2024 Halliday Australian Wine Companion Awards Results

The 2024 Halliday Australian Wine Companion Awards results are in and the medals bestowed upon our wines are a true testament to the exceptional skills and passion of our first-class winemaking team, led by Chief Winemaker, Xanthe Hatcher.

See below our full list of Pooles Rock wines included in the 2024 Halliday Wine Companion;

Pooles Rock Cellar Release Post Office Shiraz 2014 Hunter Valley – 97 Pts

“Sourced from the 100-year-old estate Post Office plantings. 2014 has always been regarded as a great shiraz vintage in the Hunter, this wine also adding its praises to the skies. Beautiful colour, a limpid crimson; what the bouquet says, the palate does: the full monty of red, purple and black flavours, the fruit profile still bright and clear, the length impeccable.”

Pooles Rock Cellar Release Post Office Shiraz 2011 Hunter Valley – 97 Pts

“Oh my, this is magnificently luscious and improbably young. Further years/decades will introduce new and different aromas and flavours. Take a winner’s ticket at Tattslotto, and methodically enjoy it year on year, judging not for quality, but for pleasure.”

Pooles Rock Single Barrel Chardonnay 2022 Hunter Valley – 96 Pts

“This was borne of the realisation that, during the classification of all the barrels, one puncheon (different each year) would stand out as the most complete. It will have been a single-vineyard wine, and by definition is limited to a single new puncheon of 500L. This vintage was tough, but the wine emerged unscathed, with length and finesse to its flavour kit.”

Pooles Rock Cellar Release Semillon 2009 Hunter Valley – 95 Pts

“This wine won an impressive array of gold medals and trophies in 2009 and 2010. What was Pooles Rock’s flagship release has prospered since then, gleaming green-gold, now with honey and buttered toast flavours and crackling acidity. It still has its best in front of it.”

Pooles Rock Soldier Settler Semillon 2022 Hunter Valley – 95 Pts

“This wine comes entirely from the Soldier Settler vineyard on the sandy soils of the Broke Fordwich subregion, which (obliquely) has some of the vines planted in 1918 by the soldiers from World War I. This has an already-apparent lick of the honey its Premiere sibling may develop with five years’ maturation in bottle.”

Pooles Rock Premiere Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2022 Hunter Valley – 95 Pts

“Picked from a wide cross-section of vineyards across the far reaches of the Hunter Valley. Whole-bunch pressed, directly transferred to French puncheons (40% new); a barrel selection was made with deliberate mlf; then matured 9 months with fortnightly bâtonnage. As complex as they come, but has retained focus and freshness.”

Pooles Rock Premiere Hunter Valley Semillon 2022 Hunter Valley – 94 Pts

“Curious business. Both back labels of this and its Soldier Settler sibling are lengthy but near identical, both wines said to have come from the Soldier Settler Vineyard, albeit Premiere disclosing the incorporation of some parcels from the Pokolbin subregion. The design of the two front labels is similar and there’s only a $5 price difference between the wines. But there’s the honey absent from this wine.”

Pooles Rock Centenary Block Hunter Valley Shiraz 2021 Hunter Valley – 93 Pts

“This stable is a safe proposition for solid, mid-weighted and savoury wines, inflected strongly by region. Old vines, whole berries and relatively short fermentations with a reliance on a good percentage (50%) of new French oak for tannic build. Varnish, pickled cherry, terracotta and spiced Asian plum. The flow, impressive. The finish, modest.”

Click here to view our complete range of Pooles Rock award-winning wines today.