Halliday Top 100 Wines 2025: Best white wines under $40

You don't need to compromise on quality when it comes to finding a great Australian white wine for $40 or less. Here, we outline 20 chosen by the Halliday Tasting Team for the 2025 Halliday Top 100.

Riesling – which also had the most value rosette awarded wines in the 2026 Companion compared to all other varieties – features heavily on this list, however, the range is diverse. Find top-tier semillon, vermentino, fiano, chenin blanc, muscat blanc, and lesser-known varieties including ansonica and grüner veltliner.

You'll find plenty of new favourites to restock the wine fridge with below. 

2024 Best’s Wines Riesling, Grampians

A stunner of a riesling! Best's produces one of Victoria's best and most underrated rieslings. It shines here in a cool year with the kind of delicacy that the grape does well, in white flowers and apple blossom, lively lime citrus, lemon drop and talc. Fine edged in acidity and naturally ebullient in its youth, it's going to last and last. Finishes with a lifted, lemon pastille note. Delish. – Jeni Port 

96 points | $27 | Screw cap | 11.5% alc. | Drink to 2035 | Best's Wines profile | Winery website | @bestswines

2024 Brokenwood Semillon, Hunter Valley

Made exclusively from hand-picked fruit sourced across the valley, this wine offers incredible value with its pure, lemony fruit, palate breadth, freshness and length. Ever-dependable and deeply satisfying, it stands out as one of the region's best buys. Gorgeous in its youth, with lime blossom and green apple notes, it will reward careful cellaring, unveiling toast and flint characters over time. – Toni Paterson MW 

95 points | $28 | Screw cap | 11.5% alc. | Drink to 2030 | Brokenwood profile | Winery website | @brokenwoodwines

2024 By Fabiano Vermentino, McLaren Vale

Estate vines, hand picked, crushed and left on skins for 24 hours; cool ferment, then 10 months in seasoned oak. This is so fresh and vibrant, so varietally distinct, so subtly textured, allying savouriness with sea breezy refreshment, faint pithiness and succulent acidity. Lisbon lemon, golden apple, yellow grapefruit, ozone, sappy florals, wild grasses and sun-dried linen. It’s also, like the other whites from this address, a wine that really blossoms in the glass with air. It’s very good. – Marcus Ellis 

95 points | $34 | Cork | 13.3% alc. | Drink to 2028 | By Fabiano profile | Winery website | @byfabiano_

2024 ChaLou Wines Riesling, Orange

A wild fermented off-dry style. This is bursting with finger lime spheres, crab apples flesh and mock orange blossoms. A hint of mangosteen and cracked quartz. The palate tumble turns with lacy phenolic pith that draws your palate to experience what the true meaning of succulence is. Do not be fooled by the thimbles of fruit nectar sweetness, as the woven mesh of texture takes centre stage. A love affair with riesling is detected in every ounce of this wine. A true beauty, that will age gorgeously over the course of 10–15 years, and at a steal of a price! – Shanteh Wale 

96 points | $35 | Screw cap | 11% alc. | Drink to 2038 | ChaLou profile | Winery website | @chalouwines

2025 Clonakilla Riesling, Canberra District

Ah riesling – vintage barely done and dusted yet here you are in my glass. You’re a delight and delicious, even in this still-evolving stage; the patient will be rewarded, so pop some away in the cellar. Open it today and you’ll be greeted by a waft of lemon and lime blossom, waxy hoya flowers and plenty of citrus tang on the palate, with a distinct mandarin flavour. There are no harsh edges with the acidity, just a lovely sensation of talc and texture. – Jane Faulkner

95 points | $38 | Screw cap | 12% alc. | Drink to 2035 | Clonakilla profile | Winery website | @clonakillawines

2024 Collector Wines Ledger Grüner Veltliner, Tumbarumba

Made from dry-grown fruit off the Courabyra vineyard, ensuring quality first and foremost. While whole-bunch pressed and left on lees for several months, this was bottled in early August ’24 to retain freshness and fruit flavour, even if it rested for nearly a year before release. Expect melon, crisp green apple and star fruit with some lime juice and zest. There’s the merest hint of white pepper, even a briny note, with peach fuzz and phenolics adding some shape while invigorating acidity lengthens the palate. Delicious. – Jane Faulkner 

94 points | $34 | Screw cap | 12.8% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Collector Wines profile | Winery website | @collector_wines

2024 CRFT Wines K1 Vineyard Kuitpo Grüner Veltliner, Adelaide Hills

CRFT have solidified themselves as one of Australia's leading grüner specialists, and no slouch here. It's intensely concentrated with lime, tonic water, ginger, radish, pepper and pink grapefruit. A full ride. Refreshment factor is high, the gloss to texture spot on, the dry, talc-like minerally finish a boon. It is an exceptional white wine in every sense; complex, compelling drinking, distinctly varietal, energetic and pure. Kudos due. – Mike Bennie 

95 points | $33 | Screw cap | 13% alc. | Drink to 2030 | CRFT Wines profile | Winery website | @crftwines

2024 Fallen Giants Riesling, Grampians

This is just how good Grampians riesling can get. Such an underrated star of the region, it can reach some extraordinary levels of complexity, as noted here from the first sniff and taste. Dry and exotic, boasting uncommon complexity in one so young in jasmine, Granny Smith apple, quince, citrus, beeswax, gentle herbal spice in Thai basil and a whisper of white pepper. All combine on a palate that is crunchy, crisp, dry and well composed. Memorable. – Jeni Port 

96 points | $40 | Screw cap | 12% alc. | Drink to 2035 | Fallen Giants profile | Winery website | @fallengiantsvineyard

2023 First Foot Forward Amphora Ferment Single Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Yarra Valley

A single-vineyard wine from the Lone Star Creek vineyard. Whole-bunch pressed and fermented in amphorae to complete fermentation. A vibrant green gold. Fragrant and appealing from the moment you stick your nose in the glass. Aromas of just-ripened nectarines and blackcurrant leaf together with a touch of lemon rind. Silken textured, tensile and long on the palate. A gorgeous wine from start to finish and a bargain at this price. – Philip Rich 

95 points | $32 | Screw cap | 12.5% alc. | Drink to 2027 | First Foot Forward profile | Winery website | @first.foot.foward

2024 Gentle Folk Sauvignon Blanc, Adelaide Hills

Saline, rich and mouth-filling, this wine underwent complete mlf and spent eight months in French oak, both in barrique and hogshead. This is as good as it gets for Australian sauvignon blanc. Big on impact and deliciousness, the palate is a web of many skeins. Vanilla wafer, grilled white peach, Greek yogurt and lemon in all forms (from preserved segments to curd). It's decadent, but there's caution at hand, so as to not trample the fruit. Grapefruit, Pink Lady apple and a smattering of sea salt at the close. I can't lie, I couldn't tip this glass. – Katrina Butler 

96 points | $30 | Cork | 13% alc. | Drink to 2030 | Gentle Folk profile | Winery website | @gentlefolkwine

2024 Kenny Wine Watervale Riesling, Clare Valley

A floral and fleshy riesling with requisite lime, blackcurrant leaf, briny minerality, green mango and light, wild honey elements in play. Frisky and fresh feeling, plenty of flavour yet a delicacy at play, too. Almost brittle in feel, and beautifully so; this concept of fragility makes the wine more interesting as you seek out the details within. Delicious, refreshing drinking. – Mike Bennie 

94 points | $30 | Screw cap | 11.5% alc. | Drink to 2032 | Kenny Wine profile | Winery website | @kennywine_

2024 L'Anima Wines Sobremesa Passum Muscat Blanc, McLaren Vale

An ode to the sweet muscats of Pantelleria and the commune of Noto in Sicily’s southeastern tip. Not many youthful brands make sweet wine, but here we are. Sweet does it no justice, though. There’s plenty of sugar, but there’s a savoury airiness to it, too – it cloys not. Nutty and saline, with ample orange things – candied rind, orange blossom water, cumquat jam, orange bitters – membrillo, frangipane, gingersnaps, straw, an ozone-like beachy note and just the right level of prickly lift. It’s light on its feet, complex, vibrantly fresh and thoroughly delicious. What a debut for L'Anima – every wine a winner! 500ml. – Marcus Ellis 

95 points | $40 | Amorim Xpür | 14% alc. | Drink to 2034 | L'Anima Wines profile | Winery website | @lanimawines

2024 Lowe Family Wine Co BIO-Logical Ansonica, Murray Darling

A dialled-up ansonica aroma this year of lemon balm, wheatgrass, sugar cane and pomelo skin. Marzipan, agave and sake kasu. Acidity is a thrilling ride, like slipping down a giant water slide, with pockets of lemon pith grip, halos of evaporated warmth and then another burst of cool apple and nashi pear freshness. Totally intense and totally new, just delightful from start to finish. This will have your palate and mind grappling with its complexity and detail. Get onboard and hold on. And can someone please bring the salty anchovy toast to accompany it? – Shanteh Wale 

95 points | $35 | Diam | 11.6% alc. | Drink to 2030 | Lowe Family Wine Co profile | Winery website | @lowefamilywineco

2024 Medhurst Chardonnay, Yarra Valley

All estate fruit; whole-bunch pressed to puncheons, hogsheads and barriques (20% new). 10–15% mlf. A very bright green gold. Bright and pure. White peach and grapefruit with the oak already well integrated into the wine. The palate is spot-on, even now, with terrific purity and vibrant, balanced acidity. Absolutely overdelivers at the price. That it will age well in the short term, at least, is a bonus. – Philip Rich 

95 points | $35 | Screw cap | 12.9% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Medhurst profile | Winery website | @medhurstwines

2024 Mulline Gris, Geelong

100% pinot gris from Modewarre on the Surf Coast in Geelong. A bright salmon copper. The nose features an attractive amalgam of cranberries, freshly cut pear, Mediterranean herbs and a little honeydew melon. Just as good on the mouth-filling, savoury, pithy and long palate. Top stuff. – Philip Rich 

95 points | $37 | Screw cap | 13% alc. | Drink to 2027 | Mulline profile | Winery website | @mullinevintners

2025 Sherrah Wines Fiano, McLaren Vale

From two vineyards owned by the Lacey family, one in Tatachilla and the other Seaview. Both have a limestone base, with the Tatachilla site lower lying and closer to the sea. Cool tank fermentation for half the juice, with the other half wild fermented in seasoned oak. This is a fine follow up to the excellent 2024, a wine of intense flavour, quiet detail, texture, freshness and engaging drinkability. It’s undemanding in a way, but that’s the charm – calm, confident making, everything in harmony. Golden and red apples, lime pith, sea spray, a little oyster shell, the palate subtly chewy, pithy and resolutely refreshing. – Marcus Ellis 

95 points | $32 | Screw cap | 12.5% alc. | Drink to 2029 | Sherrah Wines profile | Winery website | @sherrahwines

2024 Sons of Eden Freya Riesling, Eden Valley

I've written before how I like the 2024 Eden Valley rieslings. They are perhaps not as aromatically punchy as the norm but they are stony-pure with that familiar Christmas lily volume just turned down a notch. But that focused line, eh?! The Freya here is a beauty, all velocity and limey precision and I am here for it. A cracker. – Dave Brookes 

94 points | $29 | Screw cap | 12% alc. | Drink to 2036 | Sons of Eden profile | Winery website | @sonsofeden

2024 Vickery Wines Riesling, Eden Valley

Although the great John Vickery has left us, his legacy lives on in the wines that bear his name. This is a cracker. A high-tensile, limey ride; a wine that is bone-dry, vivid and possesses all the velocity and verve that you expect. Pristine lime and green apple notes, subtle jasmine and Christmas lily with hints of crushed quartz and distant herbs, but it's all about that minerally cadence and precision. Super drinking. – Dave Brookes 

95 points | $24 | Screw cap | 11% alc. | Drink to 2038 | Vickery Wines profile | Winery website | @vickeryriesling

2023 Vino Volta Funky And Fearless Chenin Blanc, Swan Valley

The remarkable Rocket vineyard in the Swan and the stellar '23 vintage make for one very explosive and memorable wine. Lime zest, passionfruit curd, spiced pear and a mealy frangipane tart filling nuance to it, anchoring it all. A mineral charry cadence slips in and, through its wondrous acid line, drives the remarkable length to eventual completion. It finishes with preserved lemon and some crystalline ginger and nutmeg elements. Complex, powerful and resolute drinking. – Katrina Butler

96 points | $35 | Screw cap | 13.5% alc. | Drink to 2032 | Vino Volta profile | Winery website | @vino_volta

2024 XO Wine Co Single Vineyard Small Batch Fiano, Adelaide Hills

A very pleasing version of fiano, allowing the variety to flex some concentration of flavour and squeaky texture. Scents and flavours of cumquat, quince and preserved lemon with some light, green almond savouriness in the mix. Great perfume, lots of energy to the wine and a long, mouth-watering finish that completes things well. An excellent expression. – Mike Bennie

95 points | $35 | Screw cap | 13% alc. | Drink to 2028 | XO Wine Co profile | Winery website | @xowineco

Taste the Top 100 events

Taste the Top 100: Melbourne