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In his piece on the recent sale of Mclaren Vale vineyard ’Connor’s Farm’ entitled ‘Best geologies getting record prices’, Philip White referred to the vineyard being tended by master viniculturer, David Gartelmann. A week or so later at a Hickinbotham Wines tasting at Edinburgh Cellars, winemaker Chris Carpenter commented on the…

One of my favourite shots in the Grange Book is of Kim West trying to give a thank you speech at the 50th anniversary dinner of the Mirrabooka Beefsteak and Burgundy club. It was at Jacques Reymond’s restaurant in Melbourne. Westy was doing his best to thank everyone. Right in…

Ed Carr is widely regarded as Australia’s pre-eminent sparkling winemaker. His winemaking career spans over thirty-five years, the last twenty-three with Hardys (now Accolade), where he is the chief Sparkling winemaker looking after Arras, and many other brands such as Bay of Fires, Yarra Burn and Hardys’ Sir James. Australian…

In an earlier interview Dr Liz Thach MW suggested the Australian wine trade would do well to focus on ‘Old Vine Grenache’ in promoting Australian wine in the US. At a recent Grenache tasting of our wine group ’The Old Duffers’ we looked at some of Michael Twelftree’s Grenache and…

In an earlier interview with David Lloyd, winemaker at Eldridge Estate on the Mornington Peninsular he suggested if I ever got down to Coonawarra I should catch up with the ‘Prof’. I have enjoyed Majella wines for years but did not know much about them or that the ‘Prof ‘…

I often find the people who make wine as interesting as the wine they make, it’s one of the reasons I started this web site. Every now and again you come across a really interesting and inspiring story. One such story is Alison Jane Hodder’s  journey in the world of…

Wendouree is considered by many wine lovers to be among the most beautiful and distinctive wines this country has to offer. Years ago we gathered for a weekend in Mildura, with a group of our friends from the eastern states, mainly to have a night at Stefano de Pieri’s restaurant,…

A recent  article by Huon Hooke on Sue Bell reminded me that Sue had been on my list of people to interview for quite some time. Huon’s ‘The Real Review’ piece was about how Sue’s winery Bellwether was crowdfunding to go off grid. Sue’s worked for many years for both Penfolds…

Sommeliers or ‘Somms’ get plenty of comments in the wine press. Wine writer Jeni Port emailed me one day saying “I love your series, particularly the interview with Irina”, at the time she suggested that if I were ever in Newcastle, I should call in on Patrick Haddock at the…

In the early 70’s a flagon of ‘Red Stripe’ was the wine I took along to a party. If it was dinner it was a bottle of Wynn’s Oven’s Valley Burgundy. We didn’t know ‘Red Stripe’ as d’Arenberg, or that d’Arry Osborn had created it. We just called it ’Red…

Photography is an interesting game to be in.  It’s not always the best photograph that’s the most important. For many years Brian Croser commissioned me to shoot a simple vintage group at Petaluma. I shot some significant landscapes, but in a funny way I’m sure these yearly group shots were…

Champagne is the international drink of celebration. As someone involved in the communication industry for a very long time ,the way a single region in France has established itself as one of the strongest single brands in the world, has fascinated me. Australia drinks a lot of champagne. We sit…

If you have ever had a tour of Penfolds Magill Estate Cellars, you would have noticed Grange and St Henri are matured in different sized barrels. In Champagne earlier this year I noticed at Lanson the amount of wood they used to mature the Champagne. I was not so aware of Champagne…

Riesling is one of my favourite white wines, especially those from the Clare and Eden Valleys. Both regions have remarkable diversity even within small geographic regions. Kerri Thompson is very committed to riesling and makes some amazing styles with fruit from two small vineyards in Watervale. She has just celebrated…

The year that I photographed ‘A Year in the Life of Grange’ was 2012. The 2012 vintage has just been released and the reviews are fantastic. One hundred points from Andrew Caillard MW  (Langtons) and many more around this mark. Grange is undoubtably Australia’s most famous wine. Penfolds work very hard…

Andrew Thomas grew up in McLaren Vale but has been making wine in the Hunter Valley for 30 years. I remember being a young press photographer working on The Australian in Sydney in the early 70’s and thinking, the only red wine was big full bodied McLaren Vale or Barossa…

I was in Melbourne setting up for an exhibition of work from the Grange book in February 2015. Luckily for me the Mornington Peninsula International Pinot Noir Celebration was also on that week. I’d heard about the event and decided to shout myself a late Christmas present. I have been to a…

At the recent ‘Young Gun of Wine’ Awards, Michael Downer from the Adelaide Hills winery ‘Murdoch Hill’ was awarded The “Ocean Eight” Winemaker’s Choice. The winemaker’s choice is selected by all the finalists. Being selected by your peers is probably the most sought after honour in any industry – Michael…

One of my favourite white wines is Tyrrells Vat 1 semillon. First tried it in the mid 90’s. We had driven up to Sydney with a box of wine for a celebration dinner with friends at Tetsuya’s. The day of the dinner we realised we had only South Aussie reds…

I have always thought photography and winemaking had a lot in common. You need a lot of technical knowledge, but also a passion to create something unique. At a certain level both are a bit like an art or a craft. Winemaker Kevin Judd in New Zealand combines the two…

In her 2003 ‘The Age’ article on Australia’s finest winemakers Jeni  Port asked 50 Australian winemakers, educators, wine buyers and sommeliers to name their top three living wine makers. The voting was very close – only a few votes separated the top three winemakers, John Vickery, Rick Kinzbrunner and Brian…

You often hear people mention wines that are very special to them. They are often not the greatest wines they have ever had, but special because of who they were with and where they were when they shared them. One such wine for me is the 1985 Seppelts Great Western…

In our last interview Emmanuelle Bekkers said that one of the reasons she made wine at Yangarra was the sorting table. Hiro Kusuda takes sorting to a new level, he berry sorts. A day’s hand picking takes another 3 days to pick out the bad berries . I first came…

I often get emails from followers of our web site suggesting someone I should interview. One sometime ago was from a friend Michael Steele who suggested Emmanuelle Bekkers, from Bekkers Wines at McLaren Vale. I had heard of Emma and knew she came from France, but I did not know…

Whenever we travel overseas, we always take along wine for our family and friends. We usually take Australian sparkling shiraz, as you don’t see it much in other countries. This year we took along Castagna Sparking Genesis Syrah, made by Julian Castagna. It’s one of our favourite sparklers. Julian had been been…

We were at Joe’s Cafe at Henley Beach earlier in the year. Joe’s is a ten minute drive out of the Adelaide CBD and  our absolute favourite place for an after walk or swim coffee. That morning we bumped into Hazel Murphy and Annie Knappstein. Hazel was the Australian Wine…

Great news!  Wine Ten Questions has a new sponsor and over two thousand subscribers.  Wine Australia like what we are doing and have come on board as a sponsor.  We are extremely appreciative of the support from all our sponsors. The sponsorships mean that the site will be able to…

In the last interview Dr Liz Thach commented on a few things Australian winemakers might consider when exporting to the USA. One of the things Liz mentioned was ‘Old Vine Grenache’, a favourite of Michael Twelftree, who runs Two Hands Wines in the Barossa Valley. The winery exports over 30%…

I attended the Wine Industry Marketing Conference at Uni SA late last month. Even though I don’t produce, market or sell wine, I’ve had a long time interest in the world of wine. I found the day extremely interesting. One of the sessions I found fascinating was Dr Liz Thach’s.…

Phillip White finished his recent  Drinkster  ‘EXMESS REFRESHMENTS’    guide with the following review… Now for some real torture. Forget the Exmess pudding. You can drink it. It’s called Chambers Rosewood Vineyards Rutherglen Rare Muscat ($350-$400 for .375 ml., 18% alcohol; screw cap). It’ll change your brain forever. It’s prickly to sniff:…