McWilliam's Wines: The rise and fall

A podcast for lovers of wine, beer, liquor (incl. whisky, whiskey, bourbon, gin, vodka, tequila etc) and cocktails, Drinks Adventures hosts wine makers, brewing and distilling experts, sommeliers, bartenders & more.The sale of McWilliam's Wines following some well publicised financial struggles has sparked debate about private equity's involvement in the wine industry.With a rich history of 143 years, McWilliam's is one of Australia's best known family wine companies. It has operations encompassing a huge variety of different wine styles and wine regions stretching the entire breadth of the country.You may also like:Wine episodes on Drinks AdventuresYou've previously met Scott McWilliam on this podcast back in Season Two when we discussed his unique beer/wine hybrid, the Chardonnay IPA.Scott joins me again this episode, together with his relatives Stephen and Chris McWilliam. All three family members were still working in the business at the time of its recent sale.And Stephen gave me access to some really cool archive material that was enough to tempt me to turn this into a documentary-style episode.If you've been listening to this podcast from the very beginning, you'll know that I've previously experimented with the documentary format, most notably with a really popular episode on the history-making feats of Stone & Wood Brewing Company.That was nearly 18 months ago now, so I've sufficiently recovered to attempt another one.Thanks to the McWilliam family for their candid conversation during what has been a pretty tumultuous time.