The 2023 Halliday Wine Companion is an encyclopaedic tale of the Australian wine industry, each year charting wineries and wines from across the nation.

Whether you use the Wine Companion as a tour guide, steering you through wine regions as you pick out the best wineries to visit, or you find your favourite variety and discover who is making the best version and where you can find it – there is a lot to take out of this hefty tome for the wine lover.

Whilst at one time the great man himself would have done all of this work on his own, today there is a team of highly skilled wine media that taste through countless wines and travel to regions near and far to give us this one reference point. In this way, it is always interesting to see the verdicts of these discerning palates.

For Kay Brothers, with wines that date bake many decades, we have watched the Halliday guide keenly over the years. This year we were thrilled with how our wines performed, especially our Basket Pressed Mataro which was awarded and amazing 95 points. For a humble member of our Basket Pressed range, this was a real thrill to see it do so well.

“This address has turned a corner over the last few years. For the better. This was hand picked and destemmed, suiting the early heat burst and cooler, later ripening period of the vintage. Fidelity to this great variety is embedded in leather, tapenade, pastrami, licorice strap and hung-game riffs. Plenty of blue and black fruits, too, expanding nicely across the persistent finish. Savouriness, the tattoo.”

Unfortunately with little of that vintage left, we only had a little left to sell 🙁 Thankfully, the 2021 Mataro is now ready for release, and we are confident this vintage continues its predecessor’s great form.

Other great results include our icon wine the 2019 Block 6 Shiraz, which also received 95 points. Another small vintage, we have also sold out of this great wine:

“127yo vines foraging an entrenched root system across gravelly alluvials, sands, limestone and siltstone. The lowest yields on record for this regional icon, drenched, as always, in personality. Dark cherry, boysenberry, licorice straps and the usual melee but best, the gritty carapace of nourishing grape tannins, corralling and directing the flavours long. This is a wine of largesse and restraint. Old-school, but good school.”

The 2020 Basket Pressed Shiraz also received a rave review: “This is the address to visit when seeking full flavour delivered in an intuitive fashion, founded on rich red and dark-fruit accents. Delicious drinking.” 

And the delightful Griffon’s Key Grenache 2020, which will be released in 2023: “This has weight, yet a dichotomous sense of ethereal lightness the defines all very good wines. This is a cuvée on the up.” 

So a great result all around, further proof that all our effort is worthwhile in the pursuit of making great wines!