The 100 best Australian wines of 2025: The Australian’s official list
Nick Ryan’s definitive selection of the year’s top reds, whites and sparkling drops for any budget.
Sigurd Red Blend 2022
Dan Graham can make the exciting, idiosyncratic and intrigue-filled wines he does because he started out as an 18-year-old kid surrounded by towering tanks making wine for the masses. Sure hands at scale builds the confidence to produce small batches that appear effortless even when they’re anything but. This lithe and detailed Barossa blend of grenache, syrah, carignan, cabernet, mourvédre and lagrein summarises Sigurd neatly. It’s a wine that speaks of vineyards, not overbearing winemaking, and it prioritises drinkability above all else. And that makes perfect sense to me.
- 12.9% alcohol
- 95 points
How Nick Ryan chose Australia’s Best Wine
The Australian Weekend Magazine’s wine writer, Nick Ryan, spent 12 months criss-crossing the country tasting the very best wines Australia has to offer. Tastings took place at cellar doors, various industry events, and wine competitions, and many of Nick’s verdicts and robust critiques have been published in his weekly wine column in the magazine. This is Nick’s second Top 100 list for The Australian.
“Good winemakers will always want to be judged by their most serious wines. Truly great winemakers can be seen in their more modest wines,” writes Nick Ryan, as he takes stock of the best value red wines in the country, many of which are imprints from some of Australia’s master winemakers at some of our best-known labels, and usually associated with some of the market’s higher prices. Think Henschke, Jim Barry, Clonakilla and Cullen. “Class is never cheap, but it can be affordable,” writes Ryan.
