Steve Pannell has once again won a national title, along with Koomilya vineyard, being named Rosé of the Year in the Halliday Wine Companion 2027, scoring 96 points for his 2025 Mataro Rosé.
As a well respected name in the wine industry, Steve was previously named Australia’s Vigneron of the Year by The Real Review, earlier this year.
He owes the success to being one of the few people to take Rosé seriously, rather than an afterthought.
“So many people make rosé cheaply with leftover grapes rather than actually going about making a really high-quality rosé.”
The $55 wine uses fruit from century-old Mataro vines, grapes Pannell says could just as easily have gone into an expensive red wine, as part of his determination to treat rosé as a serious wine rather than an afterthought.
The wine has a distinctly Australian flavour profile, with notes of rose petal, peach, pink grapefruit, pink peppercorn, native flowers, lilly pilly, five spice and what the tasting notes describe as “pink sand” and “dusty roads”.
Only around 150 cases are produced from a small parcel of Mataro that had originally been destined for red wine. Inspired by the Mourvèdre-based rosés of Bandol in southern France, Pannell decided to instead use the fruit to create a rosé of his own.
Pannell’s ambition goes beyond producing an award-winning bottle. He wants to change the way Australians think about rosé altogether, arguing the style deserves the same attention given to the country’s best reds.
“It probably should be the most important white wine in this country.”
“We’ve been doing it for a few years and it’s just picked up more and more people, and it’s lifting the profile of rosé so that people can take it more seriously.”
Steve said people always question why he makes three rosé types, but he makes ten reds that nobody thinks twice about.
“A lot of people will make a red wine and then whatever grapes they’ve left over, ‘Oh, I’ll just turn it into rosé.'”
“But because it’s quite a simple wine, it’s the same as cooking, the quality of the ingredients that you use is fundamental to the quality of the wine.”
“We don’t add sugar to them, it’s just the fruit of the wines, which is not what happens with a lot of commercial rosé.”
For Pannell, the goal is to create Australian rosé that can compete with the best in the world, while encouraging people to support local producers and reduce the environmental impact of importing wine from overseas.
Last year Steve and his team won Shiraz of the Year, and prior to that Cabernet of the Year off the same vineyard.
“I don’t think there’s a vineyard in Australia that has done all those three things.”
The team were delighted at the news of winning the accolade, and cementing their spot as one of the best places to grow the nations best wine
“I just wish people took it seriously because it’s such a great wine.”
For more about the wine, click here.
To view all the award winners click here.
