2024-varietal-winners

Top Rated: Other Whites and Blends

By The Tasting Team

This was one of the most exciting categories to judge. Other Whites and Blends is an uninspiring name but there are simply so many great wines to drink here. Indeed, of all the categories, this was the one that provoked the most discussion, off the back of the fact that the wines themselves had us all sitting up straighter. Mount Mary can count itself incredibly unlucky not to have come out on top here, so close was the scoring, but the John Kosovich Chenin is a beautiful and personality-laden wine, as are many of the wines here.

2024 Other Whites and Blends of the Year

John Kosovich Wines Bottle Aged Reserve Chenin Blanc 2018, Swan Valley

98 points (PD*) | Price when tasted $54


John Kosovich Wines Bottle Aged Reserve Chenin Blanc 2018, Swan Valley

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From vines planted in 1962. Released as a five-year-old wine. Chenin blanc from Swan Valley is a national, vinous treasure that's guided with expertise by the great crew at John Kosovich Wines. This is surprisingly fresh for its relative maturity, imbued with strong, lemony scents with accents of honeycomb, wet fern, pineapple and tonic water – very attractive aromas. The palate is squeaky and crisp, showing more of the lemony characters of the bouquet with additional dashes of tonic water, bay leaf and briny minerality with some chalkiness in texture, too. There's gentle maturation in play endowing the wine with savoury elements, and some honey-butter notes. It's in a brilliant place, vivid for the variety and maturing graciously (and I suspect very long). Delicious drinking ensues. – Mike Bennie

The 2024 Halliday Wine Companion is available now. Secure your copy of Australia's most comprehensive wine guide here – and at all good bookstores. 

This is an edited extract from the 2024 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Mike Bennie, Ned Goodwin MW, Philip Rich and Shanteh Wale. Cover art by Ka Mo.

*Panel decision – score awarded by the Halliday Tasting Team at the annual Awards judging.