James Halliday is Australia's most respected wine critic, wine writer and vigneron. He regularly judges at wine shows both in Australia and overseas, and is a leading authority on all aspects of the wine industry.

James has written or contributed to no fewer than 70 books on wine and has been widely published around the world. As a founder of Brokenwood in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, and then Coldstream Hills in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, James provides perspective on the wine world from the planting and pruning of vines through to the creation and marketing of the finished product.

His winemaking has led him to annual sojourns to Bordeaux and Burgundy where he owns a property. In 1995 James was awarded the wine industry's ultimate accolade, the Maurice O'Shea Award and in 2010 James was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the wine industry.