People

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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%…

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:…

Martinborough’s about an hours drive North of Wellington. I first went there in the early 90s, it’s become one of my favourite areas for Pinot Noir. Larry McKenna’s wine impressed me from day one. Larry has been referred to by various wine writers and authorities as everything from the ‘Prince of Pinot’…