Halliday 2025 Wine Companion
The results are in!
At Hayes Family Wines, we are once again excited to announce our results published in the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion. This year, all the Barossa Wines were tasted by Dave Brookes.
So to the Results. Hayes Family Wines was awarded a 5 Red Star Rating once again. We were awarded 5 Stars in the Halliday Wine Companion in our first year with our first set of wines. That’s now 9 years of 5 Star Ratings. It’s very exciting to have been recognised once again for the consistency across our range.
This year we sent in a cross section of our wines. Many of these are tasted soon after bottling in late spring or early summer. Notwithstanding that, it was great to see that those that we did submit scored consistently well across the range. We had a dozen wines receiving a silver medal or better. We think they are looking even better now just in time for release. Some highlights were:
95 Points - 2022 Estate Block 1 Shiraz
95 Points - 2022 Estate Block 9 Shiraz
95 Points - 2021 Reserve Shiraz
95 Points - 2022 Koonunga Creek Block Grenache
94 Points - 2022 Koonunga Shiraz
93 Points - 2022 Barossa Valley Sam's Grenache
93 Points - 2022 Prayer Garden Grenache
93 Points - 2022 Estate Grenache Block 2
92 Points - 2022 Estate Stone Well Shiraz
91 Points - 2022 Barossa Valley Shiraz
You can read the Wine Companion reviews for each of these wines and so many others by purchasing a copy of the book via the Wine Companion website, by clicking on the each of the wines above or the View Wines button below.
2022 Estate Block 1 Shiraz
100% Old Vine Shiraz grown on our Certified Organic Estate Vineyard in Stone Well in the Western Barossa Valley. Block 1 is a special Shiraz Block, planted in the 1940s and dry grown for much of the time since. Matured for 20 months in new and second use 300l French Oak hogsheads, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered.
2022 Hayes Family Wines Estate Block 1 Shiraz, $70
Certified-organic, 1940s-planted shiraz from Hayes Block 1 in the famous subregion of Stone Well. Pure blackberry, macerated satsuma plum and dark cherry fruits with hints of baking spices, licorice, dark chocolate, panforte, ironstone, graphite and pressed flowers. Like its stablemate, the Block 9, there is a broody aspect to the wine with deep black fruits, tannins perhaps a little finer but dense and compact and a rich, black-fruited roll on the way out.
95 Points
Dave Brookes, 2025 Wine Companion
2022 Estate Block 9 Shiraz
Like its Block 1 brother, 100% Old Vine Shiraz grown on our Certified Organic estate vineyard in Stone Well. Block 9 is a special Shiraz Block, planted in the 1940s, mid slope and facing South. Protected from the Western Sun (the rows run east west). The soils are thin, the conditions very tough. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.
2022 Hayes Family Wines Estate Block 9 Shiraz, $70
Certified-organic shiraz from Hayes Block 9 in Stone Well, made by Andrew Seppelt. Deep magenta-splashed crimson with aromas of blackberry, black cherry and blood plum conserve with hints of ironstone, chocolate bullets, biltong, fruitcake, iodine, shoyu, clove and turned earth. I like the deep earthen tones of this wine, ferruginous and inky with a very composed, savoury flow across the palate. Some tannin heft in there, too, of the crushed ironstone variety making things long and serious at the tail end.
95 Points
Dave Brookes, 2025 Wine Companion
2022 KOONUNGA CREEK BLOCK GRENACHE
2022 Hayes Family Wines Koonunga Creek Block Grenache, $45
Grenache sourced from the old Becker block, now managed by Adrian Hoffmann way up in the north of the Barossa at Koonunga. Jeez, this is a pretty wine. Perfumed and lifted with citrus blossom top notes above the pure red plum and cherry fruits. Hints of cola, ginger cake, clove and cherry clafoutis. It's initially quite sweetly fruited but fades to savoury on the tail, silty creek tannins and bright acidity in check; there's detail and deliciousness here, to be certain.
95 Points
Dave Brookes, 2025 Wine Companion
2022 KOONUNGA SHIRAZ
This single block wine comes from the Ancestor Vine (older than 125 years) Becker block in Koonunga in the Northern Barossa Valley. The Becker’s farmed this block from 1893 through to 2020 when it transitioned to the Hoffmann’s of Ebenezer fame. The records suggest that the vines were old in 1893 but exact planting date is unknown,
2022 Hayes Family Wines Koonunga Shiraz, $55 (Member Only Wine)
Sourced from the Becker Vineyard in Koonunga, way up in the north of the valley, now managed by Adrian Hoffmann. Pop your schnozz in the glass here, and it could be nothing but Barossa shiraz with deep, resonant macerated satsuma plum fruits, some blackberry pastille, hints of fruitcake, dark chocolate, olive tapenade, pan juices, licorice and earth. Excellent fruit depth, creamy oak and an impressive length of flavour and sense of latent power.
94 Points
Dave Brookes, 2025 Wine Companion
A comment on Winery Ratings and Scores
Wine Writers, Wine Shows and both domestic and international publications are an important part of our industry. But like you and I, tastes vary not just between individuals, but on different days for the same reviewer. Wines also develop and change over time.
We are confident that our wines look better after 12 months in bottle, typically when we look to release them. Often, our wines are tasted immediately after bottling by reviewers. Wines destined for the Halliday Companion are tasted in December and January for publication in August.
This impacts the wines that are submitted as many of the wines from the previous years are yet to be bottled.