James Halliday Hall of Fame (Australian Wine Industry): Brian Croser AO

2026 James Halliday Hall of Fame: Australian Wine Industry

This award goes to an individual of the Australian wine industry deemed to be of the highest regard and significance. This award is the highest honour of any bestowed by Halliday Wine Companion.

Brian Croser AO

We’d need far more than a page to detail and celebrate Brian Croser’s accomplishments and contributions to the Australian wine industry. Even to list them feels impossible, such is their magnitude; deservedly, he was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2000 for his service to the industry. With a career that spans 50 years (beginning at Hardys in 1969 and including the establishment of Petaluma and Tapanappa), there’s more than enough cause for celebrating this trailblazing and pioneering winemaker.

Brian was the first to break ground in the Piccadilly Valley, as his viticultural quests were born of the idea that terroir-driven planting should not be secondary to anything else; planting varieties in sites and regions where they are suited is paramount. Perhaps not revolutionary by today’s standards, but it certainly was at the time. He was the catalyst for this way of thinking.

From creating the wine science course at Charles Sturt University (the then Riverina College of Advanced Education) to adorning tables nation-wide with bottles of Petaluma Rhine Riesling, Brian’s impact has forged new advances for trade and consumer alike.

Fast forward to today, where celebrations are routinely marked by pouring glasses of Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay. Brian believes real success comes from producing the very best wines possible. The pointy end of table wine in Australia would not be where it is today without him. We induct him as our third entrant into the James Halliday Hall of Fame, and the honour is all ours. – Katrina Butler

Beyond shaping the minds and skills of future generations over his career, which he also did as deputy chancellor of the University of Adelaide, as winemaking consultant and founder of Oenotec, and as a mentor to winemakers such as Martin Shaw and Andrew Hardy, one of Brian’s more significant achievements was to pioneer terroir-driven planting in Australia – a trick he picked up while studying at UC Davis in California in the early 1970s.

Under the tutelage of “some of the greatest viticultural and oenological professors of all time,” Brian learned the importance of matching grape to climate. “I was surrounded by academics who really understood that relationship and I just absorbed it, it was so logical and so beautifully symmetrical,” he says.  

When he founded Petaluma (named after the city in Sonoma) in the Adelaide Hills in 1976, he was able put that knowledge – something we take for granted now, but at a time when Australian winemakers were planting multiple-variety “fruit salad” vineyards, quite revolutionary – into practice. After analysing each region’s temperature, heat summation and rainfall, he planted riesling in Clare, cabernet and merlot in Coonawarra, and, in the Adelaide Hills, pinot noir and, significantly, chardonnay.  

“When we were in California, we drank a lot of chardonnay,” he says. “There was no chardonnay in Australia at the time, and so my wife, Ann, and I chased this variety around California, looking at where it was grown and drinking as much of it as we possibly could. We came back to Australia determined to find the right place to grow chardonnay.”  

The Tiers Vineyard, planted to chardonnay in 1978, was the Piccadilly Valley’s first. It now provides fruit for Tapanappa, the label Brian and wife Ann founded in 2002.

He says it’s “particularly poignant” to be the 2026 inductee into the Halliday Hall of Fame because of his almost 50-year friendship with James. “It’s special because it’s personal,” he says. “I don't think there's anyone who's contributed more to the ideology of fine wine in this country than James Halliday, and that's why I'm so deeply honoured by this award.”

The honour is all ours, Brian.  

Brian Croser AO joins Prue Henschke (2024) and Sue Hodder (2025) in James Halliday Hall of Fame: Australian Wine Industry.

Join Halliday Wine Club to drink the very best of Australian wine 

The 2026 Halliday Wine Companion is available now. Secure your copy of Australia's most comprehensive wine guide at all good bookstores.

This is an edited extract from the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Katrina Butler, Marcus Ellis, Mike Bennie, Philip Rich, Shanteh Wale and Toni Paterson MW. Cover art by James Coe.