Halliday Top 100 Wines 2025: Best red wines under $50

The 20 wines on this list represent the best Australian reds under $50, selected by the Halliday Tasting Team for the 2025 Halliday Top 100.

Made by some of the county's top producers – from the Adelaide Hills, Riverland, McLaren Vale and Clare Valley to Margaret River, Beechworth, Alpine Valleys and the Hunter Valley – the list features a diverse range of varieties and price points.

2024 Aravina Estate Limited Release Grenache Tempranillo Touriga, Margaret River

Blends such as this, priced keenly and with the intention of being enjoyed in youth, do grab my attention. This is a ripper. Lots of juicy, tangy fruit – all spiced to the max but not fruity per se, just youthful vivacity coming through. Fleshy and ripe across the mid-weighted palate. Tannins are lovely, textural and sandy, the acidity fresh and tangy so the sensation is one of succulence. Nice one. – Jane Faulkner

95 points | $33 | Screw cap | 13.5% alc. | Drink to 2030 | Aravina Estate profile | Winery profile | @aravinaestate

2023 Cirillo Wines The Vincent Grenache, Barossa Valley

Is this the best value red wine in Australia? It'd have to be up there at the pointy end. Grenache from a handful of vineyards; 1901 and 1906 plantings with some declassified 1850 vine fruit for good measure. That's just bonkers when you think about it. Magenta-splashed crimson, super high-toned, mid-weighted with crunchy red plum and red cherry fruits dusted with gingery spice, floral tones and cola. Savoury and crunchy and just delivers so much enjoyment for the price. A cracker. – Dave Brookes

2023 Coulter Wines C2 Sangiovese, Adelaide

Deep crimson in the glass. Its perfume of black cherry, thyme, blood plum and dried oregano beckons a sip. The oak and fruit work in total harmony, each providing its own dimension through notes of dried orange rind, cocoa and leather with ripe strawberry and black tea tannin knit within. A wine of surprising value and resounding quality. – Katrina Butler

95 points | $28 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Drink to 2030 | Coulter Wines profile | Coulter Wines | @coulterwines

2023 Dalwood Estate Estate Shiraz, Hunter Valley

There's much to admire in this estate-grown, expertly-made Hunter shiraz. The medium-weight palate is compelling in how it builds in intensity as the palate progresses. It has a bold yet plush entry, with ripe plum and candied strawberry tones, but then comes a little spice and savoury oak, which adds complexity. It has beautiful fruit clarity, harmony, lovely energy and impressive persistence. And most importantly, it is delicious. – Toni Paterson MW

96 points | $45 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Dalwood Estate profile | Winery website | @dalwoodestate

2024 Fighting Gully Road Sangiovese, Beechworth

Mark Walpole loves sangiovese and the feeling is reciprocated. This is a mighty strong follow-up to the '23, fairly bristling in cherry-fruited and aromatic brightness and crunch in youth, with an underlying brooding quality that says, 'just wait.' A smidge (5%) of the Tuscan colorino red grape adds to the iridescence of the cherry red, bright hues. Aromas rise in wild raspberries, red cherries, plum, florals, cumin, fennel seed, red earth and spice. The palate is nicely weighted, with brisk acid crunch, and is both upbeat and alive in spiced cherry, red fruits and an underlying savouriness of Campari, dried herbs, licorice and mineral earthiness. Potential? You bet! – Jeni Port

96 points | $35 | Screw cap | 13.5% alc. | Drink to 2033 | Fighting Gully Road profile | Winery website | @fightinggullyroad

2023 Gertie Wines Cabernet Franc, Clare Valley

Winemaker Ben Marx is a dab hand with cabernet franc. From a cool vintage, a frisky rendering of the variety. This is all wild roses, cherry pip, rosehip tea, sage leaf, white pepper, sweet clove and is just so very excellent as an expression. Very refreshing and bright to taste, a crispness and fine shimmer of gossamer, powdered rock tannins there, too. A touch of blood orange and game meat through the finish. Cabernet franc by definition, with huge X-factor. – Mike Bennie

95 points | $35 | Screw cap | 13.6% alc. | Drink to 2032 | Gertie Wines profile | Winery website | @gertiewines

2023 JC's Own Bluebird Grenache, Barossa

Grenache sourced from a 150-year-old vineyard in the Angaston Foothills; destemmed, whole berries. The lightest, most fragrant and flighty of the Jaysen Collins grenache quiver. Red and dark plum, cranberry and raspberry compote with hints of citrus blossom, gingerbread, cola, earth, charcuterie, dried citrus rind and wildflowers. Savoury and spacious with plenty of light shining in on the pure fruit, a tight, fine, sandy tannin frame and abundant minerally energy. – Dave Brookes

94 points | $34 | Cork | 13% alc. | Drink to 2034 | JC's Own profile | Winery website | @jcsown

2023 Lake Breeze Wines Cabernet Sauvignon, Langhorne Creek

Context is important in wine. Aside from being a steal, this is a classy cabernet. Fruit off vines hovering around 45 years, aged in French barriques, 30% new and aged 20 months all up. It’s made with intent, it’s made well and it highlights cassis and blackberries dipped in choc-mint, sweet spices and cedary oak (a little sweet but will fall back in time). The palate is well composed and filled with textural tannins, fresh acidity and more besides. Enjoyment writ large here. – Jane Faulkner

95 points | $28 | Screw cap | 14% alc. | Drink to 2033 | Lake Breeze Wines profile | Winery website | @lakebreezewines

2022 Mayford Wines Porepunkah Shiraz, Alpine Valleys

Is it time to take Alpine Valleys shiraz seriously? It is! Year after year this maker releases a quality shiraz of all class. This vintage, it is from the Nicholson vineyard. A cool-climate-style spiciness inhabits the wine in combo with a medium-bodied, supple palate that is a ready palette of colours – black, red and blue fruits – and mixed woodsy spices, earth and peppery intrigue. Fragrant, elegant and supple in tannins, it goes long and impresses mightily. – Jeni Port

2023 Medhurst Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Malbec, Yarra Valley

Left on skins for an extended maturation and racked to French oak barriques (35% new). Medhurst has a habit of turning out well crafted and stylish cabernets and this new wine is no exception. A gorgeous, bright crimson red, the nose is perfumed with black cherries, raspberries, cedar, violets and a touch of bell pepper coming to the fore. Medium bodied and with very fine, persistent tannins providing both structure and length. A deserving top gold in a hot field of cabernet blends at this year's Yarra Valley Wine Show. – Philip Rich

2024 Ministry of Clouds Mencía, McLaren Vale

All estate fruit, the sixth release. Across two picks, this saw four wild ferments: one carbonic for 12 days, and the others a varied mix of whole bunch and whole berry. Those nuances have created considerable complexity across a deceptively bright and fragrant wine. Deceptive in that there is depth of flavour, concentration and an intriguingly slippery, silky, saline texture beyond the captivating perfume of crushed violets, iris, lavender and rose. There’s also an engaging fundamental grapey-ness paired with blueberry, sour cherry, blood plum, humus-rich earth, charcoal, licorice powder and pipe tobacco. It’s light of feel, boisterously perfumed and rippling with detail. A delight, and up there with the best yet made here from the variety. – Marcus Ellis

95 points | $38 | Screw cap | 13.5% alc. | Drink to 2032 | Ministry of Clouds profile | Winery website | @ministryofcloudswines

2023 Mitolo Wines Cinquecento Sangiovese, McLaren Vale

This is a departure from iterations prior. It was a cool year, but it feels more than that. Either way, this is a delight. So fragrant, so refined and engaging, scented with classic cherry notes, and a panoply of them – glossy red and sour and dried and preserved … Mediterranean herbs, warm terracotta, dried cranberry and orange, clove and caraway. Effortless of feel, fine-boned, weightless even, but with fruit purity and inherent power coupled to a sapid and savoury drive of acidity and proper tannin, this is absolutely stunning. – Marcus Ellis

96 points | $42 | Diam | 14.5% alc. | Drink to 2032 | Mitolo Wines profile | Winery website | @mitolowines

2021 Mt Pilot Estate Durif, North East Victoria

The winemaker knows his way around the durif grape, capturing the beauty (yes, the beauty!) of the grape so well. Rarely do you see an elegant durif, but here it is. Striking, lifted scents in wild herbs, black pepper, black cherry, blueberry, briar and earth. The palate is superb, dressed in fine tannins and displaying an integrated, seamless progression of ripe, fleshy fruit and spice through to a lingering finish. It is a treat now but also promises to cellar well. – Jeni Port

96 points | $33 | Screw cap | 14.2% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Mt Pilot Estate profile | Winery website | @mtpilotestatewines

2024 Paralian Wines Springs Hill Vineyard Shiraz, McLaren Vale

From '75 and '98 plantings on the Springs Hill vineyard. The '24 Paralian suite, for me, is the finest to date. All killer, as they say … The quiet power in this is something to behold – a wine of gravitas and grace. It comes in a little darker of fruit this year, though not heavy with it. Dried olive, black cherry, violet, blueberry, ground coffee, a certain sultry floral and spicy feel, with an undercurrent of nori and iodine. This is a marvellous expression, with finely tooled tannins and exceptional length. Simply brilliant. – Marcus Ellis

2022 Protero Nebbiolo, Adelaide Hills

It does both speeds of lightweight and serious with fine tannin profile. Lots of perfume, too, and a dark cherry, brambly herbal focus for descriptors. In all that, it nails the brief of proper nebbiolo, with succulence to texture, great volume of perfume, restraint in fruit character and yet finesse. Elegance personified. And beautiful drinking. – Mike Bennie

2023 Ricca Terra Bullets Before Cannonballs, Riverland

Tempranillo, lambrusco, shiraz, lagrein. Ricca Terra craft wines that feel quite alive in the glass, perhaps due to their deep agricultural understanding and farming practices. I could be romanticising, but this wine is a living thing. Soft leather, aniseed rings, fresh fig and dry earth. Dark chocolate and blood plum. The tannins have a lateral extension within, beyond the spine of the drink, leaf vein-like. For its close-to-earth rusticity, it certainly polishes up and carries an elegant composition further endorsed by impeccable balance. – Katrina Butler

2023 Scotchmans Hill Bellarine Peninsula Shiraz, Geelong

15% whole bunches and matured in French barriques (30% new). Scotchmans never miss a beat with wine, and this delivers the goods, and then some. Lifted with aromas of raspberries and dark cherries together with some freshly cracked black pepper and clove. A little star anise, too. Medium bodied, the palate is succulent, balanced and long. Delicious now and over the next five to seven years, if not longer. Nice one. – Philip Rich

2023 Spinifex Papillon, Barossa Valley

Pete Schell's Papillon and I have had a thing going for a while. If I spy it on a wine list it's often what I'll go for as it consistently delivers a great drinking experience and matches a range of foods. This year it's 66/31/3% grenache/cinsault/counoise 3%. Spacious, sapid and energetic, it's all raspberries and cranberries daubed with exotic spice, rose petals, sour cherry, dried herbs and stone. That whoosh of sour red plum at the end gets me every time. So good! – Dave Brookes

2023 Thomas Wines Sweetwater Ridge Individual Vineyard Shiraz, Hunter Valley

An instantly appealing wine of integrity, with textbook ripeness and glorious richness. Blood plum and ripe mulberry characters dominate, with an uplift and juicy brightness to counterbalance the richness. The mid-palate is beautifully supple and the tannins are ripe, nestling perfectly within the wine's frame. Impeccable winemaking has created a wine that is a pure expression of the vineyard, shaped by deep red loam soils over limestone. If you love shiraz, you will adore this wine. Absolutely extraordinary value. – Toni Paterson MW

2023 Wynns Coonawarra Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra

It's hard to not have high expectations for this wine and yet each vintage you have to be impressed with its poise and delivery of beauty in your glass. Cassis and subtle hints of Ribena. Black cherries, creeping ivy and crushed volcanic rock. A hint of lilac and bramble. The wine stands tall with its confidence and primary fruit focus with artful foundations of fine tannins and sinuous acidity. Once again it is tailored to perfection, highly drinkable now and yet with an ageless grace in 5, 10 years and more. Sometimes the original is just too good to go past. – Shanteh Wale

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