The Best of the Best: 2020 Varietal Winners

It's the moment you've been waiting for all year long, the anticipated release of the 2020 Varietal Winners, as curated by James Halliday and his tasting team.

James Halliday and his tasting panel spend months tasting the thousands of wines submitted from wineries all across Australia, and awarding each bottle a score out of 100. This year, an astonishing 8775 wines were tasted, with the winners announced on the evening of the awards, and published in the 2020 Halliday Wine Companion, released the following day. Below, you’ll uncover this year’s top varietal winners across 16 categories, highlighting some of the finest Australian wines of the year. 

James Halliday on the 2020 Varietal Winners

"As per usual, the number of in each group is limited. The varietal categories are the same as in prior years, as is the link of each wine with its region. The rating cut-off point reflects the strength of the particular varietal category. The wine names have been shortened, but still enable the exact wine to be identified in the tasting notes for the winery in question. These are the best of the 8775 tasted for this edition."