James Halliday 2008 Wine Companion

Written by Ian Robertson on 7th August 2007

Another year, another high quality James Halliday Wine Companion. Ho hum, what else is there to say?

Well, there is a little bit to say – and really that is one of the nice things about the Halliday guide’s release every year – it throws up some interesting topics for conversation.

Firstly, what and who?

James Halliday is arguably Australia’s most renowned wine writer. From a legal background, he dived into the world of wine through being a partner in the establishment of Brokenwood in the Hunter Valley, and from there moved onto establish Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley. Although Coldstream Hills is now a part of the Fosters empire, Halliday still lives on the property and consults in the winemaking. He is also a wine judge of international demand.

But it is as an author that Halliday is really known, having written over 50 books on wine. Debatably, his annual Wine Companion is the one that attracts the attention most of all. Funny thing when it is such a simple concept – list basically all Australian wineries and include key tasting notes and scores out of 100 for wines.

So, what has changed this year? Well, apart from the pretty looking two colour printing which highlights interesting wines and wineries (top quality, top value or interesting variety) the main change is this – Halliday has not listed all wineries, nor has he listed all wine reviews, deleting anything rating 86 points and below.

Although he really seems to have no choice over this – if he published everything the guide would be over 1000 pages this year he states – it is a real shame. Knowing that from this point on not all wineries will be listed in Halliday really turns the guide into something else – a list of Halliday’s favourites rather than his impressions on everyone.

Please don’t get me wrong – I can certainly understand why this needed to happen, but it is still a shame. The book states that a comprehensive web site of all this information will be released shortly – at the time of writing, it is not there – not even a holding page. (which strikes me as strange – please let this not be a repeat of the WinePros debacle!!)

I will neglect to list all of the high scoring wines – it appears that the newspapers have already done that (in a slightly misleading way, no less!) but suffice to say the wines that rate highly certainly deserve it in my books. Also suffice to say that most will have a tough time trying to track them down thanks to these high ratings!

The Wine Companion is something I tend to purchase every year, simply for its comprehensive information on wineries and sometimes (although I hate to admit it) to check my palate against his on a number of wines. The great thing about Halliday as opposed to someone like Robert Parker Jnr is that he tends to like a wide variety of wine styles and scores them with less bias to any one style. Although Parker claims the same, it certainly does not seem to come through in his highest ratings.

So, is the book worth the price of admission? Yes in my book. It is available at all good book stores, and some of the not so good ones as well.