The Halliday Wine Companion Awards celebrate the best wines in Australia. Below you'll find Australia's top sweet wines, along with the wine ratings awarded by the Tasting Team.
Sweet wines – sadly – is a smaller category than it once was, but the styles of the best examples are arguably more diverse than ever, stretching from nutty and rich to fresh and delicate. The winning wine is, simply, a delicious wine to drink, showing cut, intensity and length but in the context of juicy, grapey flavour.
2025 Sweet Wine of the Year
Pressing Matters R139 Riesling 2022, Tasmania
97 points (PD*) | Price when tasted $37
A wonderful sweet riesling sporting 139g RS from Tasmania's Coal River Valley. The acidity is the key here. It tempers the sweetness and provides a minerally frame on which the unctuous fruit is tautly stretched. Green apple, lime, fresh and candied rinds, an array of wildflower notes, apple pie, crushed stone and toffee apple. Pure, focused and showing great balance and an impressive length of flavour and vitality. – Dave Brookes
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Top-rated sweet wines from the 2025 Companion
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Castagna
Aqua Santa Viognier Non Vintage
Sweet | Beechworth -
Pressing Matters
R139 Riesling 2022
Sweet | Tasmania -
De Bortoli (Riverina)
Noble One Botrytis Semillon 2021
Sweet | Riverina -
Delatite
Catherine's Block Reserve Gewürztraminer 2022
Sweet | Upper Goulburn -
Rieslingfreak
No. 8 Schatzkammer Riesling 2023
Sweet | Clare Valley -
Lark Hill
Exhaltation Botrytis Roussanne 2021
Sweet | Canberra District -
Sandalford
Sandalera (375 ml) Non Vintage
Sweet | Swan Valley
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This is an edited extract from the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Marcus Ellis, Mike Bennie, Philip Rich, Shanteh Wale and Toni Paterson MW. Cover art by Vera Babida.
*Panel decision – score awarded by the Halliday Tasting Team at the annual Awards judging.
