Shiraz of the Year 2026 - Halliday Wine Companion
Stephen Pannell has twice won Australia’s most prestigious wine award, the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy – most recently in 2014 for his 2013 Adelaide Hills Syrah – and his reputation is further hinted at by his being named one of the 50 most influential contributors to the world of wine by Decanter Magazine.
In 2014, Steve won his second Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy and further cemented his relationship with the great grapegrowing region that is South Australia by setting up a cellar door in the heart of McLaren Vale. His local legend status has been confirmed again and again, winning the Bushing Trophy for best red wine of show in McLaren Vale no less than four times: 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
A single-block Shiraz from 50-year-old vines grown on slaty siltstone flecked with abundant ironstone rubble at an altitude of 120m, facing southwest and nestled in grey box scrub.
"Shiraz of the Year for the 2026 Companion. There are three single-block iterations of Koomilya shiraz: GT, DC and JC. All are superb, but it is the JC that is cementing its reputation as one of Australia’s greatest wines. The survey may be relatively short, but I’m convinced. The ’21 was breathtaking, and this is its equal, or thereabouts. The JC has a distinct shape, a harmony, an engulfing perfume, a blend of flavour depth with spice and dusky florals, and an effortlessness. Then the fragrance in the mouth billows up, envelops, stops you in your tracks. It’s suffused with place, the bush-fringed site, with a sense of fallen gums subsumed into the soil, intertwining with the ripe but not juicy deep red fruits, along with a rusty iron note, salumi and panforte. As said, one of Australia’s great wines." 99pts | Panel Decision | Halliday Wine Companion
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