
    84-86 777 9.6%
    87-89 1986 24.6%
    90-93 2863 35.4%
    94-100 2219 27.5%

    2011:
    5537 Reviewed
    75-79 17 0.3%
    80-83 135 2.4%
    84-86 527 9.5%
    87-89 1542 27.8%
    90-93 2069 37.4%
    94-100 1247 22.5%

    2012:
    5813 reviewed
    75-79 6 0.1%
    80-83 58 1.0%
    84-86 330 5.7%
    87-89 1287 22.1%
    90-93 2160 37.2%
    94-100 1972 33.9%

    I have two serious concerns here. Firstly, the consumer is being miseducated as to what constitutes an excellent wine. Secondly, there is a serious disconnect between the scores JH is giving Australian wines and what the rest of the world’s serious critics are and this is at a time when we need to be lifting our game to compete with global competitors who are eroding our market share.