James Halliday's Top 100 wines of 2022

Top reds under $40

James Halliday by James Halliday

19 Nov, 2022

Starting at just $18, here are 20 great red wines for less than $40.

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    "Opens with a pair of delicious real rosés (made from the ground up) and has a once-in-a-lifetime quartet of superb pinot noirs from the 2021 vintage."

    The following wines were chosen from a total of 254 submitted.

    Five top reds under $40

    2022 Mount Terrible Pinot Noir Rosé

    Light but vivid hue. Strawberry/raspberry aromas: purity for short. This has real presence, real pinot fruit. Made from the ground up. Its mouthfeel and texture are also admirable. And don’t be scared of keeping some bottles for a year or two.
    94 points | $25 | Screwcap | 13% alc. | Drink to 2027 | Halliday profile | Mount Terrible

    2022 Charles Melton Rosé of Virginia

    Destemmed, three-day cold soak; 4–6 week cool fermentation. The vivid magenta hue is, to put it mildly, jaw-dropping. But it's far more than show; it's wondrously fruity, yet bone dry, its rainbow of small red berries enough to stop those who 'don't like rosés' in their tracks.
    97 points | $32 | Screwcap | 13% alc. | Drink to 2024 | Halliday profile | Charles Melton

    2021 Mike Press Single Vineyard Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir

    Bernard clone 777; the vines are bunch-thinned three times, the wine matured in French oak. Good colour; plum and black cherry fruits have a savoury/earthy bedrock that will repay cellaring for as long as you can keep your hands off it.
    94 points | $18 | Screwcap | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2036 | Halliday profile | Mike Press Wines

    2021 Hoddles Creek Estate Yarra Valley Pinot Noir

    Vivid deep crimson hue. Cherry, raspberry, strawberry all populate the intense but perfectly created pinot, each reflected in a Catherine wheel of pinot noir essence. Hoddles Creek does it again and again. Australia’s best value Pinot?
    96 points | $25 | Screwcap | 13.2% alc. | Drink to 2031 | Halliday profile | Hoddles Creek Estate

    2021 Yabby Lake Vineyard Red Claw Mornington Peninsula Pinot Noir

    Hand-picked and sorted; open fermented with 10 per cent whole bunches, and matured in used French puncheons. The perfumed spicy, foresty bouquet catches attention, reinforced by the medium-bodied palate where red cherries/berries have the depth of fruit others lack.
    95 points | $35 | Screwcap | 13.5% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Halliday profile | Yabby Lake Vineyard

    Five top reds under $40

    2021 Helen's Hill Estate Long Walk Single Vineyard Yarra Valley Pinot Noir

    The immediately expressive and complex bouquet sets the scene for a delicious pinot in a drink now or later framework. Cherry and rhubarb sits within a spicy, savoury support role. Its balance and length are right on the money.
    94 points | $37 | Screwcap | 13% alc. | Drink to 2037 | Halliday profile | Helen's Hill Estate

    2021 Wirra Wirra Catapult McLaren Vale Shiraz

    The vignerons of McLaren Vale were wildly ecstatic about the ’21 vintage, and finding this wine at this price explains their joy. It's medium- to full-bodied, laden with black fruits of all kinds, dark chocolate, licorice and savoury, ripe tannins.
    95 points | $26 | Screwcap | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2041 | Halliday profile | Wirra Wirra Vineyards

    2021 Sons of Eden Marschall Barossa Valley Shiraz

    From six vineyards in six districts, picked between 19 February and 16 March, with a wide range of fermentation techniques, matured in new and used French hogsheads for 14 months. Medium-bodied, smooth and supple, with plum and blackberry fruits, integrated oak and tannins.
    95 points | $29 | Screwcap | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2036 | Halliday profile | Sons of Eden

    2021 Willow Bridge Estate Gravel Pit Geographe Shiraz

    Matured in French oak (35 per cent new). Deeply coloured; a wine that always makes light of vintage variation. Thanks to its balance, it's utterly pleasurable to savour the oak, the generosity of its black fruits, its ripe tannins and its notes of spices and pepper spun throughout.
    96 points | $30 | Screwcap | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2036 | Halliday profile | Willow Bridge Estate

    2020 Frankland Estate Shiraz

    Follows in the footsteps of the ’18. While the bouquet and palate alike are richly endowed, the cool continental climate shuts the door on any over-ripe, pudgy fruit characters. So, tannins play along with the black cherry fruit and utterly delicious savoury undertow.
    95 points | $32 | Screwcap | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2040 | Halliday profile | Frankland Estate

    Five top reds under $40

    2021 Singlefile Single Vineyard Frankland River Shiraz

    Its deep, bright colour hops in early, as it were, to claim the crown, but there's more to come for this complex, medium-bodied wine. The bouquet has spicy/woody/earthy notes followed by a fruit-dominant palate, with tangy red and black berries to the fore.
    96 points | $39 | Screwcap | 14.2% alc. | Drink to 2036 | Halliday profile | Singlefile Wines

    2021 Longview Vineyard Vista Adelaide Hills Shiraz Barbera

    No information on the back label, not even the percentage split. Yet in truth it's the vintage that is speaking loud and clear, with its red berry and licorice bouquet, dark chocolate even louder on the palate which is 50/50 per cent juicy and savoury.
    95 points | $25 | Screwcap | 13.5% alc | Drink to 2036 | Halliday profile | Longview Vineyard

    2021 Oliver's Taranga Vineyards Small Batch McLaren Vale Grenache

    There's so much excitement about McLaren Vale grenache you can expect to enjoy every offering – and you won't be disappointed here. Winemaker Corrina Wright (nee Oliver) fills the senses with red fruits, yet does so with a light touch, leaving the mouth fresh.
    95 points | $32 | Screwcap | 14% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Halliday profile | Oliver's Taranga Vineyards

    2021 John Duval Concilio Barossa Valley Grenache Shiraz

    85 per cent old bush vine (part 100yo) grenache fermented with 1/3 whole bunches, 50 per cent matured in used French hogsheads, 50 per cent in stainless steel, for 8 months. A vibrantly fresh, red-fruited light-bodied wine; what it lacks in body it more than makes up with its elegance and length.
    95 points | $30 | Screwcap | 14% alc. | Drink to 2026 | Halliday profile | John Duval Wines

    2019 Turkey Flat Butchers Block Red Blend

    A blend of grenache, shiraz and mataro, sourced from some of (very old) original vines on the property. It's super-fragrant, with tantalising spices and cured meats (what else?) on the bouquet, and plum on the palate, tannins right where they are needed.
    94 points | $25 | Screwcap | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Halliday profile | Turkey Flat

    Five top reds under $40

    2021 Head Head Red Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon

    Elegance is the feature of all the Head Red wines, balance ditto. Drilling down further, Head's handling of tannin is masterful – as here, at 13.5 per cent alcohol! That's meant to be impossible, but clearly it's not. Blackcurrant/cassis floods the mouth, and other fruits (plum) join in.
    95 points | $28 | Screwcap | 13.5% alc. | Drink to 2036 | Halliday profile | Head Wines

    2019 Fallen Giants Grampians Cabernet Sauvignon

    The vivid crimson rim flashes a come-here signal for a full-bodied cabernet in the best Grampians style. It is replete with blackcurrant fruit, tannin and oak slotted in the background. It's a wine that can draw you into its folds, never to emerge.
    96 points | $35 | Screwcap | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2049 | Halliday profile | Fallen Giants

    2020 Hay Shed Hill Morrison's Gift

    A blend of Bordeaux's five varieties that offer a rare mix of juicy and dusty aromas and flavours. While only medium-bodied, the palate and finish are very long, the aftertaste (and the price) mouth-watering, the tannins spicy.
    95 points | $24 | Screwcap | 14% alc. | Drink to 2030 | Halliday profile | Hay Shed Hill Wines

    2021 La Prova Adelaide Hills Sangiovese

    Wild yeast fermented with over a month on skins to extract the tannins, doing so with skilled restraint. No kick in a private part of the male anatomy. Sure, the wine has a savoury carapace, but there's its overall impact of cherries of every kind to provide balance.
    95 points | $28 | Screwcap | 14% alc. | Drink to 2030 | Halliday profile | La Prova

    2021 Coriole McLaren Vale Sangiovese

    Coriole’s plantings of sangiovese date back to 1985. This is a three dimensional wine, the bouquet and palate both attesting to its varietal roots, and taking the opportunity offered by the great vintage, the herbal nuances on the finish adding charisma to the equation.
    95 points | $30 | Screwcap | 14.3% alc. | Drink to 2041 | Halliday profile | Coriole

    See the complete list of Top 100 wines.

    Shop wines from the 2022 Top 100 at Sense of Taste.

    Join us at Sydney's Campbell's Stores on November 29 to celebrate James Halliday's Top 100. Taste some of the wines crowned in the Top 100, along with other standout offerings from the wineries. Speak to the winemakers, and purchase directly from the producers. Tickets are $149 (+ booking fee) and are available from Eventbrite.

    James Halliday’s Top 100 features in The Weekend Australian Magazine on November 19.

    Some wines in this year's selection also feature on this site with notes by other Tasting Team members – as reviewed for Halliday Wine Companion.

    Image credit: Parker Blain/Wine Australia.

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