Every year, award-winning critic Tyson Stelzer curates a remarkable list of wines that capture the artistry, patience, and passion behind fine winemaking, which also defines the best wine in Australia . His selections are not just beverages but benchmarks and reflections of the seasons, the soils, and the steady hands that shaped them. The year’s collection celebrates craftsmanship across regions and varietals, from the chalk-laced vineyards of Champagne to the red heart of Australia’s Eden...
Each bottle represents a pinnacle of style and structure, the kind of wine that deserves to be tasted and treasured. At Vintec, we share this reverence for longevity. Great wines, like great memories, deserve the perfect environment to age gracefully.
Here, we explore Tyson Stelzer’s Top 12 Wines of the Year, the bottles that moved him most, and the stories behind their excellence.
1. Top Champagne of the Year - Billecart-Salmon Cuvée Nicolas François 2008 ($500)
100 points | Drink 2038–2058
Few Champagnes inspire the same anticipation as Billecart-Salmon’s Nicolas François 2008. Stelzer recalls tasting it with Antoine Roland-Billecart himself, a moment that revealed its immense poise and precision. Tyson recalls it as Champagne architecture at its finest, a saline chalk core unfurling layers of lemon, strawberry hull, and red cherry. Even 17 months post-disgorgement, its taut energy and unwavering focus remain astonishing. The 2008 vintage is destined for a sixty-year lifespan, one that will evolve with patience and grace, making it a true collector’s treasure.
2. Top Sparkling of the Year - Bellebonne Blanc de Blancs 2017 ($130)
96 points | Drink 2024–2032
Bellebonne’s Blanc de Blancs 2017 captures the elegance and endurance of Piper’s River Chardonnay at its finest. Crafted by Natalie Fryar, it reveals lemon and white peach evolving into glacé pear, enriched by layers of brioche, butter croissant and gentle spice from barrel fermentation. At seven years of age, it showcases the finesse of Piper’s River Chardonnay lemon and white peach notes deepening into glacé pear, layered with brioche, croissant, and spice from barrel fermentation. Its creamy, silken texture is unmistakably Bellebonne. With only 1,212 bottles produced, it’s a masterclass in restraint, patience, and regional expression.
3. Top Riesling of the Year - Grosset Polish Hill Riesling 2024 ($80)
98 points | Drink 2024–2064
Rated 98 points, Grosset's Polish Hill Riesling 2024 is hailed by Jeff Grosset as having the "most pristine fruit since the early 1980s." Thanks to a cool season and meticulous biodynamic farming, the wine displays a clarity of fruit bordering on the transcendent, opening with notes of white lily, lemon blossom, and Granny Smith apple. Beneath this floral delicacy lies the trademark Polish Hill minerality, fine talc, ancient slate, and crystalline acidity driving an unrelenting finish that lingers for a full sixty seconds.
Stelzer praises it as "desperately gorgeous," possessing an ethereal quality yet a fierce structural backbone that promises to make it one of Grosset’s greatest achievements in forty-four vintages.
4. Top Sauvignon Blanc of the Year - Leeuwin Estate Art Series Sauvignon Blanc 2024 ($33)
95 points | Drink 2025–2029
From Margaret River comes a Sauvignon Blanc that redefines sophistication. Bursting with blackcurrant bud, passionfruit, and pink grapefruit, it’s lifted yet complex, thanks to partial barrel maturation and bâtonnage. The texture is intricately woven, crisp fruit tension balanced by gentle creaminess. The result is a beautifully detailed expression that combines freshness with quiet depth, confirming Leeuwin Estate’s mastery beyond Chardonnay.
5. Top Chardonnay of the Year - Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay 2023 ($140)
98 points | Drink 2028–2043
Heytesbury 2023 is a Chardonnay that commands attention for its precision and power. Wild-fermented on full solids, it captures the gin gin clone’s concentration while maintaining poise and minerality. Notes of white peach, toasted hazelnut, and flinty drive combine in a finish that lingers with cool-season purity. Stelzer calls it “a true grand cru Chardonnay,” an effortless marriage of texture and tension that defines modern Margaret River excellence.
6. Top Viognier of the Year - Yalumba The Virgilius Eden Valley Viognier 2023 ($55)
96 points | Drink 2028–2038In cooler years, Yalumba’s Viognier artistry shines brightest. The 2023 Virgilius brims with apricot kernel, ginger, and pink grapefruit, its texture gliding between zesty vibrancy and silken richness. Stelzer describes it as “mesmerisingly slippery and succulent,” its phenolic tension polished to perfection. A white wine of confidence and charisma, built to evolve gracefully over the next decade and beyond.
7. Top Pinot Noir of the Year - Tolpuddle Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023 ($105)
96 points | Drink 2028–2038The Coal River Valley’s cool precision finds poetic expression in Tolpuddle 2023. Whole-bunch fermentation is used judiciously, giving lift and exotic spice without overshadowing purity. Aromas of wild cherry, herbs, and subtle forest floor precede a palate of fine-grained tannins and lingering natural acidity. Stelzer calls it “an integrity and deliciousness that transcend the season,” proof that beauty lies in balance.
8. Top Grenache of the Year - Thistledown Fool on the Hill Grenache 2022 ($80)
96 points | Drink 2027–2042An exciting newcomer to Thistledown’s portfolio, the 96-point Fool on the Hill 2022 represents a sophisticated evolution for Australian Grenache. The fruit is sourced from two high-altitude Eden Valley plots, planted in unforgiving, rocky soils at 550 metres elevation. The winemaking is a study in sensitivity, involving fermentation in a concrete egg with 20% whole bunch inclusion and maturation in seasoned French oak.
The result is a wine that celebrates cool-climate finesse rather than ripeness, showing pure, crunchy red berries, rhubarb, and wild herbs. Its texture is refined, framed by Stelzer’s described "super-fine and confident tannins," ensuring decades of graceful ageing. With only 1,800 bottles produced, it is a new benchmark for modern Australian Grenache.
9. Top Cabernet Shiraz of the Year - Penfolds Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021 ($1,180)
99 points | Drink 2041–2071To mark its 180th anniversary, Penfolds could easily have crafted a showpiece of grandeur and power. Instead, it chose restraint and produced one of the most compelling wines of the modern era. The Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021 celebrates the tension, brightness, and structural purity that define Coonawarra’s limestone soils and cool climate.
Rather than leaning on the richness of Barossa fruit or the vanilla of new American oak, the winemaking team turned to seasoned French oak to frame this elegant composition. The blend sings with lifted notes of redcurrant, blackcurrant, and blackberry, underscored by fine-grained, mineral tannins that only Coonawarra can conjure. The acidity is crisp, the finish unbroken, and the integration seamless, every element in harmony.
As Stelzer writes, this is “the definitive Australian blend recreated with classic, fine-boned precision,” proving that less can indeed be so much more. Bin 180 stands as both tribute and transformation, a celebration of Penfolds’ legacy and a vision for its refined future.
10. Top Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year - Grosset Gaia 2023 ($108)
98 points | Drink 2038–2053Grosset’s Gaia vineyard, perched high in the Clare Valley, produces Cabernet of remarkable purity and drive. The 2023 vintage layers blackcurrant, cassis, violet, and tobacco leaf over a core of mineral-laced tannins. Medium-bodied but deeply structured, it shows the perfect tension between finesse and longevity. A study in balance, this is a wine built for contemplation and the cellar, and you can freely call it the best budget wine.
11. Top Shiraz of the Year - Henschke Hill of Grace Eden Valley Shiraz 2021 ($1,000)
99 points | Drink 2026–2046From one of Australia’s most iconic vineyards, the 2021 Hill of Grace radiates composure and quiet strength. After the coolest summer since 2002, it reveals an exotic medley of spice, red plum, and five-spice aromatics. The tannins are impossibly fine, the texture supple and serene. Stephen and Prue Henschke call it a standout of the decade; Stelzer calls it “True Grace in every sense.” Few wines better define heritage, patience, and place.
12. Top Fortified of the Year - Campbells Merchant Prince Rare Rutherglen Muscat NV ($150)
99 points | Drink 2025+If ever there were a wine to define grandeur, balance, and time, it is Campbell’s Merchant Prince Rare Rutherglen Muscat, one of the world’s most extraordinary fortifies. With an average age of over fifty years, and components well beyond seventy, it exceeds the requirements for Rutherglen’s Rare classification by more than double.
Matured in the Campbells’ puncheon solera system, this Muscat embodies the extremes of concentration and complexity. Its hue is near black, its viscosity monumental. The aroma unfolds like an opulent tapestry of marmalade, tarte tatin, burnt toffee, cocoa beans, coffee, fruit cake, and coal steam, a kaleidoscope of sweet and savoury depth.
At 351g/L of residual sugar, it sits at the wine world’s outer edge of intensity, yet its poise and harmony are flawless. The finish persists for over ninety seconds, carrying warmth, spice, and balance in equal measure. As Stelzer notes with awe, the true marvel is the label’s modest declaration: “Always available.” For a wine of such rarity, it is an open invitation to experience perfection.
Preserving greatness through time
Every bottle on Tyson Stelzer’s list tells a story of precision, patience, place and stories that deserve to be preserved under the right conditions.
At Vintec, we believe that cellaring is not just storage; it’s stewardship. Our wine cellars recreate the ideal environment of the world’s finest caves, stable temperature, perfect humidity, darkness, and stillness, allowing wines to evolve as their makers intended.
So, whether your cellar holds a single bottle of Hill of Grace or a growing collection of Rieslings, remember: every masterpiece deserves its sanctuary.
And if you love wine, whether it’s the joy of tasting, collecting, or discovering the right accessories, we’ve got you covered at Vintec Club.
