2025 Halliday Top Rated

Best chardonnay in Australia 2025

By The Tasting Team

The Oakridge 864 Drive Block Funder & Diamond Vineyard Chardonnay 2022 has been named the best chardonnay in Australia.

The Halliday Wine Companion Awards celebrate the best wines in Australia. Below you'll find Australia's top chardonnay wines, along with the wine ratings awarded by the Tasting Team.

All hail Australian chardonnay. We’ve been saying this for many years now, but this is a stunning category; it is the best of Australian wine. We’ve known eras of Australian chardonnay where richer/fuller styles were championed, others with wines dominated by overt sulphides, others where the push was towards leaner and longer. All of these eras are now in play; they have merged into one.

The Yarra Valley, Tasmania and Margaret River have performed particularly strongly here, but the performance of Hunter Valley chardonnay this year is of particular note – so much so that we’re tempted to say that Hunter Valley chardonnay is back in town (if it ever left). Indeed, if it wasn’t for the wipe-the-floor-clean performance of the Oakridge 864 2022, the Pooles Rock Single Barrel Chardonnay 2023 could well have won this category.

2025 Best Chardonnay of the Year in Australia

Oakridge 864 Drive Block Funder & Diamond Vineyard Chardonnay 2022,
Yarra Valley

98 points | Price when tasted $96


Oakridge 864 Drive Block Funder & Diamond Vineyard Chardonnay 2022, Yarra Valley

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From the Funder and Diamond vineyard, planted in Wandin East with the P58 clone in 1990. Hand picked and whole-bunch pressed to French puncheons (20 per cent new) for fermentation and 10 months' maturation before another six months in tank. Very bright. Aromas of stone fruits and lemon verbena together with some struck match, oyster shells and a little gently toasted hazelnut. There's a wonderful purity of fruit, too, on the superbly balanced, silken textured and tensile palate. At the risk of repeating myself, this is ‘grand cru’ quality Australian chardonnay but at a fraction of the price. – Philip Rich

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This is an edited extract from the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Marcus Ellis, Mike Bennie, Philip Rich, Shanteh Wale and Toni Paterson MW. Cover art by Vera Babida.


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