What Is Australia's Best Pinot Noir?

The most honest answer to this question is that nobody crowns one wine king of Australian pinot noir, but three named competitions come close enough to settle it. The Australian Pinot Noir Challenge is the only national show judged entirely on pinot. The Halliday Wine Companion names a Pinot Noir of the Year from more than 7,000 wines tasted. Regional wine shows add their own trophy lists. Put those results side by side and one region keeps appearing, and in the most recent national challenge it finally took the top trophy itself.

What Is Australia's Best Pinot Noir?

By the strongest yardstick available, the 2024 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir from Giant Steps, in the Yarra Valley, is Australia's best pinot noir right now: it won the trophy at the 2025 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge, the country's only national pinot-only show, judged across more than 300 entries from 17 regions. It was the first time a Yarra Valley wine had ever taken it, ending a five-year run of Tasmanian winners.

That result matters because of what the challenge is. Every entry is tasted blind, the field spans every serious pinot region in the country, and the trophy has been dominated by Tasmania for half a decade. When the judging panel broke that streak, it did so with a wine from a single vineyard in the Lower Yarra, Applejack, whose 2022 and 2023 pinots had already been named Halliday Pinot Noir of the Year in their own editions. One site, three consecutive vintages, two national gongs and a show trophy.

The Halliday results run in parallel. In the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion, Pinot Noir of the Year went to Mount Mary Pinot Noir 2023, another Yarra Valley wine, at 98 points. The year before that the same vineyard's older siblings held the title. In the 2027 awards the spotlight shifted to Mount Mary's Triolet 2024, named Wine of the Year overall, a white blend, while the pinot category opened again. So the short version: the two most credible national judgements of Australian pinot have both gone to the Yarra Valley in consecutive years.

None of this means Tasmania has fallen away, or that Mornington Peninsula, Geelong or the Adelaide Hills do not make outstanding pinot. They do, and blind shows prove it every year. What it means is that if you asked the question in 2025 or 2026, the trophy cabinet answers with a Yarra Valley wine, and the cellar doors pouring it are an hour from Melbourne.

If tasting the region's pinot in person is the plan, a driven day with lunch is the simplest way to do it, and the three options below cover the small-group, the standard and the fully private versions of that day.

Which Wines Actually Hold The Trophies Right Now?

The current trophy holders from the Yarra Valley are the Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir 2024, holder of the 2025 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge trophy, Mount Mary Pinot Noir 2023, the 2026 Halliday Pinot Noir of the Year at 98 points, and The Wanderer Wines 2024, named Best Pinot Noir at the 2025 Yarra Valley Wine Show. Each result names a body, a year and a score, which is the only kind of answer worth trusting.

Start with the challenge result, because it is the biggest. The 2025 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge assessed more than 300 entries from 17 regions, and Giant Steps' 2024 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir took the trophy, the first Yarra Valley win in the show's history. The same vineyard's 2022 and 2023 pinots were Halliday Pinot Noir of the Year in their respective editions, which makes Applejack the most decorated single pinot site in the country at the moment.

The regional show adds depth. At the 2025 Yarra Valley Wine Show, Best Pinot Noir went to The Wanderer Wines 2024, while the broader trophy list was headed by Oakridge's 2023 864 Funder and Diamond Drive Block Chardonnay, which took Wine of Show, Best Chardonnay and Best White Wine. Yarra Yering took Most Successful Vineyard and a trophy for its 2024 Dry Red Wine No. 3, and De Bortoli's A5 Chardonnay took the Wine of Provenance trophy across three vintages. A region's show results are a fair proxy for what its cellar doors are pouring well.

The Halliday 2027 awards, announced in August 2026, kept the valley on the national stage even as the top winery title went elsewhere: Medhurst was named Best Value Winery and Mount Mary's Triolet 2024 took Wine of the Year, as Time Out reported on the awards. No Yarra Valley winery has been named Halliday Winery of the Year in the last two editions, and an honest answer says so. The region's wins have been in the wine and value categories, not the winery one, and the separate ranking body The Real Review named Yarra Yering its Winery of the Year Australia for 2026, a third title in the producer's cabinet.

One practical way to put these trophy wines in front of you is a small-group day that visits the producers behind them, and the ten-hour Yarra Valley Wine Day Tour does exactly that: its confirmed stops include De Bortoli, Yering Station, Coldstream Hills and Medhurst, and it carries a 5 rating across 655 reviews, from $249.69 with lunch and hotel pickup included.

That itinerary is the one to book if the trophy list above is the reason you are travelling, because it is the only standard-format day that reaches Medhurst, the current Halliday Best Value Winery, alongside three other show-regular producers. It runs long, ten hours, which is the honest cost of fitting four cellar doors and a winery lunch into one Melbourne return day.

Where Does The Yarra Valley Sit Among Australia's Pinot Regions?

Pinot Noir is the Yarra Valley's largest variety by a wide margin, 44 per cent of the region's 2026 crush, and the region supplied 4 per cent of all Australian Pinot Noir tonnes in the same season. Tasmania's share of the national pinot crop is larger, but on judged results the two regions now trade the top trophies, and the Yarra holds the current national challenge trophy.

The production numbers explain why the region competes at all. The 2026 Yarra Valley crush was an estimated 6,766 tonnes, down 31 per cent on 2025, a fall Yarra Yering's Andrew Fleming described as coming from cold and wet flowering, hail, and rain at the wrong times. Within that smaller crop, Pinot Noir remained dominant at 44 per cent, Chardonnay second at 30 per cent, and the fruit is not cheap: Yarra Valley pinot grapes averaged $2,869 per tonne in 2026 against a national average of $570 per tonne across all varieties, roughly four and a half times the national mark. Low yields, expensive fruit, and a trophy list to show for it.

The competitive picture is more balanced than the marketing of any single region suggests. Tasmania has the climate story and the volume share; the Yarra Valley has the two most recent national pinot judgements; Mornington Peninsula and Geelong produce wines that regularly place in the top tiers of the same blind shows. The Wine Australia region snapshot for 2025-26 is the source for the variety shares above, and it is worth reading the export data too: 37 per cent of the region's label-claimed bottled exports sat at $20 and over, against 8 per cent for all Australian bottled wine exports, which tells you where the market places these wines.

Read down that table and one thing stands out: every named result belongs to the same small region, and none of them is a self-declared ranking. They are show trophies and scored judgements, each with a body, a year and a field size behind it. That is the standard any claim about "Australia's best" should meet, and most listicles you will find in a search do not.

Which Cellar Doors Pour These Wines?

Giant Steps pours the Applejack pinots in Healesville, Mount Mary's cellar door in the Upper Yarra opens by appointment for its trophy winners, and De Bortoli, Yering Station, Coldstream Hills and Medhurst all pour pinot from their own vineyards on confirmed tour routes. Coldstream Hills' 2018 Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay also holds the region's best sparkling trophy, so the pinot does not stop at the still wines.

The trophy winners are scattered across both halves of the region, which is why a driven day beats self-driving. Mount Mary sits at the cool eastern end; the Lower Yarra cellar doors around Coldstream and Yarra Glen pour the riper, earlier-drinking styles. Yering Station, whose own winemaker Brendan Hawker described his 2025 pinots as having "stunning depth of colour, beautifully ripe tannins and delicate nuance in perfume", is a confirmed stop on several tours, and its historic 1859 winery building is part of the visit.

De Bortoli deserves a specific mention for pinot hunters. Its A5 Chardonnay took the Wine of Provenance trophy at the 2025 regional show across three vintages, and its pinot program is central to the tasting lineup at the cellar door. It is a confirmed stop on the ten-hour small-group day, on the Chandon, Soumah and De Bortoli lunch tour, and on the private car day, which gives you three different formats to reach it.

For a broader tasting day that mixes pinot with the region's other strengths, the Epic Yarra Valley tour is the high-volume option: 5 across 2,047 reviews, from $131.45, eight and a half hours with lunch and hotel pickup, and a gin or beer upgrade for those in the group who want a break from pinot. It suits groups where not everyone is chasing the same grape.

If you would rather build the day around the trophy list itself, the private option is the honest one. The Build-Your-Own Private Winery Day, from $642.58 for up to eleven guests, lets you name the cellar doors, which means you can sequence Mount Mary, Giant Steps and De Bortoli in one day without fitting a group's timetable around your list. It is the format for a serious pinot pilgrimage, and the trio at the end of this article includes it for that reason.

How Do You Taste The Best Pinot Noir In One Day?

Pick a tour whose confirmed stops include at least two trophy-listed producers, start from Melbourne with hotel pickup so nobody has to calculate drink-driving limits, and give the day at least eight hours. The ten-hour small-group format is the strongest fit because it reaches De Bortoli, Yering Station, Coldstream Hills and Medhurst, four producers with current show results, in a single itinerary.

The drink-driving point is not a footnote in Victoria. The general limit is 0.05, and the offence is committed at 0.05 or more, not above it, so one glass past the line is already an offence for a full licence holder. A first infringement at 0.05 to under 0.07 for a driver aged 26 or over means three months off the road, handled without a court appearance. Nobody tasting pinot at four cellar doors should be behind the wheel, and a driven tour removes the arithmetic entirely.

Timing matters less than people assume, but it still matters. Autumn brings harvest energy and the year's new releases are months away; winter means fireplaces and older vintages open at the bench; summer means the busiest cellar doors. For the deeper background on seasons, the best time to visit Yarra Valley wineries guide covers it in full, and the best wines from Yarra Valley companion piece lists the chardonnays and sparkling wines worth tasting alongside the pinots.

A final planning note: cellar door lists change, and the region's landscape moved materially in 2025, with closures and openings on both sides. An operator's current stop list, confirmed stop by confirmed stop, is a more reliable source than any blog post's itinerary, including this one. The itineraries on Yarra Valley Wine Tours are kept to the confirmed stops on each live listing, which is why the named producers above match the tours' own route descriptions.

Whichever format you choose, the three below cover the small-group trophy route, the big-group value day and the fully private build-your-own version, all with free cancellation on their live listings.

Common Questions

What Is Australia's Best Pinot Noir?

On the strongest judged evidence, the Giant Steps 2024 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Yarra Valley, winner of the trophy at the 2025 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge across more than 300 entries from 17 regions. Mount Mary Pinot Noir 2023, the 2026 Halliday Pinot Noir of the Year at 98 points, is the other wine with a current national title.

Is Yarra Valley pinot better than Tasmanian pinot?

Neither region is better by any measurable standard. Tasmania held the Australian Pinot Noir Challenge trophy for five consecutive years and grows a larger share of the national pinot crop; the Yarra Valley took the 2025 trophy and holds the current Halliday pinot title. Blind shows have the two regions trading the top results, which is the honest state of play.

Which Yarra Valley winery won Pinot Noir of the Year?

Mount Mary, whose Pinot Noir 2023 scored 98 points and was named Pinot Noir of the Year in the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion. In the 2027 awards Mount Mary took Wine of the Year overall with its Triolet 2024, a white blend, while Medhurst was named Best Value Winery.

What did the 2025 Australian Pinot Noir Challenge judge?

More than 300 entries from 17 regions, all tasted blind and judged only on pinot noir. The trophy went to Giant Steps' 2024 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir, the first Yarra Valley wine to win it, ending a five-year Tasmanian run.

Can you visit the wineries that make these wines?

Yes. Giant Steps pours in Healesville, and De Bortoli, Yering Station, Coldstream Hills and Medhurst are confirmed stops on driven tours from Melbourne, including the ten-hour small-group day. Mount Mary in the Upper Yarra opens its cellar door by appointment, which is why a private or build-your-own format suits a trophy-focused itinerary.

Why is Yarra Valley pinot expensive?

Supply and fruit cost. The region's estimated 2026 crush fell 31 per cent to 6,766 tonnes, and pinot grapes from the valley averaged $2,869 per tonne against a national all-variety average of $570. Low yields, high fruit prices and strong export demand at $20 and over per bottle explain the cellar door price.