Top 10 James Halliday award for Geographe winery

Respected Australian wine writer and critic James Halliday has made his declarations of the top wines in the country, with a Geographe winery taking out a spot in the top 10 best new wineries. The Halliday Wine Companion team reviewed more than 9000 Australian wines to make their selections for the 2021 awards, which was streamed online for the first time due to the pandemic. A retirement venture for Michael and Ilonka Edwards, Bakkheia Wines landed itself a spot on the best new wineries list. Mr Edwards said the win verified their place in the wine world in producing world-class wines. “We’re part of the Geographe wine region and I think it’s the big undiscovered area,” he said. “This puts the spotlight onto a place it hasn’t been before, but where it should be. Bakkheia’s unique membership scheme was recognised as a notable feature, something Mr Edwards said was part of their sustainable business model. “We’ve calculated with the 3ha of vines we have we can produce about 1000 cases. Instead of conquering the world, we’d rather be sustainable, so we cap our production and we cap our list of patrons we sell our wine to,” he said. The winery also claims to be the only one in the world where the people on the buyers’ list are the ones who put a price on the wine. The Margaret River wine region was home to four of 16 best varietal categories at the awards, with Leeuwin Estate taking out best chardonnay, described by Halliday as “an extraordinary wine, among the greatest of burgundy and elsewhere in the world”. Nocturne Wines from 2019 winemaker of the year Julian Langworthy and his wife Alana was awarded best rose and Moss Wood was recognised for best cabernet sauvignon. New winery of the year 2015 winner Flowstone Wines took out best sauvignon blanc and was also recognised in the top 10 best value wineries, alongside Margaret River’s Deep Woods Estate.