2023 Best Value Winery in Australia
Deep Woods Estate – Margaret River, Western Australia
Best Value Winery of the Year is closely tied to the awarding of rosettes ✪ for wines offering special value for money at their price point. With more than 1300 rosettes awarded this year, the number of value wineries featured is again considerable. In narrowing down a top 10, we prioritised not only the highest number of rosettes and the highest strike rate but also inclusion of at least two value wines under $30, and in the case of our top three finalists, a good number under $20, too!
While great value can occur at any price point, an everyday quaffing price holds a special place for us all. When it comes to value, Western Australia leads the country, with three of our nine top contenders, including one very worthy winner.
The team, led by previous Winemaker of the Year Julian Langworthy, has shown a thrilling (some may say flagrant) disregard for accepted pricepoint quality...
Deep Woods has been nudging this award for a number of years now, and it is the consistently high quality of wine spread over a broad range of prices that eventually got them over the line. The team, led by previous Winemaker of the Year Julian Langworthy, has shown a thrilling (some may say flagrant) disregard for accepted pricepoint quality; ie, their entry-level wines present compelling drinking propositions, and their Reserve range (among the cheapest of the best in Margaret River) frequently blitz the competition in the quality:value stakes. Of 16 wines submitted this year, Deep Woods topped the ranks in both strike rate and number of special value rosettes (14), including five wines under $20. Immune to hyperbole, this is an estate to watch (and buy, and drink). Hearty congratulations are due. – Erin Larkin
"We just have this amazing Goldilocks effect of lovely sunny days, cool nights, wonderfully diverse soil types and aspects. It really is a winemaking nirvana. It's never too hot, never too cold, and it's just a beautiful place to grow grapes," Julian says.
“We're all on a common journey to make Australia's best wine and most consistent wines,” says Julian. Margaret River is the most amazing region to grow grapes in, and the team are lucky to be surrounded by such great resources, he adds. “That's when you really start succeeding and achieving as a team and making, hopefully, Australia's best value wines. I'd like to think that Australia's best wine can be the best value wines, too, and then we're really delivering for everybody.”
Tyson Stelzer on the 2023 Best Value Winery
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Previous Best Value Winery recipients include Hoddles Creek Estate (2015), West Cape Howe (2016), Larry Cherubino Wines (2017), Grosset (2018), Provenance (2019), Domaine Naturaliste (2020), Best’s (2021) and Lake Breeze Wines (2022).
*This is an edited extract from the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Ned Goodwin MW, James Halliday, Erin Larkin, Jeni Port, Philip Rich and chief editor Tyson Stelzer.
