People

In a previous interview, Kerri Thomson suggested if I ever got to Canberra I should talk to Ken Helm. I really enjoy KT’s  riesling so I thought, if she recommends Ken, why not. I was there recently and caught up with him. Ken is of German descent, his great-great grandparents…

Nick Ryan described the masterclass featuring two of Australia’s most reclusive but collectable winemakers, Chris Ringland and Drew Noon, as evidence of the bespoke nature of Tasting Australia’s wine master classes. I attended a few of the ‘East End Cellars’ master classes, enjoyed them all but for me the Ringland…

Just after I posted the interview with Xavier Bizot, Phil Broderick rang me and commented how much he enjoyed Xavier’s interview. One of the things I love about wine is getting to know the diverse people that are involved in the wine trade. Xavier is from a well established wine…

Xavier Bizot once said in an interview that the finest wine he had ever tasted was an Australian wine, a bottle of Penfolds 1962 Bin 60A. This interested me as many of my favourite Australian wines are cabernet shiraz blends. Xavier is part of the extended Bollinger family and I’m…

If you read the local wine press you’d be aware that leading Barossa winemaker, Rick Burge, is putting his business, Burge Family Winemakers, on the market. Rick was diagnosed with cancer in 2013. He got the all clear a year or so ago. Unfortunately the cancer has returned. He says…

One of our favourite things to do on a Friday night is to call into the ‘fall from grace’ wine shop, run by Gill Gordon-Smith in Aldinga. Gill is one of the most interesting people I have come across in the wine trade, she’s an educator, a wine maker and…

The Adelaide Review ‘Hot 100 Wines’ were judged recently at the Regency Park TAFE in Adelaide. These awards are a bit different from others. Judges are not all wine makers, they are wine boffins from diverse fields. Wines are judged on style, and drinkability or what some might say, wines…

A few years ago a friend from Melbourne who knew we had an interest in Pinot brought us over a bottle to try. The wine was very good and the label memorable. I’d heard about William Downie, but never tried any of his wines. He was the Gourmet Traveller Young…

I first met Andrew Caillard as a young cellar hand at Petaluma over thirty years ago. A few years later we caught up again at the 1997 Penfolds ‘Rewards of Patience’ tasting in Adelaide. Andrew was one of six independent international panellists. He has gone on to author the last…

The 2017 Penfolds Collection has just been released. I’ve tried the wines, and thought they were great, but to quote James Halliday, someone who knows a thing or two about these things, they are “Exceptional”. I’d have to agree. One wine that stood out was a wine we could not…

The Royal Adelaide Wine Show is one of the oldest wine shows in Australia, the 140th was judged recently. Andrew Hardy is committee chair and from over the ditch Michael Brajkovich the Chair of Judges. They are supported by six panel chairs, twelve judges including International judge Yoshiji Sato plus ten associate judges. In…

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…