Meet Liz Silkman: Hunter Valley's 2025 Halliday Winemaker of the Year
In 2025, Liz Silkman was named Halliday Winemaker of the Year, the first Hunter Valley winemaker to receive the title from James Halliday's Wine Companion. It's the kind of award that takes a career to build toward and, by her own account, she wasn't expecting it. "Anyone that knows me will attest to the fact that I'm not one for the limelight, so I'm still in shock," she said after the announcement.
From cellar door to chief winemaker
Liz Silkman's path into winemaking started at the cellar door of Pepper Tree Wines, before she moved into a lab technician role at Brokenwood. From there she completed a Graduate Diploma in Oenology at the University of Adelaide and worked vintages across Australia, the United States and New Zealand, building the kind of broad technical grounding that shows up later in a winemaker willing to try something as unfamiliar as Grüner Veltliner in the Hunter Valley.
At Tempus Two, she worked as Assistant Winemaker under Lisa McGuigan, and by 2008 had become Chief Winemaker at First Creek Wines, where she still oversees one of Australia's largest contract winemaking operations, producing over a million cases a year. Silkman Wines runs alongside that job, not instead of it.
Why Silkman Wines exists
Liz and her husband Shaun founded Silkman in 2013 as a small-batch label built on the fruit and decisions they'd choose for themselves. As contract winemakers, they were used to adjusting wines to a client's brief. The label's origin story is a specific version of that frustration: an exceptional Semillon, sweetened at a client's request against their instincts. Silkman was the answer, a project with no brief to follow but their own judgement about what the fruit could become.
Shaun brings a business background to the label, while Liz leads the winemaking, and together they've built Silkman without heavy marketing, growing its reputation through wine show results and word of mouth instead. Every wine in the current lineup, fourteen in total, has scored above 95 points in the Halliday Wine Companion.
The award, and the wine behind it
Alongside Liz's Winemaker of the Year title, the Silkman Blackberry Vineyard Semillon 2023 was named Best Semillon of the Year, scoring 98 points, one of the highest scores given to an Australian Semillon that year. Silkman was also shortlisted for Best Winery 2025. "It's so exciting too for Silkman, to see our little Sem up there as Semillon of the Year, just feels surreal," Liz said. Shaun added, "I couldn't be prouder of Liz for being awarded Halliday Winemaker of the Year. We are both so humbled by this new recognition."
What it means for the Hunter Valley
The Hunter Valley is one of Australia's oldest wine regions, but it has spent recent years being talked about more for its history than its present. A Hunter Valley winemaker taking the country's most watched winemaking award, on the back of a Semillon rather than the bigger, more fashionable reds of other regions, puts the region's signature white style back in front of a national audience. For a label that started as two people making the wine they weren't allowed to make for anyone else, that's a fairly direct vindication.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Liz Silkman?
Liz Silkman is the winemaker behind Silkman Wines in the Hunter Valley, which she founded with her husband Shaun in 2013. She is also Chief Winemaker at First Creek Wines and was named Halliday Winemaker of the Year 2025, the first Hunter Valley winemaker to receive the title.
What did Liz Silkman win in 2025?
She was named Halliday Winemaker of the Year 2025 by James Halliday's Wine Companion. In the same year, the Silkman Blackberry Vineyard Semillon 2023 was named Best Semillon of the Year, scoring 98 points, and Silkman was shortlisted for Best Winery 2025.
What is Silkman Wines?
Silkman is a small-batch Hunter Valley wine label founded in 2013 by Liz and Shaun Silkman, focused on single vineyard Semillon, Chardonnay, Shiraz and Shiraz Pinot Noir blends, alongside newer releases such as Grüner Veltliner. Every wine in the current range has scored above 95 points in the Halliday Wine Companion.
Is Liz Silkman the first Hunter Valley winemaker to win Halliday Winemaker of the Year?
Yes. Her 2025 award made her the first Hunter Valley winemaker to receive the title since James Halliday's Wine Companion began naming a Winemaker of the Year.