Tyson Stelzer’s Top 250 Australian Wines of 2024

It's my great pleasure to share my Top 250 Australian Wines of 2024 !

Australian wine is in a very exciting place in 2024, for reasons completely missed by the headline news.

This is a year in which reporting has been dominated by dramatic oversupply, diminishing consumption, waning exports, drought, frost and economic calamity. Many wineries find themselves at a particularly challenging moment in the cycle. But there’s a very different side to the Australian wine story right now.

The 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 vintages across south-eastern Australia represent the finest set of four back-to-back seasons in living memory, breaking a spiralling cycle of droughts and heatwaves with classically cool seasons, delivering beautifully elegant wines across every variety and style.

Australia’s top vineyards and best wineries have never been in a finer place than they are this year, and there has never been a more pertinent moment for wine lovers to restock their fridges and cellars.

Since I retired as editor of the Halliday Wine Companion in 2022, it has perhaps been the worst kept secret that I continue to taste Australian wines incessantly, publishing reviews regularly in WBM and Barossa Mag, as I have done continuously now for almost 20 years.

In response to popular demand, and as an opportunity to give something back to Australian winemakers and wine lovers at this time, it’s my great pleasure to share my Top 250 Australian Wines of 2024 , free for all to access, share and reproduce. These represent the finest line up of Australian wines I have ever tasted.

As Australia’s most planted variety, shiraz naturally takes the lead in my list, with 53 inclusions, plus 10 brilliant blends with cabernet sauvignon. Riesling ranks second, representing the best value of all, with half of my list of 34 coming in under $40. Cabernet comes a close third with 33 inclusions, followed by chardonnay (28). Australian grenache continues its rise and rise, with 23 inclusions, just outranking pinot noir (22). No surprise that my Wine of the Year is a benchmark of the great Australian blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz!

In singling out my wine of the year for each key variety, I have chosen more than one winner (with the same score) in three of the strongest categories where regional distinctiveness is most deserving of recognition: three chardonnays from the Mornington Peninsula, Margaret River and Tasmania, two grenaches from the Barossa and Eden Valleys and six shirazes from McLaren Vale, Canberra, Hunter Valley, Grampians, Barossa Valley and Eden Valley.

There’s something in this list for everyone, with prices from just $18 all the way to $1250. It must be emphasised that the rising cost of growing, making and selling wine in Australia today is such that there are big dividends for spending more. This year I’d urge you to budget a minimum of $30 for any respectable bottle. It’s no accident that the average price of my list comes in just over $100 this year. Premium wine production is the future for Australian wine, and on current evidence, it’s the present, too.

I commend my Top 250 Australian Wines of 2024 to you. I guarantee you’ll love them!

Santé!

Tyson.