Best New Winery

2024 Best New Winery

Joshua Cooper Wines – Victoria

Any one of the wineries shortlisted could, in any other year, have won the award for Best New Winery. The standard this year was that high. This award recognises the best of the wineries that are new to Halliday Wine Companion.

 Joshua Cooper started his eponymous label in 2012.

We have Josh Cooper here in the Best New Winery category, but he could easily have been placed in the open Winery of the Year section and won it. Such is the incredible quality of his wines, and its consistency. He submitted six wines to us, and the lowest score was 95. We would say that the numbers speak for themselves, but of course it’s not the numbers speaking, it’s the wines.

Josh Cooper, who makes wines mostly out of central Victoria up to Macedon, grew up at the noted Cobaw Ridge winery (he’s the son of Alan and Nelly Cooper) and it’s fair to say that his knowledge and respect for what makes quality wine runs deep. There’s an authenticity to his wines, a command, and a life. He is a great Best New Winery winner. – Campbell Mattinson

Of the six wines submitted to the Companion, the lowest score was 95. 

“I grew up around wine and spent a lot of my younger years in the vineyard at Cobaw Ridge, which was established by my parents. I tried quite hard to think of something else I'd like to do rather than wine, but at the end of the day, there's something special about the seasons, the seasonal change and the different facets of a wine business,” says Josh Cooper.

He says taking out the Best New Winery award is a great feeling. “It's lovely recognition for the styles of wine that I've been making, and more so for the sites that I've been working with and the special places that they're sited.”

So what’s next?

After a decade of sourcing fruit from established vineyards – like Balgownie and Redbank – Josh is getting ready to grow his own fruit. His 20-acre property, called Stone Hills, is located between Kyneton and Daylesford. The soil is mudstone, shale, and quartz and the vineyard will be predominately planted to chardonnay and a small amount of pinot noir, which will be planted at high density – one metre by one metre. “It's the styles of wine that I like to drink...that really drive the type of wines I make.”

2024 Best New Winery

Previous Best New Winery recipients include Rob Dolan Wines (2014), Flowstone (2015), Bicknell fc (2016), Bondar Wines (2017), Dappled Wines (2018), Mewstone Wines (2019), Shy Susan (2020), Varney Wines (2021), Place of Changing Winds (2022) and Living Roots (2023).

The 2024 Halliday Wine Companion is available now. Secure your copy of Australia's most comprehensive wine guide here – and at all good bookstores.

This is an edited extract from the 2024 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Mike Bennie, Ned Goodwin MW, Philip Rich and Shanteh Wale. Cover art by Ka Mo.