Description
Here's the latest selection of top value reds with 95+ point scores from the Halliday Wine Companion Tasting Team.
A fantastic way to try some of the best value wines in the country!
- 2025 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir
- 2025 Spinifex Papillon
- 2025 Longview Fresco Nebbiolo
- 2025 Fighting Gully Road Sangiovese
- 2025 Mercer Tempranillo
- 2024 Bondar Violet Hour Shiraz
2025 Garagiste Le Stagiaire Pinot Noir
Every year, Barney Flanders takes a selection of some of his favourite Pinot parcels from his Mornington sites - Balnarring, Red Hill, Merricks Grove and now Merricks North - and throws down a Pinot that makes the rest of the $35ish crowd in the region look a bit undercooked.
Merricks North leads the blend this year, with plush, perfumed Dijon clones lifting the deep, structural MV6 from the other sites. Whole berries, wild ferments, a short spell on skins, then time in large oak and concrete before bottling it with no fining and no filtering.
It’s got a real Mornington weight and presence to it. Ripe red fruits, a flicker of spice, and a smooth ride of tannin through the finish. When we tasted the 2025, we commented that it feels like Barney's pulled back on the structure and upped the slurpability in this release. It's hard to picture a better value entry into Mornington Pinot than this little beauty.
This is one of our most popular wines every year. How Barney manages to get this quality at this price point never ceases to amaze us but we're glad he does and hope he never stops!
95 points
"The value belies the quality as there’s always a lot of detail to this range, yet it's so approachable... A wine you want to drink on a cold day while staying toasty in front of a fire."
- Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Spinifex Papillon
Peter Schell's Papillon is one of the most gluggable reds in the Barossa Valley!
The Spinifex wines cover a wide spectrum, from rich, full-throttled old vine Shiraz all the way to this, a light bodied, energetic Grenache Cinsault blend made for easy day-time drinking.
These styles are certainly in vogue but as usual, winemaking wizard Schell’s winemaking know-how elevates Papillon far beyond your average light red. Sourced from old, dry-grown vines (many over 70 years old) across the Barossa and Eden Valleys, it combines purity of fruit with layers of complexity
Papillon is one of our go-to's and just unbeatable value. What a producer Spinifex is.
95 points
"I just love this wine. The word 'smashable' shines with overuse, but the Papillon consistently offers such an ease of drinking that it is just a no-brainer every year... A brisk mineral cadence and a sweetly balanced, chalky tannin array. It is just bright, joyous drinking. Bonkers value here, too."
- Dave Brookes (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Longview Fresco Nebbiolo
The Saturno family took the reins at Longview back in 2007 and have spent the last two decades turning their Adelaide Hills estate into a powerhouse for Italian varieties. Bringing former Bleasdale legend Paul Hotker on board in 2024 was a great move, and he’s wasted no time pushing their Nebbiolo into highly smashable, youthful territory.
The brisk 2025 season played right into their hands for this specific release. Instead of chasing the formidable, brooding structure the grape is famous for in Piedmont, they capitalised on the year's bright, juicy fruit to build a wine focused entirely on immediate smashability.
The fruit sees a mostly uncrushed ferment with just a small handful of intact clusters tossed in to dial up the floral lift. It gets squeezed off the skins quickly and takes a short rest in neutral wood, ensuring the finished wine is locked under cap in under a year.
Give this twenty minutes in the fridge before cracking the seal. Think tart redcurrant, bush pepper, and a lick of amaro-like bitterness to close. It’s an outrageously fun park wine that happens to also carry a 95-point nod from the Wine Companion.
95 points
"A lighter, brighter, indeed, fresher rendering of nebbiolo... Reminiscent of Piedmont's more energetic pelaverga wines, with a more bold strike. Lots going on, and so delicious; goes well with a chill as it would stand alone. Drink in vigorous youth. Utterly fun."
- Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine companion)
2025 Fighting Gully Road Sangiovese
This is perhaps Australia's best Sangiovese.
Mark Walpole is one of the rare Australian viticulturists who genuinely understands how to wrangle Sangiovese. Teaming up with winemaker Adrian Rodda, the Fighting Gully Road label consistently proves that you don't need to be in Chianti to get this notoriously stubborn grape to behave.
The fruit is pulled entirely from the upper, sun-exposed slopes of the Aquila Audax Vineyard in Beechworth. Up here, the vines dig into a tough mix of shale and metamorphic rock, forcing them to work hard and naturally restricting yields.
The blend of the 2025 is 95% Sangiovese backed by a 5% splash of Colorino to help lock in colour and structure. Fermented wild across a mix of stainless steel and oak vats with a portion of whole berries kept intact, the juice spends a full 28 days on skins before maturing in large Italian-coopered casks.
It drinks exactly as great Sangiovese should - dusty, tense, and built for the dinner table. The '25 is maybe a little lighter on its feet than the last couple of vintages, with wild berries, a rub of crushed sage, and the chalky tannin the grape is famous for driving a long, dry finish.
96 points
"Think of the first Australian sangiovese you ever tried and then try this – the two are worlds apart. The fruit sweetness, so obvious back then, is now one layer of many, a multi-cast member... Think you know sangiovese? Think again."
- Jeni Port (Halliday Wine Companion)
2025 Mercer Tempranillo
Aaron Mercer is a massive fan of Tempranillo’s potential in Australia, especially in a high-altitude spot like Orange. He’s built this 2025 release in a deliberate Joven style, which is just a fancy way of saying it’s made for freshness and immediate drinking rather than being tucked away in a cellar.
When we tried this Temp the word "gluggable" kept coming up. It’s a mid-weight red that really celebrates the bright, crunchy fruit you get from those cooler slopes. Aaron avoids heavy oak here to let the fruit do the talking, so you get heaps of plush cherries and raspberries with a nice little savoury hit of dried herbs on the finish.
It’s an unpretentious, easy-going red that’s perfect for a mid-week pasta or a casual BBQ. If you’re after something vibrant and smashable that doesn't overcomplicate things, this hits the spot perfectly.
95 points
"Vivid with acaí, blueberries and violet florals. This is very fresh and opulent with purple fruit, turned black earth and poppy seed spice... This is expert handling of the variety and a wine that has a long life ahead."
- Shanteh Wale (Halliday Wine Companion)
2024 Bondar Violet Hour Shiraz
The Violet Hour was the first wine Andre Bondar and Selina Kelly made, and it’s still the best expression of what they do - elegant, energetic McLaren Vale Shiraz with real shape and detail.
Sourced entirely from the Rayner Vineyard, where old vines sit on deep sands threaded with ironstone, the 2024 shows McLaren Vale in its most refined light. There’s red and blue fruit, a little spice and pepper, fine tannins, and just enough flesh to fill the frame. No heavy oak, no excess.
Andre’s goal here has always been to make a wine that’s pure and expressive rather than loud or showy and this vintage nails it. It’s supple, savoury, and built on balance.
96 points
"If you’ve always loved McLaren Vale shiraz, you’ll still be happy here, and if you didn’t think it was for you, you’ll be surprised by how quickly you feel at home."
- Nick Ryan (Top 100 Wines of 2025)
95+ points
"It hits a little different, but its weight is all Violet Hour, so too its harmony, detail and vitality – and so too the extraordinary value. Give this some air, and I think a little more age will be kind to it."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)
Customer Reviews
| Price Bracket | $30 or Less |
| Type | Red |
| Country | Australia |
| Feature |
High Score |
| Reviewed By |
Halliday Wine Companion |
| Size | 9 |
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