Vininspo! podcast

Ernst Loosen is one of the most recognisable global figures in wine. This indefatigable ambassador for Mosel Riesling pops up all over the place to spread the gospel according to this most versatile of grapes. Dr Loosen has managed to pull off something special as a brand and a domaine: quality at scale and a range of grand-cru bottlings that faithfully express some of the planet’s most breathtaking sites without costing the earth. There’s plenty there to admire, but as a fan of German precision, I wanted to put a more practical question to Erni this time.Erni has been at the helm of the Dr Loosen estate in Bernkastel since the late 1980s. In his time in charge, he has revived lesser-known, ancient German customs by “innovating” with patiently raised, balanced dry wines while respecting the valley’s traditions with precisely delineated off-dry to lusciously sweet styles. When you take into account that Dr Loosen makes single-site wines from 11 grands crus spread across several villages and encompassing all Prädikats, the logistics get quickly complicated. I just wanted to know: Come vintage time, how the heck does he marshal his pickers to get it all done?What follows is the preamble to the podcast, so if you listen to that, you needn’t read this (although it may help familiarise you with place and category names). Similarly, the video below is the interview segment of the podcast, so if you’re reading this, watch that and ignore the podcast. Got it?!The Mosel Valley is in Germany’s west. It’s named after the Mosel River, which rises as the Moselle in the Vosges mountains in France. In Germany, it twists its way up to join the Rhine River at Koblenz. The Upper Mosel, or Obermosel, crosses the border into Germany and winds its way up to the city of Trier. Around here, you have the famous tributaries of the Saar and Ruwer, both of which are home to famous producers and distinctive wines; this area is referenced in my podcast with Cornelius Dönnhoff and Philipp Wittmann.At the opposite end, at the river’s northern tip, you have the Untermosel, or Terrassenmosel, known for its towering stone terraces. This is where you’ll find Heymann-Löwenstein, in honour of whose renegade founder, Reinhard Löwenstein, I penned this tribute. And in between, you have the Mittelmosel, or Middle Mosel. Here, you will find Weingut Dr Loosen and its famous sites.Erni has grand-cru vineyards—the German is Grosse Lagen—in several villages. Travelling downriver, these are Bernkastel, Graach, Wehlen, Ürzig, Erden, Lösnich, Kinheim and Bremm. Using the German convention of adjectivising the place name and prefixing it to the vineyard name, the Grosse Lagen are Bernkasteler Lay, Bernkasteler Johannisbrünchen, Graacher Himmelreich, Graacher Domprobst, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Ürziger Würzgarten, Erdener Prälat, Erdener Treppchen, Lösnicher Försterlay, Kinheimer Rosenberg and Bremmer Calmont.The Mosel is Germany’s oldest winegrowing region, with the Romans bringing vines here 2000 years ago. In 1787, the Archbishop of Trier decreed that Riesling replace all inferior vines in the valley. A century later, Germany’s Riesling wines were the most revered and sought-after on the planet. All kinds of things went pear-shaped for Germany in the 20th century, and it also shot itself in the foot with wine laws that undermined the primacy of good farming and the supremacy of Riesling and other quality grapes. These days, Riesling is back where it belongs: No. 1 in Germany. It accounts for just over 62% of the Mosel vineyard.Mosel Riesling is the world’s most distinctive rendition of this grape, and that distinctiveness is borne of hugely specific circumstances, to which the river valley is key. This is a cool, continental climate at high European latitudes. That makes it marginal for ripening Riesling grapes (please refer to my interview with Jason Lett of The Eyrie Vineyards in Oregon for a fantastic explanation of marginality). Though relatively cool, summer days are long, with, hopefully, plenty of sunlight bringing intense, bright flavours to the grapes, which—though they achieve relatively low sugar and therefore potential alcohol levels—hang on the vine for a long time, developing surprising depth.Because water cools more slowly than land, the river helps extend the growing season by delaying the onset of properly cold weather. It also reflects light onto the photosynthesising vines. On the river’s banks, the vines climb steep slopes, ideal for intercepting more light. As you drive up the valley, it’s obvious that most of the planted slopes share the same orientation, facing predominantly south for maximum sunshine in the northern hemisphere.The soils are mostly slate, although Ürziger Würzgarten is extremely rare with its red volcanic rock. These extremely stony soils retain and reradiate heat. This exceptional set of circumstances combines to ensure slow but complete ripeness in a cool place where acidity will naturally be high and grape sugars comparatively low.The steep, stony slopes are not conducive to machinery, and hand-harvesting is a key Mosel custom that Erni and I discuss: grape selection for different wine styles. Another factor giving rise to strict selection is botrytis cinerea, or noble rot. Humidity from the river gives rise to misty autumn mornings, when the fungus begins to attack the grapes, puncturing the skins and causing water loss, thus concentrating flavours, sugars and acids. So long as the grapes stay otherwise healthy, with warm, stable afternoons to dry them out, this can reap benefits and is the key to nobly sweet wines such as Tokaji and Sauternes.This brings us to the point of this interview. The Mosel Valley is the wine region that most fully exploits the full Prädikat spectrum. So called because the style of wine is predicated on a minimum must weight—that is to say, the amount of sugar in the must at the time of harvest, measured in degrees Oechsle—the Prädikat system spans six categories. Starting with the lightest style, Kabinett, the other five Prädikats, in ascending order of minimum must weight, are Spätlese, Auslese, Eiswein, Beerenauslese (BA for short), and Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA).Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese can all be dry; therefore, the amount of alcohol and residual sweetness in these wines varies according to the winemaker’s aims. When Erni talks about declassifying fruit, he means that grapes that qualify for Spätlese and above automatically meet the minimum must weight for Kabinett. In the Mosel, you have the option to “declassify” these grapes to the “lower” category of Kabinett, but Erni explains that this would do a disservice to the category and the customer. (Incidentally, his anecdote about the Vinea Wachau, where declassification is outlawed, involves Emmerich Knoll, who crops up in this Austrian Riesling piece).Beerenauslese and Eiswein have the same minimum must weight and are always sweet; the former relies on botrytis to concentrate its sugars, the latter is harvested when fully frozen. This removes water from the equation during pressing, yielding extremely high must weights. Highly rare, expensive Trockenbeerenauslese is made from the highest-quality, totally shivelled, botrytised berries.The other style we talk about is the GGs, or Grosses Gewächs wines. A GG is the top dry wine from a grand-cru vineyard (Grosse Lage) by a member of the VDP. Dr Loosen, Wittmann, Dönnhoff and Gunderloch are all members of this private band of quality-focused growers. Again, there is more context on this in my interviews with Cornelius, Philipp and Johannes Hasselbach of Gunderloch. In the six-minute video embedded above, Erni talks about the terroir of three of his GGs: Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Ürziger Würzgarten and Erdener Treppchen. It’s highly illuminating and not as dry as it sounds, I promise.Finally, Erni mentions some of the estate’s wine-growing preferences here, such as excluding botrytis-affected grapes from the Kabinett and GG wines. The estate’s Kabinett and Spätlese wines always have residual sweetness (as a rough guide, usually just above 40g/L of residual grape sugar for the Kabinett and 60-ish for the Spätlese). The Auslese wines comprise roughly 50% healthy and 50% botrytised berries and come in with roughly 90g/L residual sugar. Remember, though, that such wines have extremely high acidity to balance this.If it isn’t already obvious, Erni is something of a maverick, and he produces a couple of sub-genres of GG that sort of shouldn’t exist. These are dry grand-cru wines with extra ageing in barrel and bottle before release, and they’re labelled GG Réserve and GG Homage.I’d like to extend my thanks to Erni Loosen for the generosity with which he has always shared his time and wisdom, and to the Dr Loosen team, who were responsible for most of the superb images on the video version of this podcast. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Dubious logic first led Scott Wasley to Spain. First, he figured planes jetting into Sydney for the 2000 Olympics would, once emptied of their sporting spectators, be offering cheap flights back to Europe. And second, he was drinking a slightly stale dry Sherry when that fateful miscalculation fuelled his travel plans with sommelier pal Peter Healy. An Iberian adventure was the seemingly inevitable upshot.What wasn’t remotely inevitable at that stage was that Scott would go on to found Australia’s foremost importer of wines from Spain and Portugal. Based in Melbourne, The Spanish Acquisition hasn’t exactly ridden the Spanish wine renaissance wave over the last 25 years. Instead, the relationship has been somewhat symbiotic, and the pulse of that wave has quickened in tandem with TSA’s rise. Vino de España was barely a puddle in Australia at the turn of the century. In overseas markets generally, modern Spanish wine was far more “modern”—big, ripe, extracted, oaky and red—than it was Spanish. It was only beginning to find its identity and mojo following the slump brought on by the regime of dictator Francisco Franco, who ruled from 1939 until his death in 1975.The new millennium has seen a revolution, and it seems the buzz around Spanish wine is at its loudest right now. My interview with Scott is partly the story of his Iberian Peninsula initiation and partly how the wave has swelled. Along the way, there are many local and personal references, which will be useful to clarify here.The most famous of those are Paul Keating, former Labor Party leader who served as Australia’s 24th Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996, and the late Roland S. Howard, celebrated both as a solo artist and as a member of the Nick Cave-fronted post-punk outfit The Birthday Party. (Scott wore a band t-shirt for the interview.)In the Aussie hospitality scene, Scott mentions working at Universal, the erstwhile Adelaide wine bar of Shaw + Smith winery co-founder Michael Hill-Smith, alongside Scott’s mentor, Duncan Miller. La Corvina is the now-defunct bar in the Melbourne seaside suburb of St Kilda, where Scott was handed the keys by Michael Kennedy.In the same suburb was The George Hotel, whose burgeoning ’90s wine scene was mentioned in my conversation with Matt Paul of the Italian wine importer, Trembath & Taylor, in episode 29. The trajectory of Matt and his former boss, Michael Trembath, is discussed, as is that of my former boss, Patrick Walsh, founder of the importer CellarHand and my guest on episode 4. Further Victorian importers starting around that time were Pinot NOW founder Steve Naughton and Euan McKay, who runs an eponymous wholesaler.Melbourne restaurateurs Andrew McConnell of Trader House and Guy Grossi, who called time on 26 years at CBD institution Grossi Florentino in 2025, also crop up. Other wine friends of Scott’s include former sommelier Peter Healy, who travelled with him to Spain, and Peter Bessey, who was instrumental in the decision to start TSA.A third Peter turns up when we get to Spain: Peter Sisseck, founder of Dominio de Pingus in Ribera del Duero. He forms a monumentally influential trio with Álvaro Palacios and Telmo Rodríguez. The latter two’s projects are so numerous and scattered that it’s hard to keep up, but Álvaro’s name is connected to Palacios Remondo in Rioja, Álvaro Palacios in Rioja and Priorat, and Descendientes de J. Palacios in Bierzo, the last with his nephew Ricardo. Telmo’s famed family estate in Rioja is Remelluri, while other projects include Bodega Lanzaga in Rioja, Ladeiras do Xil in Valdeorras (Galicia), Molino Real in Málaga (Andalucía), Pegaso (Sierra de Gredos) and Al-Muvedre (Valencia).In Jerez that first time, Scott was hosted by Jane Ward of the Sherry bodega Lustau. In Priorat, he visited and counted as an early principal Capçanes, and also met Sara Perez, then of Mas Martinet and later Sara Perez i René Barbier in neighbouring DO Montsant.For more context on the grape varieties Mencía and Albariño, I recommend listening to my excellent conversation with Noah Chichester of the Wines of Galicia Substack for episode 5 (plus a bonus). The Spanish Acquisition website is also a treasure trove of information on Spanish and Portuguese wines.I spoke to Scott on the eve of a Sherry tasting at Prince Wine Store, which also houses a restaurant called Bellota (Spanish for acorn—a food gorged on by pigs that become delicious ham). Speaking of Sherry, Scott has conceived his own, a superb en rama bottling called Albero that sports a label designed by his wife, the artist Leah Teschendorff.And finally, here’s what was on the drinks list for Scott and Leah that night: a sparkling wine from Raventós i Blanc in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, Cataluña; a dry, unfortified white from the Palomino grape bottled under the Manuel Antonio de la Riva label, a Sherry bodega revived by Willy Peréz and Ramiro Ibañez; and a red wine based on the Mandó grape from Celler del Roure in Valencia. ¡Salud! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

The best way to enjoy this episode is to watch the video, which comes complete with subtitles, maps and other visuals. I urge you to watch it; you'll find it at edmerrison.substack.com. Don't forget to follow along with happenings on Instagram, too: @vininspo.wineSo, when Bryan Adams was getting his first real six-string, Guillaume Michel’s grandfather Louis was kissing goodbye to his last oak barrel. Two pivotal moments during the summer of ‘69 right there; one led to a cheesy soft-rock catalogue, the other to a library of flinty, pure Chardonnay. I know which repertoire I prefer.This domaine in the heart of the village of Chablis is a reference point. “Those who favour stainless steel want the purest flavour of Chablis, with the firm streak of acidity and the mineral quality that the French describe as goût de pierre à fusil, or gunflint,” goes the entry in the Oxford Companion to Wine, before declaring: “Louis Michel’s is generally considered to be the epitome of this style.”I’ve known its current custodian, Guillaume, for over a decade and work for his Australian importer, CellarHand. His good humour, exceptional English and incredible vineyard holdings in the historic heart of the appellation convinced me that he is the ideal guest for an in-depth discussion of the lie of the land and the wines it produces.The purpose of this 45-minute video is to start with the historical and geographical basics—climate, topography, geology, etc.—and delve deeper into the subtleties of terroir and how to mitigate challenges to maximise its expression in the glass. Much of this is objective, some is subjective, but I hope it is all, somehow, instructive, adding to a listener’s understanding and, crucially, enjoyment.Guillaume sprinkles the domaine’s specifics through our conversation, but in a nutshell, premier and grand cru wines account for 70% of production at this 25-hectare estate, turning the norm for the region on its head. He owns vines in the Left Bank premiers crus Montmains, Forêts, Vaillons, Séchets and Butteaux (plus a separate parcel bottled as Butteaux Vieilles Vignes), and the Right Bank premiers crus Vaulorent and Montée de Tonnerre. The domaine also produces Grand Cru Chablis from parcels in Grenouilles, Les Clos and Vaudésir.There’s a particularly enlightening segment about flag-bearing premiers crus. This refers to the practice of grouping a family of premier cru sites under a headline or banner climat. Wines carrying the flag-bearer’s name could contain grapes from various sub-climats within the family, or just from the flag-bearing climat or, indeed, a sub-climat within the group that enjoys less fame than the flag-bearer. We discuss Guillaume’s Forêts, Butteaux and Montmain wines, all of which are grown on the Montmain hill. Séchets and Vaillons grow on the Vaillons hill. On the Right Bank, Vaulorent is part of the Fourchaume premier cru grouping, and Montée de Tonnerre is a flag-bearing premier cru.The maps help illustrate this, and my thanks go out to the Bourgogne Wine Board (BIVB) for its assistance with visual material. It is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Burgundy’s wines. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Get every Vininspo! episode as soon as it drops on Substack: edmerrison.substack.com; follow on Instagram: @vininspo.wineJane Thomson still gets grossly underestimated. Her substance, strength and sensitivity—not to mention a grasp of behavioural psychology that is so rare in the industry—make a mockery of those who dismiss her Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society as mere froth and bubbly. When I interviewed her last month, Jane had just returned from New York, where she was a delegate at the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70) at the United Nations headquarters. That invitation to the UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality came just a couple of years after she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to women in the oenology sector.Nonetheless, there is a sense that—in the fragmented world of wine—the founder and chief executive of the Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society might still go unnoticed in certain circles of the wine community. She is perhaps the victim of a general tendency to pigeonhole people and a more specific, maybe sexist, propensity for wine not to take fun seriously, particularly where women are involved.The enjoyment factor among the 10,000 members of Jane’s organisation belies the fact that it does a great deal of important work. Aside from the value of companionship and moral support, this group has brought attention to various inequalities in the Australian wine scene, from gender pay disparities to grave issues with retaining women in the workforce as viticulturists, cellar hands and winemakers. It also spearheaded the Australian Women in Wine Awards (AWIWA), first held in 2015, which has since evolved into the Australian Women in Wine movement, whose flagship event is the Australian Women in Wine National Symposium. It also supports the wine sector by offering high-engagement tours, tastings, and dinners that drive sales.Jane and I cover all these facets in our conversation, and there is little need for additional context. However, there are some names that mightn’t be familiar to a non-Australian listener. When discussing the launch of AWIWA, Jane mentions wine writer Jeni Port and her 2001 book, Crushed by Women. Among clients of the Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society, Jane mentions Louise Hemsley-Smith, co-owner of Battle of Bosworth in McLaren Vale, and Emma Raidis of Raidis Estate in Coonawarra.We also discuss the path to implementing the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in Wine (DEIW) Charter and accompanying Gender Equity Toolkit, developed by industry bodies Wine Australia and Australian Grape & Wine.One positive influence who emerges much earlier in Jane’s life is Australian psychologist, social researcher and writer Hugh Mackay. On the negative side, as our chat turns towards those who promote inequality, Australia’s tiny-minded, right-wing populist political party, One Nation, crops up. Cory Bernardi, Australian politician and leader of One Nation South Australia, is invoked as a “big name”, but maybe you have never heard of him, and hopefully you never will. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Get all these stories as soon as they drop bt subscribing to ed.merrison.substack.comFollow on Instagram: @vininspo.wineThere’s a moment in our interview where Stephen Wong talks about playing twin tracks of his life in tandem, a micro-focused intellectual yin and an expansive, warmly hospitable yang, perhaps. Had the yin lacked the yang, perhaps he would have remained a respectable barrister and had his life mapped out for him, just as it was for his Singaporean boarding school classmates. As it happened, chance encounters with Central Otago winemakers and a student job in a Thai restaurant turned this brilliant mind onto wine, in all its aesthetic, scientific, historical, sociological and cultural glory. Wine fought the law, and the wine won.Stephen is a Wellington-based Master of Wine, and Wine Sentience is effectively the business banner under which he carries out his roles as consultant, educator, wine judge, reviewer, presenter, and more. I’ve known of Stephen for a long time, but we finally met in November 2025 as panel chairs at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show in Mildura. Each of our conversations felt tantalisingly short because so many interesting threads emerged, demanding to be tugged on. I suspect everyone who speaks to Stephen experiences the same thing.No surprise, then, that this conversation ran a little long. There are quite a few names that come up; I will try to cover most of them in these show notes. Among early influences in New Zealand, Stephen mentions his fellow MW and Real Review contributor Jane Skilton, as well as winemaker Carol Bunn (once dubbed the queen of Central Otago Pinot), wholesale wine rep Christine Comerford, hospitality doyenne Wendy Morgan (née Hillyer), late wine critic Raymond Chan, late industry giant John Follas, Gibbston Valley founder Alan Brady and Quartz Reef winemaker Rudi Bauer (both in Central Otago).Speaking of the Master of Wine, Stephen mentions the first seminar he attended in Australia, hosted by Andrew Caillard MW, at which he encountered Ned Goodwin MW, Andrea Pritzker MW (my guest on episode 2) and Sydney sommelier Sophie Otton. Dr Liz Thach MW is the wine writer he namechecks from his eye-opening first trip to Napa.In the segment about “natural wine”—taken here to loosely connote wines free from additions or compulsions to be strait-laced adherents to the edicts of the conventional or mainstream scene—Stephen mentions the influential MW and RAW Wine founder Isabelle Legeron MW. Henry Hariyono, then of Artisan Cellars, was the influential natural wine and grower Champagne aficionado who introduced Stephen to the wines of Jacques Selosse and Marie Courtin. The wines of Joško Gravner and the late Stanko Radikon are mentioned when we talk about the inaptitude of the existing wine lexicon to describe orange and natural wines; the same goes for the Pinot Noir of Burgundy’s Philippe Pacalet.On a more traditional level, great Côte d’Or producers include Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé, Domaine des Comtes Lafon, Domaine Armand Rousseau, Domaine Georges Roumier, and Domaine Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier. The expression Parker wines refers to the oft-cited, outsized influence of the critic Robert Parker (founder of The Wine Advocate) and his penchant for big, rich, ripe wines.Finishing with the contemporary New Zealand scene, Stephen mentions the recent deaths of Dog Point co-founder James Healy and Tim Finn of Neudorf, whose wife Judy joined me for episode 34. Elephant Hill (Hawke’s Bay), Seresin, Fromm and Churton (all Marlborough) are cited as famous wineries for sale. When Stephen talks of the rise of the cru or lieu-dit in New Zealand—sites that make a name for themselves with wines of consistently high quality and discernible character—he mentions Churton, as well as Wrekin (Marlborough), Calvert (Central Otago) and Two Terraces (Hawke’s Bay), as well as the terroir-led endeavours of Smith + Sheth and Pyramid Valley, both of which count Steve Smith MW (episode 16) as their modern mastermind.In other matters, Stephen mentions reviewing the VDP’s Grosses Gewächs (grand-cru dry bottlings) wines; you can hear more about Germany’s VDP from my chat with Cornelius Dönnhoff and Philipp Wittmann. Finally, we have a fascinating discussion about alternative ways to convey and communicate wine, where Stephen talks about the tech solution he worked on, Stompy/TasteMPR, with his old university friend, Andy Williams. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Don't miss an episode! Subscribe on SubstackInstagram: @vininspo.wineFelicity Carter is in demand. It would probably be better for us wine-lovers if she weren’t—but if anyone is fit to report on a wine industry in crisis, it’s this globe-trotting journalist who’s made it her business to cover the business of wine from all angles..Australia-born Felicity resides in Germany, where she served for many years as the editor-in-chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International. She joined the publication when it had 800 subscribers and, harnessing a team of correspondents, turned it into an indispensable trade magazine read in 38 countries. The publication closed in June 2025, four years after Felicity called time on her 12-year stint there.These days, Felicity reports on all things drinks on her Substack, Drinks Insider, which has a podcast element. Last year, she won the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award for Best Audio for an episode that aired on its sub-podcast, Wine + Health. The subject of that episode was the alcohol J-curve—the idea that moderate consumption has a positive health impact, while harms rise precipitously as intake increases. Felicity’s robust interview with Professor Tim Stockwell, who has become the central figure in attempts to debunk the J-curve, is highly recommended and can be found here.Felicity and I discuss this subject at length, as well as the serious harms associated with excessive alcohol consumption and her mission to provide balance to an argument that is increasingly skewed towards “denormalising” drinking and treating alcohol like tobacco. Another fascinating area of Felicity’s reporting has been on the reinvention of historic temperance groups as public health bodies, such as Movendi International. We speak about how an alliance of activists, scientists and NGOs attempts to influence policy.One strong voice on the other side of the argument is Argentina’s Dr Laura Catena, the physician and fourth-generation vigneron who serves as managing director of Bodega Catena Zapata in Mendoza. Felicity mentions Dr Catena when she reels off her recent speaking duties. We also discuss another source of balance to this argument: Unati (University of Navarra Alumni Trialist Initiative), which seeks to establish whether there is such a thing as healthy drinking via a randomised clinical trial.Our conversation also delves into marketing, a key subject on the Question of Drinks podcast that Felicity co-hosts with the UK-based founder of Wine Intelligence, Lulie Halstead. Marketing and research also fall within the remit of London-headquartered fine-wine think tank Areni Global. Felicity is the group’s editorial director and alludes to Areni Global co-founder Nicole Rolet. We discuss a recent research project undertaken by Areni executive director Pauline Vicard in collaboration with Berry Bros & Rudd, 67 Pall Mall and LVMH Vins d’Exception.A couple of other references that need explaining are Edward Slingerland’s book, whose excellent subtitle I couldn’t recall, Drunk—How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilisation, and Felicity’s interview with Kirk French, the Penn State professor who developed the hugely popular Anthropology of Alcohol (aka Booze and Culture) course. We also mention T-shirtgate, a mischievous reference to the controversy surrounding a group of future leaders of the Aussie wine industry—the Coonawarra Vignerons’ Next Crop cohort—who landed in hot water for appearing in a photograph wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan Drink More, Die Younger. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

“1663 is just a number,” Philipp Wittmann tells me, and in some ways it is. But also, 350-plus years of growing fruit in your village is likely to give you some kind of edge. The Dönnhoff family’s farming roots in the Nahe are shallower—a mere 270 years—and it’s true that it was Cornelius’s father, the preternaturally gifted Helmut Dönnhoff, who shot this estate to fame. Cornelius and his friend Philipp are among the world’s best growers of white wine, and their ideas have all the cut, clarity and refreshment factor of their Rieslings.This fantastic conversation took place when the men heading Weingut Wittmann in Westhofen in the Rheinhessen and Weingut Dönnhoff in the Nahe were visiting their Australian importer, CellarHand—my part-time employer, whose support made this episode possible. We sat down for an hour-long chat in which I grilled them on their respective regions, villages and sites, their approaches to Riesling and ‘the Burgundy varieties’ (Weissburgunder or Pinot Blanc, Grauburgunder or Pinot Gris, plus Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) and their overarching thoughts on German and global fine wine that professes to express its origin.Though, of course, there is specific and esoteric material here, I have deliberately recorded this with a broad audience in mind. Yes, those with an interest in German wine have the most to gain, but as is always the case with Vininspo!, I fervently believe that these topics provide context for a broader appreciation of wine and the world—a lens through which to view it with more colour, definition and delight. This episode should serve as a conversation starter, or furtherer, in itself.Speaking of context, though, it’s best to go into this knowing a few things about the estates and their wines. Weingut Wittmann is situated south of Nackehnheim, the Rhine-front Rheinhessen region from which Johannes Hasselbach hails, and east of Oberhausen an der Nahe, home of the Dönnhoff estate. Eleventh-generation winegrower Philipp has vines in a couple of Grosse Lagen (grand-cru designated sites) in Nierstein, the neighbouring village to Nackenheim, but his main vineyard sources are in Westhofen, where you’ll find his Grosse Lagen Aulerde, Kirchspiel, Brunnenhäuschen and Morstein. He has one other grand cru, Höllenbrand, on the similarly limestone-rich soils of Gundersheim.Philipp is married to the hugely talented Eva Clüsserath, whom he met at the famous Geisenheim University in the Rheingau region on the right bank of the Rhine, north of Nahe/Rheinhessen. Eva is in charge of her family’s Ansgar Clüsserath estate in the village of Trittenheim in the Mosel Valley. We briefly discuss these wines.Cornelius Dönnhoff’s sites in the Nahe Valley are only about a 45-minute drive west of Philipp, but the soils, climate and landscape are very different. The Nahe River snakes its way up to join the Rhine at Bingen, opposite Rüdesheim in the Rheingau. Cornelius lists his villages/sites as you head up the river, i.e. heading south/southwest from its confluence with the Rhine. We talk about the following vineyards: Höllenpfad in Roxheim; Kahlenberg and Krötenpfuhl in Bad Kreuznach; Dellchen and Kirschheck in Norheim; Klamm and Hermannshöhle in Niederhasuen; Leistenberg and Brücke in Oberhausen; and Kupfergrube and Felsenberg in Schlossböckelheim.With his Nahe vineyards severely hit by frost in 2024, Cornelius sourced grapes from Philipp and from their friend Nicola Libelli, winemaker at the Dr Bürklin-Wolf estate in the Pfalz region, to the south of Rheinhessen.We inevitably discuss German wine labels and law, but please don’t be put off! It is articulated well. There is some discussion of the notorious German Wine Law of 1971. This enshrined the practice of predicating (hence the word Prädikat) German quality levels upon the ripeness of the grapes at harvest.Kabinett is the lightest, followed by Spätlese and Auslese. Crucially, all these wines can be dry or sweet, depending on the winemaker’s choice. (Usually, it boils down to whether he or she decides to stop the fermentation before the yeasts consume all the sugars.) Since Auslese is made with the ripest grapes, the sweetest ones can be fully sweet or luscious, while Kabinett tends to be dry, off-dry or semi-dry, and Spätlese is never sweet enough to be a dessert wine.The Germans also refer to these wines with residual sweetness as “fruity”, as opposed to dry. Dönnhoff is a master of all these styles, and Cornelius explains the challenge well. Eiswein, Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese are the ripest Prädikat styles, all lusciously sweet, and the latter two are made with nobly rotten (botrytised) grapes.Wittmann and Dönnhoff are both members of the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter). This is an association of 200-odd winegrowers, whose mission in recent decades has been to address some of the “unfortunate consequences” of that ’71 law. We discuss these in the podcast, along with the VDP’s aim to emphasise origin and quality grape-growing practices as key determinants of quality. The VDP quality pyramid contains four ascending tiers as fruit origin decreases in size and increases in pedigree: Gutswein (estate), Ortswein (village), Erste Lage (Premier Cru) and Grosse Lage (grand cru). A VDP member’s top dry wine from a Grosse Lage is labelled as a Grosses Gewächs or GG. This is a public episode. 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I don’t remember when I first became aware of Eyrie’s existence. It just isn’t possible to interact with Pinot Noir obsessives without this domaine coming to your attention. It owes its existence to a pioneering pinotphile who bet the farm on the entirely untested potential of the Dundee Hills to grow wines whose long-lived beauty would resonate across the globe. The Willamette Valley is now one of the stars around which the Pinot world revolves, and The Eyre Vineyards lies at its core.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.My first conversation with Jason came a couple of years ago. It was an information-gathering exercise back then; the kind of chat where you’re digging for facts, not words of wisdom. But I was struck by how clearly his thoughts—from an incisive, open mind that didn’t profess to be right about everything—deserved to be weighed by a far wider audience.The estate was founded in 1965 by David Lett and his wife, Diana. It’s impossible to talk about Eyrie without delving into the character nicknamed Papa Pinot, and Jason shares plenty of insight on the estate’s foundations. The handover of the reins was a protracted, sometimes difficult, process, and Jason took the lead at Eyrie in 2005. That was three years before David’s death, after which Jason and Diana continued as co-owners. He pays tribute to his mother’s enormous contribution here.If Oregon hasn’t been on your radar, this conversation offers excellent insight and context. However, a few names warrant explanation. Jason talks about what David Lett learned at the University of California, Davis, including his close friendships with men who went on to establish estates in the Willamette Valley: Charles Coury (Charles Coury Vineyard) and Bill Fuller (Tualatin Vineyards). He also mentions David Adelsheim, who worked at Eyrie and went on to found Adelsheim Vineyard in 1971, the same year that Bill Blosser, also mentioned, planted the first vines at Sokol Blosser in the Dundee Hills.Jason refers to Victor Pulliat’s book, Mille Variétés de Vignes, Description et Synonymies, which was instrumental in David Lett’s choice to plant Melon de Bourgogne, Muscat Ottonel, Meunier, Riesling and Gewürztraminer alongside his Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. These were classified as Period One grapes, meaning they could ripen in the coolest climates where winegrowing was considered viable. Jason has since opted against Riesling and Gewürz and added Trousseau, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and Chasselas to the roster. This last one was noticed by prominent Swiss viticulture researcher and family friend, Werner Koblet.Other important influences referenced are André Tchelistcheff, the long-serving winemaker at Beaulieu Vineyards, a star who led the post-Prohibition flowering of the Californian wine scene. Becky Wasserman-Hone, meanwhile, was the barrel broker-turned-influential importer who inadvertently got Eyrie noticed on the global stage. She was instrumental in facilitating the Letts’ friendships in Burgundy. In that Pinot motherland, Michel Lafarge (Domaine Michel Lafarge in Volnay), Gérard Potel (known for his mythical wines at Domaine de la Pousse D’Or) and Lalou Bize-Leroy (Domaine Leroy) are mentioned. Looming even larger, thanks to their faith in Oregon’s terroir, is the Drouhin family of Maison Joseph Drouhin in Beaune and Domain Drouhin in the Willamette Valley.The Eyrie wines are not currently being imported into Australia, which is a dreadful shame. I hope someone will be game to take up the mantle. In any case, The Eyrie Vineyards has a tasting room in McMinnville, Oregon. I’ve never visited, but I hope to one day. I know the Lett family and their team would love to see you, so get there if you can. “In a region of increasingly opulent tasting rooms, the historic Eyrie Vineyards keeps the focus on the beauty inside the glass,” was Wine Enthusiast’s verdict. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Giuseppe Vaira is one of those tireless torchbearers whose faith in his region is matched by an exemplary work ethic, the uniformly beautiful results of which constantly justify and fuel that belief. It’s a virtuous cycle that has seen many people fall in love with the Langhe through these wines.The first time I met him was at the family winery in Vergne when I was taking time off from an assignment at a trade fair in Milan. He’d just landed home from a trade trip in steamy Singapore, jet-lagged and jaded from pouring Nebbiolo in 35-degree heat, when my family and I were halfway through a tasting. His mother, Milena, told him we were visitors from England. He plunged immediately into consummate host mode.I have the good fortune to know him pretty well now, having worked with the family’s wines for the past seven years with his Australian importer. This conversation took place at the end of January 2026 at the start of a five-day trade visit. It should be easy to follow, but it is useful to have a handle on the estate’s makeup, as well as the Piedmontese luminaries that crop up.G.D. Vajra was founded in 1972 by Giuseppe’s father, Aldo. It takes its name from Aldo’s father, Giuseppe Domenico Vaira, even though he did not work in the wine industry. (The family name is written with an ‘i’; a printing error in the early days led to the adoption of the ‘j’ styling.) It was, in fact, on Giuseppe’s great-grandfather’s farm that Aldo had his first taste of vineyard work. Aldo and Milena are still involved in the business, which is headed by Giuseppe and his siblings, Francesca and Isidoro (Isi).Vergne is in Barolo, one of the 11 communes that make up the Barolo production area. This commune is home to the family’s most famous vineyard, Bricco delle Viole, as well as Coste di Rose. G.D. Vajra also produces Barolo from the neighbouring commune of Novello (the Ravera MGA or Menzione Geografica Aggiuntiva). In 2009, the family purchased the Luigi Baudana estate in Serralunga d’Alba on the eastern side of Barolo, and we speak about the climatic and geological differences between these two areas. Broadly speaking, the soils of the east are generally referred to as Serravallian (the term Helvetian was formerly used), while Tortonian soils characterise the northwestern communes of Barolo and La Morra, which are closer to the Tanaro River. While acknowledging the inadequacies of these generalisations, the former tend to feature less fertile, yellow-grey compacted sand and clay, and the latter, younger, more fertile blue-grey marl.Giuseppe and I discuss a range of grape varieties, from lesser-known heirloom grapes making a comeback to the more celebrated mainstays that enjoy solid reputation on international wine lists. In the former camp are the likes of Naschetta, Slarina, Chatus (aka Nebbiolo di Dronero) and Freisa. Anna Schneider and Stefano Raimondi are the renowned ampelographers associated with the University of Turin who have helped identify and revive some of these traditional, forgotten varieties. On the more mainstream front, we talk about the three key reds: Dolcetto, Barbera and Nebbiolo, this last responsible for the Barolo and Barbaresco wines that are the pride of Piedmont.In our chat, I refer to an anecdote that came up in Aldo Vaira’s appearance on Levi Dalton’s I’ll Drink to That podcast. It concerns an encounter with some late legends of Barolo: Aldo Conterno (his brother Giovanni also gets a mention), Bartolo Mascarello (whose daughter Maria Teresa is mentioned) and Dogliani great Quinto Chionetti. (As an aside, the Vaira family also produce wines from Piedmont’s Dogliani region under their Monterustico label.) Beppe Colla, whose name is synonymous with the great Prunotto wines and who later founded his own Poderi Colla label, appears a couple of times. Angelo Gaja, Beppe Rinaldi and Bruno Giacosa, each attached to an eponymous label, also crop up. Of them, only Angelo Gaja is still alive.Our conversation also dips into a couple of cultural areas. One concerns the so-called Barolo Boys and the 1980s divide that opened up in the area between the aforementioned modernists and traditionalists, the former espousing the use of smaller, newer French oak barriques for softer, slow-maturing wines as opposed to the more backward, reticent, slower-maturing wines traditionally aged in larger, older Slavonian oak botti. And, a different slant on aesthetics, we discuss the influence and artworks of Father Costantino Ruggieri, who designed the G.D. Vajra winery’s beautiful stained glass windows, and Gianni Gallo, whose gorgeous works adorn the family’s labels, as well as those of Vietti and Bruno Rocca. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Pioneer stories always draw me in. No matter how niche the thing—and Nelson might still be considered niche—sticking vines in the dirt with no grounds for belief that your venture will bear fruit is a leap of faith to marvel at. Judy Finn says they got by on “hard work, high hopes and a dollop of common sense and cunning”. It seems a sense of humour—and of the absurd—played a part.Judy co-founded Neudorf Vineyards with her late husband Tim, back in 1978. She tells me the place was suffused with the pioneering spirit when they arrived. Their predecessors—many of German extraction, hence the name of the estate (neu is new and Dorf means village)—had planted all sorts of things, and traces of instinct and ingenuity abounded. There was also another winery, Seifried Estate (established 1973), and Judy credits Hermann Seifried with being exceptionally supportive over the years.Neudorf is nestled in the Moutere Hills in the centre of the northern tip of New Zealand’s South Island. It often has the country’s highest sunshine hours, while mountain ranges to the east, south and west provide rain shadow and Tasman Bay to the north moderates its maritime climate. This BioGro-certified organic farm has long been known for its Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, while Albariño has made a name for itself as a new kid on the block.Speaking of new kids on the block, Judy and Tim’s daughter, Rosie, took over the reins a few years ago. Her mother and I talk about what this breath of fresh, youthful air has brought to the estate as its self-styled global cheerleader. Rosie worked in London alongside powerhouse NZ wine ambassador Melanie Brown, whose previous credits include working alongside Peter Gordon at The Providores and founding The New Zealand Cellar. Mel is now owner, founder and chef-restaurateur of The Laundry in Brixton. Judy and I also talk about Tim, whom I never met, a widely loved, influential and (by all accounts) deeply interesting man. He died in October 2025 after a long struggle with his health.Todd Stevens is Neudorf’s long-serving winemaker and general manager, having taken over after John Kavanagh was head-hunted by Te Kairanga in 2012. A couple of other names crop up in connection with this move. Nigel Greening, owner of Felton Road, suggested Todd—who was then assisting this great Central Otago estate’s winemaker, Blair Walter—for the Neudorf role.Felton Road is one of New Zealand’s Family of Twelve, a group of estates that banded together in a successful collaborative marketing drive. Other members of this group were: Ata Rangi (Martinborough), Craggy Range (Hawke’s Bay), Fromm Winery (Marlborough), Kumeu River (Auckland), Lawson’s Dry Hills (Marlborough), Nautilus Estate (Marlborough), Palliser Estate (Martinborough), Pegasus Bay (Waipara), The Millton Vineyard (Gisborne; which called time in 2025) and Villa Maria (Auckland). Villa Maria’s influential founder, Sir George Fistonich, is mentioned by name—you can find out more about him by listening to my interview with Steve Smith MW on episode 16 of the podcast.Judy was named a 2025 New Zealand Winegrowers Fellow for services to wine marketing, and she shares plenty of straightforward wisdom on this subject. Her succinct guide to good trade relationships prompted me to quote a couple of previous podcast guests whose interviews, naturally, I recommend. The first is CellarHand founder Patrick Walsh (episode 4), and the second is wine writer Max Allen (episode 24).From the Finns’ pre-Neudorf days, Judy mentions Tim’s Master’s in Animal Behaviour, which inadvertently led to a fateful friendship with German-born soil scientist Rainer Eschenbruch at the Ruakura Research Centre in Hamilton. Judy, meanwhile, reflects on her stint at the Waikato Times. I discussed this area of New Zealand with PJ Charteris in episode 8. Judy worked on the paper with Michael King, the renowned historian on Māori culture (Māoritanga). Judy studied Te Reo (Māori language) with tribal leader Sir Robert Mahuta. A couple of terms that come up are pākehā, meaning a New Zealander of European descent, and whānau (family group).And a brief note on the topical background to this interview. Judy and I spoke during the week of the World Economic Forum in Davos, amid all manner of Trumpian nastiness. This was after Renée Nicole Good was fatally shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis, and shortly before the killing of Alex Pretti. In between those two despicable acts, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a stirring speech at Davos in which he alluded to Václav Havel’s The Power of the Powerless essay. In it, Havel illustrates the risk of perpetuating life within a lie with the example of a greengrocer who places a sign reading “Workers of the world, unite!” in the window—an act of submission that others meekly follow. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

The smiling faces of Marcus Satchell and Lisa Sartori are synonymous with Gippsland food and wine. Anyone who’s taken off from Melbourne Airport in recent years will have seen them beaming down from a billboard above the freeway. Their flagbearer status has been earned from a buzzing cellar door championing local produce and from the array of award-winning wines that Marcus—or Satchy, as everyone knows him—has produced from an unprecedented array of fruit sources across this scattered region.For Marcus, there is both a general and specific side to Dirty Three. In the former camp, you have the unstinting determination to push Gippsland forward, driven by the excellence of its food, drink and tourism offerings. He also sees that the cellar door experience is not just about wine, but an overriding sense of good hospitality at which Lisa is innately gifted. Community enjoyment, fuelled by music, is vital.And on the specific side, Satchy has taken his unique insight on Gippsland grapes, gleaned over years as an itinerant and contract winemaker, and turned it into wines that shine a light on the commonalities and singularities of the region’s sites, with Pinot Noir the key medium.Marcus was born in Wonthaggi, about 130km southeast of Melbourne, and these days the Dirty Three cellar door is about 13km east of there. Don’t worry if you’re unfamiliar with Gippsland geography—most people are—so we cover it at length in the interview.Marcus refers to his early musical days, including enrolling at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). His band that burst onto the scene is Cranky; check out this clip. Contemporaries he references include Skunkhour, Regurgitator and TISM, while The Cat Empire is jazz-funk outfit that people have cited as a latter-day pseudo-progression of Cranky’s genre-defying music.Marcus’s early years in winemaking took place in the Yarra Valley, where he mentions several peers and mentors. Former AFL player Rob ‘Sticks’ Dolan is one of those. Dolan was working at the corporate-owned Yarra Ridge winery at the time. In those days, Satchy worked with the likes of Paul Bridgeman (now marking wine at Levantine Hill while playing in the Yarra Valley-based Yeastie Boys band), Caroline Mooney (Bird on a Wire), Travis Bush (Punt Road), Tom Belford (Bobar), Rob Hall (Rob Hall Wines) and the late Adam Marks of Bress. Dave Bicknell of Oakridge and Applecross, and previous podcast guests Steve Flamsteed (Decades) and Tim Shand (Voyager), are also mentioned. Dominique Portet is the France-born founder of the eponymous estate in Coldstream, where Marcus scored his first gig as winemaker.Providing a link between the Yarra and Gippsland are Denise and Graeme Miller, who sold their vineyard to De Bortoli to kickstart that family’s momentous foray in the Valley. (Steve Webber, like Rob Dolan, is referenced as a prodigious fosterer of young talent, which is also acknowledged in this interview with Sarah Fagan.) Then there are Cam Mackenzie and Stuart Gregor, original partners in Dirty Three, who exited to focus on their phenomenal success with the Yarra Valley-based gin brand Four Pillars.A couple of other Gippsland names to know are Rick Lacey, founder of the successful Purple Hen label on Phillip Island, and Phillip Jones of Bass Phillip Estate, whose dogged pursuit of Burgundian Pinot put Gippsland on the map for many wine-lovers.Talking about the idea for Lisa and Marcus’s cellar door, Jo Marsh’s name crops up. Jo and her partner, Glenn James, grow the Billy Button wines in and around Victoria’s Alpine Valleys. California’s Randall Grahm, founder of Bonny Doon, is also mentioned.As for the name, Dirty Three, we discuss a few allusions. There are the three original partners, the love of music giving a nod to the music of Warren Ellis, Mick Turner and Jim White, and the idea of showcasing Pinot Noir from three distinct patches of dirt. The dirt has shifted a bit—Gippsland is a tricky place to grow grapes and secure fruit, as you’ll hear—but Satchy and Lisa continue to raise beautiful, articulate, layered wines from their beloved dirts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

The Vininspo! podcast is still on holiday. Here instead is a spoken version of a relatively recent story you might have missed. (If you’d prefer, you can read it here.)This is the story of Kerri Thompson, whose highly acclaimed Wines by KT label is a fitting tribute to her love of the Clare Valley.All the context is in the story. As a Riesling tragic, I had long been a fan of KT’s work—and of the Clare Valley, whose Riesling trail I could happily cycle every day for the rest of my life, so long as its fragrant, floral, lemon-lime liquid refreshment flowed freely. Her prowess extends far beyond Riesling, too—and that, too, fits with Clare’s potential to grow a range of vine varieties well. You can also find some details notes on KT’s wines in a piece I wrote called How Come Everyone Glazes KT?I’m sure you’ll find plenty to cherish about Kerri Thompson in this piece.In the meantime, thanks for tuning in to Vininspo!—if you haven’t already, please subscribe to my Substack to have the first podcast episode of 2026 land in your inbox on Friday, 16th January. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

The Vininspo! podcast is on holiday. Here instead is a spoken version of a relatively recent story you might have missed.This is the story of Sarah Fagan, chief winemaker at TarraWarra in the Yarra Valley.All the context is in the story (which you can read here if you’d prefer). Speaking of context, the story came about because I was invited to TarraWarra in October 2024 to taste its latest releases and also to taste from barrel the various components that would go on to make the ’24 wines—the first TarraWarra wines authored by Sarah. I wanted to make the trip not for the wines but for Sarah—the wines from this new era were in desperate need of context.Additional motivation comes from the fact that Sarah Fagan appears to be an interesting archetype. Her move to TarraWarra followed 20 years of making wine for the vast De Bortoli wine business. Millions of hectolitres of wine pumped out by countless minions over a couple of decades are going to efface individual details. So, who is that person behind it all?I wanted to find out.A sort of amusing aside: I judged at Melbourne Royal Wine Show in 2021, with Covid restrictions in place, i.e. weird conditions. The first person I bumped into in the lobby on the way to the judging venue on day one was Sarah Fagan and… I didn’t really know who she was. Turned out she was my panel chair that day and, of course, everyone knew her.So, again, a good reason for you to get up to speed.In the meantime, thanks for tuning in to Vininspo!—I look forward to bringing you more podcast episodes when I return from a short break. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

I first heard Ginny Willcock speak about wine in Adelaide back in 2013 when I attended Savour Australia as a freelance journalist for Business Insider. This event courted wine-buyers, writers and opinion-shapers from across the globe in an attempt to reset the image of Australian wine. On an afternoon where delegates were assigned breakout sessions, I ended up in a fancy Cabernet Sauvignon tasting fronted by Gin, with Sue Hodder of Wynns also on the panel. Sue was great value, too, but Gin blew me over like a gust of fresh air. We were there, after all, because the world’s affection for Aussie wine had dimmed, and its essential, endearing Aussieness had retreated into itself. When Ginny spoke, that essential, endearing Aussieness came rollicking back like a wave rolling in from the Indian Ocean.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The fact that we were discussing Cabernet—that most refined and distinguished of noble red grapes—with unfettered, infectious enthusiasm rather than the pomp and guff ordinarily de rigueur in these soulless dissections, heightened the effect. And Gin’s wines are immaculate. Like her, they are also brimming with energy, personality and emotion.Gin is chief winemaker at Vasse Felix, where she began working back in 2006. During that time, she’s won countless awards, including being crowned 2026 Winemaker of the Year by Halliday Wine Companion. Vasse Felix was the first estate to be planted in Margaret River, back in 1967, by Dr Tom Cullity. The Holmes à Court family now owns it, and Gin speaks warmly about her partnership with Vasse Felix owner and chief executive Paul Holmes à Court. Bart Molony, chief viticulturist and 2025 Halliday Wine Companion Viticulturist of the Year, has been at Gin’s side throughout her tenure. Heytesbury is the name of Vasse Felix’s pinnacle Chardonnay, while the Tom Cullity bottling, initially aired as an idea before Cullity’s death in 2008, became the estate’s top Cabernet cuvée from the oldest vines from the 2013 vintage. Idée Fixe is the name of this group’s traditional-method sparkling wine project.Going back in time, Ginny mentions the family farm in Bindoon, which is slightly inland, some 75km north of Perth. She also mentions her sister, Cath Willcock, a very dear friend of Vininspo! and founder of wine distributor IMBIBO. From her study days, she gives a nod to Pat Iland, a former lecturer in chemistry and viticulture at Roseworthy Agricultural College. Her friendship with Stephen Pannell, my guest on episode 30 of the podcast, has also been pivotal. Peter Leske’s name is dropped in reference to the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), and the late Bryce Rankine, author of the influential work Making Good Wine, is also mentioned. Capel Vale, where she got work experience, is in WA’s Geographe region.In Margaret River phase one, the following characters appear: Mark Messenger, who was a long-serving winemaker at Juniper Estate; Clive Otto, formerly of Vasse Felix and Fraser Gallop; Conor Lagan, then of Xanadu; Bill Ullinger of Redgate Wines; and Gin’s husband Mike Gadd, then of Cullen in Wilyabrup.Kym Milne MW—I hope a future podcast guest—set Gin up with the ill-fated vintage in Albania and subsequent Italian jobs in Trento (Trentino-Alto Adige), Trapani (Sicily) and at Farnese in Abruzzo. Other jobs followed at Cloudy Bay (Marlborough, NZ), Cape Mentelle, and Evans & Tate (Margaret River), and at the contract winemaking facility run by Mike Calneggia.In present-day Margaret River, the following get a shout-out: Tim Shand (Voyager, episode 15), Julian Langworthy (Nocturne/Deep Woods, episode 28), Jo Perry (Dormilona), Dylan Arvidson (LS Merchants) and Jacopo ‘Japo’ Dalli Cani (McHenry Hohnen). Vanessa Carson (Lenton Brae) was the friend who accompanied Ginny to Spain, where the latter’s epiphany occurred at the Roda winery in Rioja.On a slightly different note, Gin talks about the Gin Gin clone of Chardonnay, for which Margaret River is known. It is particular to Margaret River, and appears to have an aroma and structure profile of its own, accentuated perhaps by the ripening conditions (although these vary considerably across the region) and by its susceptibility to millerandage (aka ‘hen and chicken’), whereby bunches have an excessively high proportion of small, seedless berries in among their plump, juicy, seeded berries. And finally, Gin’s joke about being the monks of Margaret River is an allusion to the monks of Burgundy, who observed the quality of grapes grown in different plots that subsequently became classified as, in ascending order, village, premier cru and grand cru. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

You'll find extensive show notes below to help clarify any details in this wide-ranging conversation. In the meantime, I'd love to count on your ongoing support to make this and other Vininspo! work possible. Here is where you can follow and share what I do.Substack: edmerrison.substack.comInstagram: @vininspo.wineYouTube: @vininspowineWebsite: www.vininspo.wineThe epithet “worthy” used to get bandied around newsrooms to describe stories about meritorious subjects that were too… worthy to be truly interesting. Optimistic, spiritual, caring and inclusive to a fault, Sue Bell could almost sound a bit worthy if it weren’t for her soulful wines, mischievous snigger and sheer feel-good factor.Sue is the person behind the Coonawarra-based Bellwether label, which she established with business partner Andrew Rennie in 2008. She became sole owner in mid-2025, describing herself at the time as “excited and terrified”. We talk about that in our conversation, as well as the community that has developed around the Bellwether’s HQ, the historic Glenroy Shearing Shed. Among other accolades, Sue was named Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology Winemaker of the Year in 2014. You can taste her wines at the shed, which also offers camping and glamping options and hosts various events.   I’m pleased Sue shared her wisdom on a fair bit of unsung geography, covering a fair bit of ground—literally—around the South Australia/Victoria border. I hope that listeners might look out for these regions on wine labels and maybe even pay them a visit. These include Coonawarra itself, as well as Mount Gambier, Mount Benson, Padthaway and Wrattonbully. The Kanawinka Fault is the geological fault line that stretches from Portland in Victoria to Naracoorte in South Australia, where you’ll find the World Heritage-listed caves. The Bonney Upwelling is the oceanic phenomenon that has a crucial influence on local grape-growing conditions.As so often when mapping the trajectory of my guests, a galaxy of Aussie wine stars has plotted Sue’s path to where she is today. From McLaren Vale, she mentions early experience at Noon, Woodstock and Primo Estate, with Primo’s Joseph Grilli offering some particularly valuable advice.From her days at Southcorp, which has morphed into Treasury Wine Estates. She worked under Wayne Falkenberg at the Karadoc winery in Mildura (Corrina Wright in episode 28 and more so PJ Charteris in episode 8, talk about formative experiences here), Rouge Homme in Coonawarra, Seppelt Great Western (where she worked with great friend Kate Goodman) and Magill Estate (Penfolds). The late Neville Falkenberg was her boss on the Penfolds white team, where she worked alongside PJ Charteris, Steve Chapman, and others. From this period, she also mentions a viticulture placement in Eden Valley with Allen Jenkins, well known for his work at Wynns, and Suzi Hilder, now of Smallfry in the Barossa.Sue’s cohort at Hardys has also come up a lot in this show. Many have praised Peter Dawson’s influence, while other members of the gang include past podcast guests Stephen Pannell (S.C. Pannell), Rob Mann (Corymbia), Anna Flowerday (Te Whare Ra) as well as Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT, Clare Valley), Fran Austin (Delamere, Tasmania), Alex McKay (Collector, Canberra District), Ed Carr (House of Arras) and communications specialist Bec Hopkins. Tom Newton gets a nice mention; he was with the Hardys group for 36 years, finishing up as Accolade’s Group White Winemaker in 2018. Eileen Hardy is the prestige label of the Hardys portfolio (now owned by Vinarchy), while Bay of Fires is a Tasmanian brand in the same group. B*****d Hill, meanwhile, is a Yarra Valley vineyard now owned by Jackson Family Wines, whose Giant Steps brand is producing single-site wines from here.Sue speaks of the trip she took as dux of the Len Evans Tutorial after she left Hardys. LET is the annual scholarship experience held in the Hunter Valley, NSW, since 2001 and dubbed “the best wine school on earth”. That same year, she had a fateful conversation with Mike Brajkovich MW of Kumeu River in New Zealand. Having established Bellwether, Sue credits the help of the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) as an invaluable source of information and support for the nation’s producers.Other names that crop up are Ashley Ratcliff of Ricca Terra in the Riverland and the Chalmers family in Mildura (hear more about the latter in this episode). Meanwhile, Sue mentions Louise Hemsley-Smith (Battle of Bosworth), Louisa Rose (Yalumba) and Rebecca Wilson (Bremerton) in the segment on Sips in the Sticks. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

It’s weird and fitting that the first serious comment on a wine blog I wrote came from Stephen Pannell. The lack of preceding remarks speaks volumes about the anonymity in which I was operating; the fact that the most decorated winemaker of his generation deigned to pipe up says a lot about how much he cares.If you enjoy original work & want to keep this kind of thing alive, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to Vininspo!I was in a hotel room in Milan when Steve’s message popped up in response to a Nebbiolo post I’d written that featured a wine of his—a 2010 Nebbiolo. He said something modest and grateful and told me I needed to see Massolino in Serralunga d’Alba while I was in that part of the world. As it happened, I’d already lined up an appointment for the next day; it was a happy coincidence that made me love Nebbiolo that little bit more.I have since had the pleasure of interviewing Steve several times, representing his wines and following his various, exceptionally ambitious projects very closely. During that time, he has won Australia’s most prestigious wine award, the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy, for the second time, been named Australian Winemaker of the Year, established a cellar door in McLaren Vale and bought four vineyards that individually specialise in Mediterranean varieties, Nebbiolo, Grenache and warm-climate Shiraz. He is a universally recognised flag-bearer for either the emergence or renaissance of each of those categories in Australia, with a reputation that extends far beyond these borders.Thanks to Steve’s patience and openness, we cover all of this, and his extraordinary trajectory, in our conversation. Protero is his sole vineyard outside McLaren Vale. This Adelaide Hills site has Nebbiolo as the headline act alongside other northern Italian varieties. The S.C. Pannell cellar door and Portuguese, Iberian and southern Italian varieties are on Oliver’s Road. The Shiraz, including the wine that won the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion Best Shiraz of the Year, grows on his Koomilya Vineyard. Little Branch—an anglicised version of Lindquist, the maiden name of Stephen’s wife, Fiona—is his 100-year-old Grenache vineyard.Fiona is given a fitting tribute here, as is Steve’s general manager, Tom Grant. His distributor, Patrick Walsh, is mentioned, too (he’s the other Depeche Mode fan alluded to). Patrick is the founder of CellarHand, for which I work, and was himself interviewed for episode four. A mutual Barolo connection exists here. G.D. Vajra is the winery that Steve worked for, and he speaks at length of his relationship with its owners, Aldo and Milena Vaira. CellarHand and S.C. Pannell import these wines into Australia. Another pseudo-Italian connection is David Gleave MW, who is in fact the Canada-born, UK-resident founder of Liberty Wines. David also established Willunga 100, a McLaren Vale Grenache specialist featured here. David Ridge is an Australian importer of Italian wine. Paolo de Marchi, meanwhile, is synonymous with the great Chianti Classico estate. Isole e Olena.Steve is the son of Bill and Sandra Pannell, who founded Moss Wood in Margaret River and went on to establish Picardy in Pemberton, Western Australia. His early French connections include the late Burgundy broker Becky Wasserman-Hone, Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault, Bertie Eden of Château Maris in the Languedoc, Jacques and François Lurton, and the late Gérard Potel, then of Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in Volnay. Steve also pays tribute to his dear friend Nicolas Potel, founder of Domaine de Bellene, who died in June this year.A whole host of Australian characters come up in this conversation. Steve first met Petaluma founder Brian Croser when he was a kid in WA; likewise, the late Len Evans, whose famous tutorial (“the greatest wine school on earth”) is also discussed. Huon Hooke is the wine writer he worked alongside in Sydney, and Jim Whittle, who died in 2014, was their larger-than-life Sydney retail manager.Among Steve’s cohort at Roseworthy Agricultural College were Virginia Willcock of Vasse Felix, Peter Gago of Penfolds (an interesting perspective on young Gago here), Reid Bosward, Wendy Stuckey and Nick Haselgrove. Hardys was another incredibly formative experience for Steve—this is where he won his first Jimmy Watson for the 1995 Eileen Hardy Shiraz. Anna Flowerday, my guest on episode 13, spoke about this golden age of Hardys talent overseen by Tim James and Peter Dawson, and including the likes of Larry Cherubino, Rob Mann (Corymbia) and Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT).Other names mentioned in passing include: Wendouree, the legendary Clare Valley estate whose character, as expressed by custodians Tony and Lita Brady, has so influenced Steve; Adelaide Hills wine-grower Tim Knappstein (who enjoys a cameo here and here); Warren Randall, owner of Seppeltsfield in the Barossa; English-born, South Australia-based wine writer Tim White; Simon Benjamin, co-founder of Iberia-inspired Bar Lourinhã in Melbourne; and Mark Lloyd, who has long been a frontrunner with alternative varieties with his beautiful family estate, Coriole, in McLaren Vale. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

While Italian footballers are known for their histrionics, Trembath & Taylor has scored goals and won fans while sparing us the theatrics. Arguably Australia’s foremost importer of Italy’s wines plays the game with no shortage of passion, but has passed it on to a legion of converts in a refreshingly low-key manner.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The rock-star billing of Brunello, Barolo, Barbaresco et al makes it hard to believe that the wines of Italy were playing to tiny crowds 30 years ago, when Trembath & Taylor started out. Matt and I cover their trajectory and modern trends extensively in this conversation. Inevitably, we cover several regions, grapes and styles. Some may be new to you; that’s part of the point. One aim of my Substack is to be a one-stop shop for fostering curiosity and answering it… but I haven’t really got started with the educational materials. Still, Matt fleshes out many of the points; where you’re left wondering about anything, please leave a question in the comments.I will try to pick out a few key mentions to help you navigate further reading. Matt mentions a host of local personalities when talking about this formative experience at The George Hotel in the Melbourne seaside suburb of St Kilda. These include the late restaurateur Donlevy Fitzpatrick, who created The Melbourne Wine Room with Maurice Terzini, Karen Martini, and Michael Sapountsis—all of whom became prominent figures in the Australian dining scene. Other members of the cast include winemakers Barney Flanders (check out his excellent Garagiste label) and David Chapman (ditto for Allies), as well as wine writer Marcus Ellis.A few acronyms crop up when we discuss education. A few acronyms often appear in discussions about Italian wine classification. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata (Controlled Denomination of Origin), DOCG for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, and IGP for Indicazione Geografica Protetta (Protected Geographical Indication; previously known as IGT, where the T stands for Tipica). IGP wines generally allow greater freedom in the choice of grape varieties, sourcing, and methods of harvesting, vinification, and maturation. Stricter regulations govern DOC and DOCG wines, and while DOCG is often assumed to indicate higher quality, this isn’t the case—it all depends on the specific DOC or DOCG, as each sets and enforces its own rules.Matt refers to WSET (the Wine & Spirit Education Trust), the London-based organisation for which I am an accredited educator, and which has a significant global presence through its structured courses, ranging from Level 1 to 4. I have interviewed a couple of other educators—Andrea Pritzker and Meg Brodtmann—both of whom happen to be MWs, and the Master of Wine program also comes up in our conversation. Kate McIntyre MW is the person for whom he filled in at Trembath & Taylor. Kate’s family winery is Moorooduc Estate on the Mornington Peninsula.Todd Slater and Iona Baker are the sales staff members mentioned. Both previously worked in restaurants with serious Italian credentials, the former with Stefano Manfredi in Sydney and the latter with Guy Grossi in Melbourne.Quite a few producers are namechecked. These include Hofstätter in Alto Adige and Brancaia in Tuscany, which produced the first two Italian wines Matt tasted: Pinot Nero and the Il Blu Merlot blend, respectively. Other names include Ottin (Valle d’Aosta), Marcarini, Poderi Colla, Chiara Boschis, Conterno Fantino (Piemonte), Pieropan, Speri (Veneto), Damiano Ciolli (Lazio), Costanti, Fuligni and Poggerino (Tuscany).Last, here are a few of those more obscure grape varieties to track down: Prié (Aosta), Timorasso and Cortese (Piemonte), Rossese di Dolceacqua (Liguria), Ciliegiolo (Tuscany), Cesanese (Lazio), Carricante, Grillo, Catarratto, Frappato, Nerello Mascalese (Sicily). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

The first time I met Corrina Wright, she was done up in Viking garb and grinning like a Cheshire cat. It was Melbourne’s inaugural Game of Rhônes tasting, a celebration of all things Grenache, Shiraz et al, and one of those too-rare wine events where a cheerful disposition is de rigueur. But even Corrina’s resting b***h face is probably a big, warm smile. Injustice and inanity are enough to wipe it off, but only for as long as it takes for her to speak up, pitch in and set it straight.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Corrina’s ancestors, William and Elizabeth Oliver, left Scotland for McLaren Vale in late 1839 and established two properties that remain in family hands. Corrina Wright (née Rayment) is a member of the sixth generation to work the land here, and the first to make wine under the family label, Oliver’s Taranga. It’s a full family affair, with several relatives involved in the business, including her cousin Brioni Oliver. Together, they produce a range of first-rate wines, from McLaren Vale’s red staples of Shiraz and Grenache to an array of modern iterations of alternative varieties that have found such a happy home in this beautiful area’s warm Mediterranean climate.One of those grapes is the Campanian native white, Fiano, and we spoke in the week preceding Australia’s first-ever Fiano Day. Corrina was the spearhead for this informal celebration of an increasingly popular vine variety.As you listen to the interview, you’ll learn not to be surprised to see Corrina leading from the front. We talk about the many community roles she takes on. She is the president of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS) committee, and regular listeners will have heard me discuss this movement with the likes of Jeff Porter, Kim Chalmers and Max Allen. She is also on the action board of Australian Women in Wine. We discuss this organisation and its own awards, an initiative begun by Jane Thomson OAM, founder of The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society.Corrina has also served on the boards of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, McLaren Vale Grape, Wine & Tourism Association and the Australian Society of Viticulture & Oenology. In other acroynym news, she was ASVO Winemaker of the Year in 2019, and still sits on the board of the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), which runs the Advanced Wine Assessment Course (Awac). We discuss Awac in the section about training your palate.Corrina talks about studying at Roseworthy, an institution that has come up in many of these podcasts—not least with PJ Charteris, who also gives further insight into Southcorp, Penfolds and Karadoc. Among Corrina’s cohort were the likes of Pete Fraser (Yangarra), Andy Coppard (Lino Ramble), Tony and Briony Hoare (Beach Road Wines), Ben Glaetzer (Glaetzer Wines) and Sue Bell (Bellwether). She also studied at UC Davis in the US, where she came into the orbit of chemical engineer Roger Boulton, sensory scientist Ann Noble, and Nick Dokoozlian of Californian wine giant Gallo. Another American mentioned is the hugely influential critic, Robert Parker, founder of The Wine Advocate.Somewhat more leftfield is the superb story of Corrina’s Ihana wine collaboration with Finnish F1 driver Valtteri Bottas. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Some people don’t even believe there’s a vineyard there, let alone the site that spawned a second coming for one of the country’s most hallowed cool-climate regions.Reg Egan was working as a lawyer when he decided to plant a vineyard in the Yarra Valley in 1963. The site he chose was not far from his Melbourne practice—so close, in fact, that he was sure he’d have to sell it in the medium term. He had a contingency for that, which didn’t work out as he’d expected. That’s a fascinating anecdote covered in this interview with his younger daughter, Maryann.By the mid-1980s, Reg had given up the law and was working on the vineyard full-time. The mélange of varieties he’d started with eventually whittled itself down to a range of four wines, named for his granddaughters: Amelia (Chardonnay), Lily (Pinot Noir), Amelia (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot) and Hannah (Cabernet Franc/Merlot).Those are the daughters of his daughters, Liz and Maryann Egan. Liz went on to become a celebrated chef and restaurateur, while Maryann studied wine, working patchily among the vines in her early years before assuming the helm at Wantirna Estate over the past couple of decades.We touch on other icons of the Yarra Valley here. Maryann mentions being good friends with Sandra de Pury, the fourth-generation winemaker at Yeringberg. This storied estate was founded in 1863 and underwent a significant hiatus during the Yarra’s post-Great War dormant period. Maryann also mentions Sam Middleton, third-generation vigneron at 1971-founded Mount Mary.Sam’s grandfather, Dr John Middleton, and his wife, Marli, were among a legendary quartet of friends, along with the Egans, Ian and June Marks of Gembrook Hill and Dr Peter and Margaret McMahon. You can read more about this foursome here. Suffice to say, each of them has had a tremendous impact on notions of the quality potential and terroir stamp of Australian wines.Another doctor features in this piece: Bailey Carrodus. Reg and Bailey planted the vineyard that would become Yarra Yering—another top-flight Australian producer. How that panned out is quite some story, but not widely known.When it comes to Maryann’s own career, she worked a harvest at Tyrrell’s, one of the greats of the Hunter Valley, NSW, and there met Wayne Donaldson. The latter was the first winemaker at Domaine Chandon, the Yarra Valley bubbly outpost of LVMH, owner of Champagne house Moët et Chandon. During her six-year stint at Chandon, Maryann’s boss was influential Aussie sparkling-wine pioneer Tony Jordan, who passed away in 2019.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.After leaving Chandon to have her two children, Maryann scored a presenting role on the television show Wine Lovers’ Guide to Australia alongside co-hosts Grant Van Every and Pria Viswalingam. Australian residents can still stream both series of the programme, which first aired in 1999, on SBS on Demand.Maryann speaks with fondness of visiting winemakers on her travels, and credits Melbourne fine-wine merchant Prince Wine Store and CellarHand, Wantirna Estate’s Australian distributor (for whom I work), with setting up some of those connections. The trio of wonderful women we name-check are Virginie Taupenot of Domaine Taupenot-Merme in Morey-Saint-Denis, Elsa Matrot in Meursault (both in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or) and Claudia Cigliuti of Barbaresco producer Cigliuti. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Julian Langworthy first struck me as the embodiment of happy-go-luckiness. A healthy irreverence, ready quip and loud laugh were standard issue, and he seemed to be breaking and losing more trophies than anyone else was winning.I was the Victorian chair of Wine Communicators of Australia when Julian’s 2014 Deep Woods Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon won the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at the Melbourne Royal Wine Awards. No wonder he looked like the cat that got the cream at the awards lunch we organised; Australia’s most prestigious wine trophy came with a $20,000 cheque to do whatever he liked to “further his wine education”. We talk about that on the podcast.Around the same time, Julian brought his own Nocturne wines to us at CellarHand, in the hope that we would agree to be the brand’s first Australian distributor. We said yes. The wines—a single-vineyard Margaret River Chardonnay, Cabernet and rosé back then (the rosé has since migrated to the subregional range)—were excellent, and there was no chance that you’d let this combination of charisma, ambition, ebullience and prowess slip through your fingers.Julian’s day job is chief winemaker and general manager of Deep Woods Estate, which is the linchpin of the Fogarty Wine Group (FWG). We discuss Deep Woods at length, from his unorthodox hiring by owner Peter Fogartry to the operations of the group, which owns vineyards and brands across four Australian states, including Dalwhinnie in Victoria, Lowestoft in Tasmania and Lake’s Folly in NSW.We talk a bit about trophies, and I suggest we shouldn’t be blasé about the wins. Nor am I exaggerating this aspect of Julian’s career. Nocturne itself has picked up its fair share of silverware, while Jules has been crowned Halliday Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year and picked up the Len Evans Trophy, Stodart Trophy, Max Schubert Trophy and Decanter World’s Best Cabernet. Deep Woods has won more than 60 trophies and 200 gold medals on his watch—and FWG more broadly is a constant presence on the podium under his overall guidance.Jeff Burch of Howard Park Wines is also mentioned in connection with Julian’s move to Deep Woods in his native Margaret River. That same hallowed region is home to several world-famous producers. Julian refers to the “founding families”, an informal term covering the likes of Cullen, Leeuwin Estate, Cape Mentelle, Vasse Felix and Moss Wood. The so-called “cool kids” mentioned as having managed to join that first rank include Stella Bella and Xanadu.From Adelaide University days, Julian mentions erstwhile bottleshop colleague Sophie Otton, now a Sydney-based bar owner, sommelier, wine judge and writer. His lecturers included sensory evaluation specialist Patrick Iland, viticulture guru Peter Dry and Clare Valley icon Jeffrey Grosset, one of Australia’s foremost Riesling growers. Among Julian’s winemaking student cohort were Peter Dillon of Handpicked (married to winemaker Imogen Dillon of Ten Minutes by Tractor on the Mornington Peninsula), Peter Dredge of Dr Edge in Tasmania, former Bleasdale winemaker and Jimmy Watson winner Paul Hotker, Anna Pooley of Pooley Wines and Bubb + Pooley in Tasmania, and Dan Stocker of Heretic Wines in Margaret River.It was at Wolf Blass that Julian first took telling steps in a winery role (and where Chassagne-Montrachet-based white Burgundy legend Pierre-Yves Colin was somewhat incongruously hanging around!). The Barossa winery was part of Beringer Blass and has now been subsumed into Treasure Wine Estates. Jules moved to Coonawarra within that same group, working at Jamiesons Run and then at Wynns Coonawarra Estate. The community members namechecked there include Emma Bowen of Bowen Estate, Dan Redman of Redman Wines and Dru Reschke of Koonara Wines. Last, but certainly not least, are a couple of hugely influential mentors at Wynns. One is Greg Tilbrook, the other the much-admired Sue Hodder, who herself has won just about every accolade as senior winemaker for this bastion of Australian Cabernet. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

I vividly recall my first meeting with Kathleen Quealy. I had tasted and delighted in her Pobblebonk field blend of Friulano, Riesling and Pinot Gris, and followed it up with the Rageous red, an unlikely marriage of Sangiovese, Shiraz and Pinot Noir. Among the Mornington Peninsula’s calm little sea of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, these outlandishly named, labelled and assembled interlopers smacked of anarchy.Rocking up at Balnarring Vineyard felt like landing in the outskirts of an Irish country town where time stands still. A charmingly ramshackle, take-us-as-you-find-us backyard of ambling hens, drying washing, bicycles and bric-a-brac announced, fittingly, the home of the Quealy-McCarthy clan.That wasn’t your average interview. Unfiltered, unguarded candour and randomness spilt out, and I learned and laughed a lot. We’ve spoken a lot in the intervening years, but this episode 25 of Vininspo! podcast still felt like the first time.Max Loder was the viticultural lecturer and Pinot Gris advocate who influenced Kathleen during her time at what is now the Charles Sturt University campus in Wagga Wagga, NSW. Her husband, Kevin McCarthy, did his winemaking studies at Roseworthy Agricultural College (discussed at length here). T’Gallant is the name of the winery they founded on the Mornington Peninsula in 1990. Thirteen years later, they sold it to Southcorp, which was subsumed by Fosters and morphed into Treasury Wine Estates. TWE sold T’Gallant in 2022; it has since reopened under new ownership and continues to operate from its Main Ridge home.Kathleen was dubbed the Queen of Pinot Gris by the renowned Australian wine commentator James Halliday, for whose Coldstream Hills estate Kevin McCarthy worked in the Yarra Valley in the mid-1980s. Her range has bottlings labelled Grigio and Gris; generally speaking, Australian producers use the Italian styling to denote a crisper, lighter-bodied rendition that leans towards the grape’s airier aromas and lightly fruity side. Gris, from the French for “grey”, tends to denote a riper, more richly textured rendition with more spice and earthy, exotic aromas.On the subject of Pinot Gris, I reference Max Allen’s book, Alternative Reality, which Max and I discussed on episode 24. The Chalmers family is central to that book and crops up when Kathleen and I discuss sourcing so-called alternative grape varieties. The best place to hear more about that fascinating area is by tuning into episode 17 of the podcast with Kim Chalmers.Quealy Winemakers is based at the organic-certified Balnarring Vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula. Its range of wines takes in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—the region’s most celebrated grapes—and much more besides. The diverse and distinctive label artwork by celebrated designer Ken Cato is in keeping with this estate’s singularity.Kathleen is justly proud of the progress her son, Tom McCarthy, has made. Tom’s range of skin-contact wines is called Turbul. It began over a decade ago with a Friulano that spent an extended period of time in contact with its skins to become a so-called orange or amber wine. As mentioned, this range has grown to four wines, with Malvasia, Ribolla Gialla and Moscato Giallo entering the fold. They are proper, considered, fully realised wines of intent; I urge you to watch this video and seek them out. While these wines take their cue from traditions around the border of Slovenia and northeast Italy, Tom has also followed in footsteps closer to home; in 2008, Kevin McCarthy’s T’Gallant Claudius gave Australia its first fully committed amber wine from Chardonnay, Traminer and Moscato Giallo. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Not starting with an end in mind has led this English-born, multi-award-winning writer to unearth profound connections down labyrinthine rabbit holes.Max Allen is too young to be deemed a national treasure, but that’s what he is. In a field where the esteem in which commentators are held is generally a measure not of perspicacity or originality but of perceived influence on potential sales, Max’s gift—and thirst—for meaningful storytelling is a rare and precious thing.Max is an award-winning journalist and author who earns a crust as drinks columnist for the Australian Financial Review (AFR), is a longtime contributor to Gourmet Traveller Magazine, and serves as the Australian correspondent for jancisrobinson.com. He has written several books about wine, some of which are discussed in our conversation and require a bit of context here.The latest of these is Alternative Reality (2023), which tells the story of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS). I quote a section from the book’s preface, written by Mildura-based chef and show founder Stefano de Pieri. For more on the show’s origins, please listen to episode 17 with Kim Chalmers.We also speak at length about Intoxicating: Ten drinks that shaped Australia (2020). Way-a-linah is the indigenous drink that kicks off the book, and pretty much the only way you’ll find out more about it is to read Intoxicating—which I suggest you do, because it’s an original and engrossing book that showcases Max’s specific talent for teasing out meaning.Other books mentioned are The Future Makers: Australian Wines for the 21st Century (2010) and Red and White: Wine Made Simple (with photographer Adrian Lander, 1997). We discuss Max’s various collaborations with Lander, including a short film on Yeringberg, which won the Louis Roederer Artistry of Wine Award in 2014.The Yeringberg estate in the Yarra Valley features prominently in the discussion. It was the subject of Max’s first story for The Age newspaper. Max has written and presented at length about Coranderrk Station and the relationship between William Barak and the de Pury family. The image he mentions was used on the front cover of the first volume of Andrew Caillard’s peerless history, The Australian Ark. You can delve into Max’s work on this here.Other literary collaborations have taken place with food writer Richard Cornish, mentioned in passing, and Gerald Diffey, proprietor of Geralds Bar in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton (and an offshoot in San Sebastián, Spain!). Gerald’s book, edited by Max, is called Beggars Belief (2021). In a sombre note, we talk about Max’s friendship with Sam Hughes, artist, musician and public face of Natural Selection Theory. More reminiscence about Rootstock’s raw energy can be found in episode 12, featuring wine writer Christina Pickard.Another story we reference is a recent AFR article titled End of the Vine. It deals with the impending loss to property development of the great Balgownie Vineyard just outside Bendigo. The site was planted in 1969 by Stuart Anderson, now in his nineties. Max’s piece, another collaboration with Adrian Lander, delves into the site’s history and symbolism. Stuart’s protégé, Michael Dhillon, is part of the story, too. Dhillon’s family estate, Bindi, grows superb, soulful, profound wines in the Macedon Ranges in Victoria. As if to confirm Max’s comment about pupil becoming master (and mentor), Dhillon this week won the Legend of Melbourne Food and Wine Award, following in the footsteps of past winner, Stuart Anderson.Instagram: @vininspo.wine This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

It makes sense when you meet Steve Lubiana that he was up to his chin in grape skins from the moment he could walk, snapping at the heels of his winemaker dad. There’s barely a moment when Steve isn’t playing with plants, fermenting stuff or pouring drinks to try with food.I first met Steve and his wife Monique, who is just as much a part of Stefano Lubiana, in Milan, of all places. They were looking at equipment at a wine industry fair that I’d been sent to cover for an Australian technical magazine. Though Stefano Lubiana is famous as Tasmania’s first certified organic and biodynamic vineyard, what’s sometimes overlooked in the best naturally run estates is the attention to detail in farming and the winery. That goes for something as prosaic as machinery (and Steve, we discover, likes machines). It makes sense, though; when you work so hard to grow the finest fruit, you don’t want anything to impede its pristine flow to the bottle.Steve and Monique’s vineyard is in Granton, near Hobart in the lower Derwent Valley. We talk a lot about the specific details of the region and the site. Tasmania has become such hot property over the last 15 years, it’s hard to imagine the scene as it was 35 years ago. Claudio Alcorso is credited with planting the island’s first commercial vineyard at the end of the 1950s at what became Moorilla (referenced in the conversation), and Andrew Pirie, who founded Pipers Brook Vineyard in the ’70s, is also mentioned. But winegrowing ventures were few and far between. It’s also worth noting that, although Tasmania is legally treated as one Geographical Indication (GI), the conditions experienced by growers ensconced in its various pockets vary widely. Despite theoretical proximity to one another, the sense of frontier growing persists. That’s farming on the margins, I suppose.Thanks for reading Vininspo! If you enjoy this piece, please share it—and consider subscribing to support the publication.The wine that Steve mentions attempting as a schoolkid was Amarone, a style that hails from the Veneto region of northeast Italy. It’s a red wine made with partially dried grapes, and you could see how the slightly sweet, rich, chocolatey, enveloping texture might appeal to a child (even if the elevated alcohol isn’t ideal). Staying in or around the Riverland, Bill Moularadellis (founder of Kingston Estate) and Andrew Peace have become big players in this warm, dry, productive area of irrigated vineyards. Other classmates at Roseworthy included Vanya Cullen (of Cullen Wines in Margaret River), Nick Butler and Matt Aldridge.Steve’s early vintages overseas were spent at Castello di Ama in Gaiole, Chianti, and with Bauchet Frères in Bisseuil, Champagne, where he stayed with Lionel Legras in the Côte des Blancs village of Chouilly. Later vintages came with Gerhard and Brigitte Pittnauer in Austria’s Burgenland (Gerhard’s importer, Steve’s distributor and my part-time employer are one and the same: CellarHand), and with Saša Radikon in Friuli. Radikon is known for the skin-contact (“orange” or “amber”) white wines that were common in the days of Steve’s forefathers and became particularly trendy in the 2010s. Their texture and the bleeding of aroma and flavour into surprisingly exotic, often savoury, zones make the best examples deeply compelling and great potential partners with food.Alex Podolinsky is the man Steve mentions as popularising the biodynamic agriculture movement in Australia. We talk a bit about the effects of biodynamic viticulture, and I aim to put together a more explicit, specific detailing of these practices through some medium soon. Watch this space. Also, you can listen to Anna Flowerday of Te Whare Ra on this subject in episode 13.Steve and Monique’s son, Marco, has his own label and is increasingly influential at Stefano Lubiana. He’s a brilliant young winemaker (winner of the 2024 Young Gun of Wine title in this Australian competition), and together this family crafts an excellent range of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (various tiers and selections) as well as aromatic whites and fuller reds. Sparkling was where it started, though, and there are a few terms that may need some explanation. Steve mentions the cuvée being used for these wines; he is referring to the most pristine part of the juice before pressing risks any harsher textural compounds from the skins entering the fray. Tirage refers to the stage where the fermented base wine is put to bottle for a second fermentation—the one that gives it fizz and lees influence in traditional-method sparkling wine. Steve’s ideas on this are interesting. And disgorging (sometimes called degorging) is where the yeast lees are expelled from the bottle, with the bottle resealed with a cork for eventual sale, sometimes with the addition of “dosage”—a dash of balancing sweetness. (The current disgorgement of Steve and Monique’s famous Brut Reserve has a dosage of about 4.5g/L.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

I told Gwyn Olsen when I first met her that I somehow expected her to be stern. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard that—apparently, it’s how she’d come across in photographs in the wine press. In reality, she is anything but; sharp, warm and witty, I was intrigued by how her mind worked, and how that feeds into what she creates.I first heard of Gwyn during what seems like her breakthrough year of 2014, when she was named Young Winemaker of the Year in the now-defunct Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine. She was also named dux in the Advanced Wine Assessment Course (Awac) run by the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI).It wasn’t until a decade later that I met her at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS) in Mildura. That was November 2023, roughly a year after she had taken the job as senior winemaker at Henschke, based in South Australia’s Barossa region. A year before that, I had met her partner, Adam Walls—likewise sharp, warm and witty—at the Len Evans Tutorial in the Hunter Valley. I was a scholar that year, and he was a special guest, having been named dux in 2019. (Gwyn, too, was a scholar in 2015.) Adam, whose day job is as co-chair of the Wine Selectors Tasting Panel, inevitably gets a few honourable mentions in this conversation.Also mentioned are members of Gwyn’s student cohort in Adelaide. They include Cherie Spriggs and Brad Greatrix (now at Nyetimber in the UK, and also namechecked by Tim Shand in episode 15); Nina Stocker, winemaker at Brave Goose in Victoria; Kate Day who makes wine under the In Two Minds label in Mudgee, NSW; Andre Bondar of Bondar in McLaren Vale; Shane Holloway, who runs Delamere in Pipers Brook, Tasmania, with his wife Fran Austin; and Dave Feldheim, who makes wine under the Beautiful Isle label with his wife Cynthea in Tassie’s Tamar Valley.Among her formative wine experiences, Gwyn mentions a memorable bottle of wine consumed slowly and thoughtfully in the Languedoc, southern France. The producer is Tissot, a standard-bearer of the Jura region and a leading proponent of the unique Vin Jaune style. These yellow-hued wines from the Savagnin grape age for six-plus years “sous voile”—under a thin blanket of yeast—à la Fino sherry. The best ones show mind-bending depth and texture, with typical flavours of dried fruit, nuts and salty stuff that, yes, makes them magical with Comté cheese.Other professional gigs included Villa Maria in New Zealand, where she worked with fruit from areas as varied as Auckland, Gisborne and Hawkes Bay on the North Island to Marlborough down south. (For more on the evolution of Villa Maria, listen to episode 16 with Steve Smith MW.) The next step was McWilliams, which has undergone major change since Gwyn hit a roadblock there. Mount Pleasant was the flagship winery in the Hunter Valley, while “the mothership” was the Hanwood winery in Griffith in the Riverina (also mentioned by Tim Shand). Again, the group was operating across several areas, including in New Zealand.Pepper Tree/Briar Ridge also covered multiple regions. While Gwyn was based in the Hunter, the group also produces wines from Orange in NSW and Coonawarra and Wrattonbully in South Australia.If there weren’t already enough acronyms here, the AWRI is where you might go to learn more about YAN—yeast assimilable nitrogen—a term that crops up here. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it, but it leads one to think about balanced vines, healthy fruit and happy ferments. (I really liked how Johannes Hasselbach of Gunderloch described this in episode 14.)And lastly, we speak at length about Henschke, which is run by Stephen and Prue Henschke with other family members, including children Johann, Justine and Andreas, carrying the torch into the sixth generation. Hill of Grace Shiraz is the pinnacle wine, and the first vines planted on the vineyard in 1860 are known as “the grandfathers”. Mount Edelstone is another venerated family vineyard; outside the Barossa, the family also owns a site in Lenswood, referenced several times by Geoff Weaver in episode 21. Gwyn mentions several different wines produced by the family; please visit the Henschke website for more information on those. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Geoff Weaver is a man from another time—a world of steam trains and horse-and-cart milkmen—yet his pristine, cool-climate white wines hold their own with the best of the modern Australian wine scene.I’ve got to know Geoff pretty well over the years, thanks to my role with his distributor, CellarHand, which gets a mention in this conversation as the importer of Mosel estate Dr Loosen.I have interviewed him a couple of times before, once about his love of his vineyard in Lenswood, which was damaged by the 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires that ripped through the Adelaide Hills shortly after it was planted. The second time was after he got caught in the Cudlee Creek bushfire that struck just before Christmas in 2019. Both are referenced on the podcast.The conversation is easy to follow but contains numerous references to Geoff’s mentors and peers. Many carry a reputation that has made them household names to this day; some are still growing marvellous wines. Talking about his selection of the Lenswood site, Geoff mentions Dr John Gladstones (1932-2024), one of Australia’s most significant agronomists, often referred to as the godfather of Margaret River. In his early years, Geoff mentions three men with a huge legacy: Colin Gramp, great grandson of Orlando founder Johann Gramp (Orlando spawned the Jacob’s Creek brand); Karl Seppelt, whose grandfather established Seppeltsfield in the Barossa in 1851, thus planting the roots of the Seppelt brand; and Max Schubert, the father of Penfolds Grange. Magill Estate is the Penfolds winery in Adelaide that Geoff visited after his cricket game, and John Duval (who has his own Barossa label these days) is the chap who took the job and became one of only a handful of Grange-makers. Guenter Prass and Mark Tummel were hugely influential during Geoff’s Orlando days and beyond.Geoff’s agricultural science cohort included lifelong friend Brian Croser, who founded Petaluma and Tapanappa, as well as Robin Day (who planted Hentley Farm), Bill Hardy of the Hardys winemaking dynasty, and Pam Dunsford. In a story and era so blatantly dominated by men, Pam stands out (as always) for being the first to break through practically every layer of Australian wine’s multi-layered glass ceiling—bar those still begging to be smashed.Craneford Wines is the Barossa winery founded by Geoff’s sister and brother-in-law, Colin Forbes. When he exited that, Bryan Coombe was the viticultural researcher who initially went in on the Lenswood purchase with another brother-in-law, Bevan Roberts. The initial Adelaide Hills gang were Croser, Stephen George (Ashton Hills founder), Stephen and Prue Henschke and Tim Knappstein. The Uraidla Aristologist was the pub they’d meet in.Staying in the Hills, Geoff acknowledges the community spirit of Murdoch Hills vigneron Michael Downer’s brother, who was fighting fires for the Country Fire Service (CFS). Among his own wines, Geoff mentions Ferus, a Sauvignon Blanc vinified in barrel with indigenous yeasts and aged in neutral oak on its lees—techniques resulting in a complex, textural style that sits apart from the crisp, pungent, lighter-bodied, stainless-steel-raised stereotype.And lastly, a roll call of other names of friends. Sue Hodder is the much-admired winemaker at Wynns Coonawarra, and Geoff’s regular lunch pals include winemakers Neil Pike (ex-Pikes, now Limefinger), David Muster, Chris Proud, Rob Gibson, Andrew Wigan (ex-Peter Lehmann), Wayne Dutschke and Neil Jericho. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Rob Mann has gone a long way to get back where he started; he's a forward-thinking high-achiever with a strong sense of self who's working extremely hard to efface any notion of ego or fashion from the wines he grows.His wines are produced under the Corymbia label, which he runs with his wife, Genevieve. Gen is a gem; she shies away from the limelight but is an exceptionally intelligent, sensitive winegrower. She was a scholar at the Len Evans Tutorial the same year as me; it's always a pleasure to talk and taste wine with her. Their key wines are a Chenin Blanc and Tempranillo/Malbec blend from their vineyard in Swan Valley, about a half-hour drive from Perth, and Cabernet Sauvignon grown on their Calgardup Vineyard beside Redgate Beach, Margaret River.The name Corymbia derives from the blossom of the Marri tree, which is depicted on the labels designed by Rob's sister Emma. The flower's filaments depict the temperatures and rainfall levels of the 12 months of the vintage year. Supposedly, you'll find the Marri tree growing in soils that are good for grapes. This kind of locally rooted, holistic thinking is typical chez Mann, as is the linkage to family, err, tree.And in this regard, Rob hails from WA wine royalty. He is the great-grandson of winemaker George Mann and the grandson of Jack Mann. The latter put Swan Valley on the map, famously working 51 consecutive vintages for Houghton. This winery's flagship wine is called Jack Mann and is synonymous with the Frankland River region within the Great Southern. This is another area Rob namechecks; he has won extremely high praise for the wines he makes for the Swinney family down there.Back to the Mann clan, Rob also mentions his uncle Dorham, whose Mann winery is in the Swan Valley, just like Lamont's winery, which his aunt Corin established. Rob's late father, Tony, was a revered leg spinner who played cricket for Australia and was remembered by many as the first nightwatchman to score a century for his country. There is not enough space here to discuss cricket's arcane terminology (my suggestion is that you just get into it—like, in deep); suffice to say, the players Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh, John Inverarity and Sir Garfield Sobers are household names to those who love the sound of leather on willow. (And I'm not explaining that, either.) Tony's nickname was Rocket, on account of his powerful arm and a pun too good to miss. Rob and Gen's Chenin and Tempranillo/Malbec grow on Rocket's Vineyard, where Rob's mum Lyn serves legendary scones to lucky visitors.A few non-family members also crack a mention. Rob speaks about his great university friend, Ben Glaetzer, who makes wines under his own name from old vines in the northern Barossa. Another formative experience was with Hardys at Stonehaven and Tintara. It's far from the first time the hotbed of Hardys talent has been mentioned on the podcast. Peter Dawson, Simon White and Stephen Pannell were all key figures in that chapter. It was late sparkling wine champion Tony Jordan who plucked Mann from there for the role at Cape Mentelle in Margaret River in 2005. That winery was founded by industry pioneer David Hohnen and his brothers Mark and Giles, while David's daughter Freya is also mentioned. Rob's role in the Napa Valley was with Newton Vineyard. Like Cape Mentelle, Newton Vineyard came under the umbrella of luxury group LVMH. Sadly, the Calistoga-based estate is permanently closed, a victim of devastating wildfires in 2020.Another sour note was Rob's experience with the Brettanomyces yeast, a unicellular fungus commonly causing microbial spoilage in wine. If it appears in your wine, it may obscure true and appealing aromas on the nose and strip the palate of its fruit, thus magnifying other elements and making the wine appear unbalanced. In more severe cases, it can give off deeply unpleasant aromas and flavours often likened to Band-Aids, sweaty horses, befouled barnyards and worse. Australian winemakers' understanding of Brett—and loathing of it—has led to a severe decrease in incidence over the past couple of decades. Meticulous cleaning and sanitation throughout the winemaking and maturation processes are key. The sparing, well-timed use of sulphur dioxide remains the friend of growers who want their wines to show their true colours without running the risk of spoilage.On a brighter note, Rob alludes to his friendship with Simon Osicka and Andrew Marks—you can find out more about this trio here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Crawford River is off the beaten track—on the road to nowhere, as Bee Thomson puts it—yet lovers of elegant, soulful, deftly balanced wines make a beeline to this second-generation label because they know precisely what it stands for.Much of the credit goes to Bee’s worldly parents, John and Catherine Thomson. John was the visionary who planted the vines in Condah in what is now southwest Victoria’s Henty region in 1975.In one of Australia’s chilliest pockets for grape-growing, there wasn’t much besides the sparkling varieties planted by Karl Seppelt in the ’60s to suggest that this would be a goer. Thomson Sr’s hunch that he had slopes on auspicious soils was confirmed by late legend of viticulture Kym Ludvigsen, but he essentially ploughed his own furrow from day dot.The estate has since carved out a first-rate reputation for Riesling so sublime that it tends to overshadow the superb Cabernet Franc, uncannily good Cabernet Sauvignon and fine Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend that also grow here.I’ve been fortunate to have a bit to do with the Thomsons, initially because of my love of Riesling. They are deeply connected with the global Riesling family and were a key player in the Frankland Estate-spearheaded Riesling Downunder events I had a small hand in organising in 2015 and 2018 because of my role at German wine specialist CellarHand. On the global Riesling front, one of the vintage experiences cited by Bee was with Emrich-Schönleber in Germany’s Nahe region.Bee’s husband, Cameron Kidd, earns a mention late in the interview. This fine fellow runs one of Melbourne’s best wine merchants, Rathdowne Cellars—hence her access to a smorgasbord of fine wine styles. Aside from Cam, this interview involves a lot of ruminations on family.We are told that John Thomson is fanatical about phenological ripeness, which warrants a bit of explanation. When it comes to ripe wine grapes, there are various indicators one might use. Sugar ripeness is when the sugars in the berry have reached a point (hopefully before the invigorating acids have dropped below desired levels) where they suggest ideal maturity. Flavour ripeness refers to the point where the flavours in the berry and its skins appear complete, with no underripe (bitter and vegetal) or overripe (cooked or baked) flavours. Phenological ripeness is taken by some to be even truer: when the phenols (complex molecules including the skin tannins) lose their astringency and appear to mesh and melt rather than snap and bite on the palate. Even in white wines, where tannins play a far lesser role, phenological ripeness lends a feeling of effortless resolution in the flavours and texture. Some winegrowers say there's “only one ripeness”, and ideally, there is: full flavour with sugars and acids in perfect harmony while the tannins are ripe and resolved. Well, that's the grail...Belinda also uses the term Baumé when talking about ripeness. A degree Baumé is a unit on the hydrometer scale for measuring liquid density, which can be used to indicate sugar levels in grapes and therefore give an indication of ripeness. One other technical term Bee uses is “malo”, meaning malolactic conversion. This is generally a natural and desirable process in red winemaking; it is merely the timing of it with Bee's Cabernet Sauvignon that temporarily caused a furrowed brow. You can learn more about malolactic conversion by checking out my post on episode 18 of the podcast.Skins—and the amount of time the wine spends in contact with them—are a focal point of the 2022 Crawford Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that Belinda liked so much. At the risk of stating the obvious, the grape skins are central to most red winemaking; that’s where the colour, most of the tannin and much of the flavour come from. However, the length and timing of skin contact can vary, as will its effects, depending on grape variety and other conditions in the fruit and cellar. The grapes can have pre-fermentation maceration (also known as aqueous maceration or cold soaking), maceration during (partial or complete, depending on when the juice is drained) fermentation, and post-fermentation maceration. Like everything in winemaking, there is no ideal “time on skins”, and effects (amid evolving interplay with other compounds and their interactions) vary and shift. What Bee observes with this particular wine is that the evolution she observed, up to the point when she chose to take the wine off the skins, was exciting from a taste and tactile point of view—and it surprised her, as special wines often do.In New Zealand, Bee discusses her work with Claire and Mike Allan, the founders and erstwhile owners of Huia in Marlborough’s Wairau Valley. The Spanish grape variety she mentions is Verdejo. Rueda is its most famous home, in the vicinity of which Bee’s adventures in northern Spain took place. The enormous Spanish winery she namechecks is Campo Viejo, which was last year offloaded by drinks giant Pernod Ricard. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

This is the story of Gembrook Hill.All the context is in the story. It’s a long article, addressing perhaps my frustration with the shallowness of much so-called storytelling around wine. This is just a second-generation estate in a wine region whose modern era only dates back 60-odd years.And yet there is so much richness of consideration, camaraderie, aspiration and endeavour wrapped up in it.Please let me know your thoughts on the piece and this format of delivering it.In the meantime, thanks for tuning into Vininspo!—I look forward to bringing you most podcast episodes when I get back from a short break.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

This is the story of Vaughn Dell and Linda Morice, written towards the end of 2024. If you’d prefer to read it, you can do so here.All the context is in the story. It’s dear to my heart; I hope you’ll listen.Please leave a comment to share your thoughts on the piece and this format of delivery.In the meantime, thanks for tuning into Vininspo!—I look forward to bringing you most podcast episodes when I get back from a short break.Please check out edmerrison.substack.com to see the original version of this story and for other wine journalism. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

I got to know David Lloyd when he was living on his beautiful Eldridge Estate in Red Hill, a few kilometres up the road from where I live on the Mornington Peninsula. A fellow journalist on a trade magazine I’d been freelancing for suggested I contact him because I was scouting around for some vineyard experience. David was a good bloke, excellent winemaker and could do with a hand, he said.This all turned out to be true. The reason David could do with a hand, I discovered, was that his wife, Wendy, was in the advanced stages of a cancer that went on to kill her. He—they both, actually—welcomed me warmly, although I’m not sure I was a tremendous help.In this conversation, we talk at length about the quarter-century he spent as custodian of Eldridge Estate. Nat and Rosalie White, founders of Main Ridge Estate, were among David’s closest friends right the way through, and to this day, so it’s no surprise they feature prominently here. Lindsay McCall of Paringa Estate in Red Hill is also mentioned. The book I quote from is The Essence of Dreams by Andrew Caillard MW, which gives a detailed history of this Victorian wine-growing region. You can read more about Stephen Hickinbotham there. Hugely respected and fondly remembered, this winemaker was hugely influential in the peninsula’s early days and died in an air crash in the mid-’80s.The peninsula talk includes some technical stuff—unsurprising given David’s scientific leanings. The bacteria that brought them here are responsible for malolactic conversion (aka malolactic fermentation, malo or MLF). This is the process, common to pretty much all red wines and some (usually textural) whites, rosés and sparklings, where the harsher malic acid is softened and rounded out as it is converted to lactic acid. The process can occur naturally and lowers the wine’s overall acidity. That wasn’t it for microorganisms; we talked about yeasts, and Petaluma founder Brian Croser’s (now of Tapanappa) name popped up.We also talk about clones. It’s important to say that we’re not talking about some Frankenstein-like modification. Clones are just variations within a grape variety that have come about through genetic mutation. As an ancient variety with large, scattered areas planted—and with growers who have captured, selected and propagated certain mutations—Pinot Noir has a lot of them, and they have very slightly different characteristics. These will affect how the vine adapts to its surroundings and how that shows up in the wine. It’s interesting, but not something to get hung up on. But you can watch this nerdy little video on MV6, the signature clone of the Mornington Peninsula. Oh, and the Pinot clone David mentions in Santa Rita Hills, California—Musigny is one of Burgundy’s top grand-cru vineyards for reds, and Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé is a great grower.The Coonawarra crew are Doug Bowen, whose wife Joy passed away last year, and Brian "Prof" Lynn of Majella Wines. Peter Gago and his wife, Gail, also feature. Peter is chief winemaker at Penfolds and, therefore, the man behind Grange, Australia's most famous wine. I've never met him and have only witnessed a highly stylised version of him at a distance through the lens of the super-slick Penfolds PR machine. I was fascinated to hear more about him from an intimate friend. The Gamay section includes a nod to Barry Morey of Sorrenberg.Lastly, we talk about David’s friend Michael Twelftree of Two Hands in the Barossa, with whom David collaborates for the Odd Couple wines. I drank the Coal River rendition with my wife that night; it was delicious. (For more on that region, and Pinot Noir in general, listen to Steve Flamsteed, consultant to modern-era Eldridge Estate, on episode 11.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Kim Chalmers wears many hats, not least in a family business that serves as vine nursery, grape supplier and wine estate with vineyards in two separate geographical indications (GIs). She’s also wife to a winemaker and mother of two daughters, as well as serving on numerous committees. “History is made by those who turn up,” she says—and she turns up every time, full of enthusiasm.Bruce and Jenni Chalmers are the green-fingered parents who started growing all kinds of things in New South Wales before hitting upon grapes when the wine industry was booming. The nursery has since moved from Euston, NSW, to Merbein, just outside Mildura in Victoria. This rural city at the junction of Australia's two longest rivers, the Murray and the Darling, is a character we discuss in this episode.Kim works in the business alongside her Netherlands-born winemaker husband, Bart Van Olphen. That’s one dynamic double act; another is Kim and her sister Tennille. As well as the nursery in Merbein, the family owns a large, diversely planted vineyard in Colbinabbin, in the Heathcote GI in central Victoria. We don’t talk much about the vineyard, which is an east-facing sloped site comprised of the famous red Cambrian soils of the area. The lower vineyard is deep, red clay-loam, while the higher vineyard is complex rocky terrain of ironstone, dolerite, green basalt and jasper. It is home to more than different grape varieties and supplies about 40 producers with grapes.This vineyard is the source for most wines produced under the Chalmers label, which we do discuss. We also mention Sandro Moselle, the former winemaker at Port Phillip Estate on the Mornington Peninsula, where the family wines were made until the winery was built in Merbein in the 2010s.On the subject of the vine selection and importation through the nursery business, Kim mentions Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo (VCR) and explains how this extraordinary cooperative operates. In a similar vein, she talks about Gruppo Matura, a collective of Italian winemakers and agronomists collaborating to further Italian wine, both at home and overseas. Hugely influential winemaking consultant Alberto Antonini is a driving force behind this group, while Kim often refers to Stefano Dini as a brother; he has spent a lot of time with the Chalmers family and has done fascinating, effective work on their behalf. Kim and I recorded a bonus segment on this side of the business, which I hope to publish soon.Kim sits on the board of Wine Victoria and, like me, on the committee of Melbourne Royal Wine Awards. She is also a spearhead of the Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS), which takes place each November in Mildura. We talk at length about AAVWS, whose seed was planted as the Sangiovese Challenge in 1999, the brainchild of three people mentioned in the interview: Bruce Chalmers, restaurateur Stefano de Pieri and the late plant virologist Dr Rod Bonfiglioli. I have been fortunate to serve as a judge these past three years under the chair of judges, Leanne Altmann, the much-admired Melbourne sommelier that Kim mentions. Also namechecked are AAVWS president Corrina Wright, judge Kerri Thompson (KT) and regular entrant Richard Leask of Hither & Yon in McLaren Vale. For another perspective on AAVWS, please listen to Jeff Porter, 2023’s international judge, who was my guest on episode 6. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

There’s no challenge too steep for this brainiac entrepreneur viticulturist who likes to do things differently—and he’s certainly not done with redefining world-class New Zealand.Ambition is something Steve Smith can’t get enough of. He saw it in revolutionary viticulturist Richard Smart, who taught him to think. He saw it in Robert Mondavi and other doyens of the Napa Valley. He saw it in Sir George Fistonich, who wanted to turn a winery in receivership into the most decorated in New Zealand. And he would have seen it in himself long before—aged just 36 and having never run a business—he built Craggy Range from greenfield to world-renowned grandeur. His latest venture, spearheaded by Pyramid Valley, has limitless aspirations, and Steve wants to see Aotearoa get her mojo back and aim ever higher.I met Steve for the first time when he visited me on the Mornington Peninsula recently. He was in my neck of the woods at the invitation of Rollo Crittenden, who generously put his Dr Allan Antcliff Viticulture Award toward luring Steve to speak to the local vignerons’ association.Ours was a long, involved conversation, and most of the context can be found in the chat itself. We spoke in some detail about Steve’s roughly 10-year stint at Villa Maria, which makes wines from multiple regions. The next big project was at Craggy Range for the Peabody family, who still own the estate in Hawkes Bay on New Zealand’s North Island. Chris Pask and Alan Limmer (Stonecroft) are mentioned as pioneers of the Gimblett Gravels Wine Growing District, while other notables are Trinity Hill and Te Mata, maker of the famed Coleraine Cabernet blend.Te Muna is the Martinborough site that Steve mentions for Sauvignon Blanc, and the Larry who is mentioned is Larry McKenna, the legendary Prince of Pinot who made a global name for the Escarpment winery.That same winery was the former employer of Huw Kinch, who is the winemaker for Pyramid Valley, the Waikari-based (North Canterbury) jewel in the crown of Steve’s current venture with investor and environmentalist Brian Sheth. They bought Pyramid Valley from Claudia Weersing and her late husband Mike, hugely admired boundary-pushers for biodynamic farming, terroir winegrowing and natural wine (for some discussion on that last term, please visit episode 12 with Christina Pickard).Kinch and his family live on the Waikari property, while his viticulturist counterpart, Nick Paulin (ex-Felton Road), lives in Lowburn, Central Otago, where Pyramid’s Snake’s Tongue Pinot Noir is grown. As Steve says, their roles are not so neatly divided; both are involved in the vines and wines. For more on Central Otago, you can listen to episode 8 with PJ Charteris, while Steve namechecks wines he enjoys from here: Burn Cottage, Valli, Prophet’s Rock and Felton Road.Finally, when Steve speaks of Pyramid Valley being a twin-based estate, with a foot in North Canterbury and a foot in Central, he refers to the precedent set by Paul Draper of Ridge Vineyards in California, which has homes at Monte Bello and Lytton Springs. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Tim Shand is not one to follow the flock. In a world where yes-men get ahead and homogeneity wins widespread acceptance, his contrarian nature hasn’t always gone down well. But an impulse to challenge conventional wisdom and see through mediocrity has made him stand out from the crowd in the long run—and earn a shot at fulfilling a prodigious potential.I got to know Tim well when he was chief winemaker at Punt Road in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Among notable achievements there, he won the highly prestigious Trevor Mast trophy for best Shiraz at Melbourne Royal Wine Awards for a grape supposedly grown in the wrong place on a workmanlike vineyard. He also turned the estate’s second label, Airlie Bank, from a routine quaffer line into a range of great-value, characterful, overdelivering wines that would get wine-buyers properly excited. In this conversation, we talk about how.Another storied wine was the 2012 Giant Steps Applejack Pinot Noir, which came within a whisker (there wasn’t quite enough produced to qualify… or was there?!) of being the first Pinot Noir to snag Australia’s most famous wine trophy, the Jimmy Watson. It was named best Pinot but missed out on the Jimmy to a Pinot it had bested in its own class. Go figure. Tim put that wine together while working as 2iC to Steve Flamsteed, my guest on episode 11. Tim references the Innocent Bystander cellar door and brand (now owned by Brown Brothers) that was the little sibling to Giant Steps (now owned by Jackson Family Estates), a single-vineyard Yarra project led by serial drinks entrepreneur Phil Sexton. Tim also mentions Dave Mackintosh (Arfion), Timo Mayer (more about him in this article) and Dave Bicknell of Oakridge.Hardys is a brand of what was formerly BRL Hardy and has now been subsumed (via Constellation) into the newly created Vinarchy group. Former podcast guests Steve Flamsteed and Anna Flowerday worked at Hardys and talked about their peers. Industry legend Paul Lapsley was was chief winemaker back in the day, and other names Tim drops are Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT; read about her here), Larry Cherubino (Cherubino), Simon Osicka (Paul Osicka) Ross Pamment (Houghton), Sue Bell (Bellwether), Mark O’Callaghan (Wine Network Consulting), sparkling guru Ed Carr (House of Arras) and Pete Dillon (Handpicked, which now owns Arras). Tim spent another vintage at McWilliams in Griffith with Adrian Sparks (now chief at Mount Pleasant), Andrew Higgins and Sam Brewer.The infamous Bordeaux chapter came about through advice from Brad Greatrix, who makes wine at English sparkling house Nyetimber with Cherie Spriggs. The late Paul Pontallier was in charge of Château Margaux at the time. Véronique Drouhin in Oregon was instrumental in making connections (Domaine Drouhin is an outpost of Burgundy producer Joseph Drouhin), including with Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac, who is married to Napa-born vigneron Diana Snowden Seysses. The wine at the centre of an anecdote there is from the Monts Luisants 1er Cru vineyard in Morey-Saint-Denis in Burgundy.Back in Margaret River, Tim was appointed chief winemaker at Voyager Estate in mid-2022. He was hired by Alexandra Burt, who represents the second generation of the Wright family to own and operate this organic-certified domaine. It was Alex who lured philosopher A. C. Grayling to Voyager Estate earlier this year; Professor Grayling was my guest on episode 10. He gets a solid mention here, as do other leading lights close to Voyager’s home: Leeuwin Estate, Xanadu and Stella Bella, whose Luminosa Chardonnay, crafted by Luke Joliffe, is referenced.Lastly, Tim talks of catching up with Rob and Genevieve Mann of Corymbia the day we spoke. The Manns were visiting Voyager Estate with Andrew Marks of Gembrook Hill and his partner, Sophie—you can hear more about their friendship and accomplishments here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

His 19th-century forebear sold a bank to buy vineyards, so deeply did he believe in the beauty and promise of a red slab of ancient slated desert sand above the River Rhine.Make no mistake: Johannes Hasselbach is fully invested—even if there was a time when he might have wondered what on earth his great-, great, great, grandfather was thinking when he sold the family bank in 1890 to buy vineyards in Germany’s Rheinhessen.Carl Gunderloch, from whom this esteemed estate in Nackenheim takes its name, must have been utterly captivated by the Roter Hang, an east-facing red slope of compacted desert sand from the Permian era.And while Johannes didn’t initially see himself following in his footsteps, he has taken to the role of being a devoted servant of the majestic Rothenberg vineyard and its grand-cru siblings, Hipping and Pettenthal, in a deep-thinking, full-blooded fashion.Johannes was called to the winery in sudden and partly sad circumstances, when his younger sister—the heiress apparent—found love abroad and his father was subsequently taken ill. Fritz Hasselbach was a giant of German wine and is fondly evoked here. Fritz died in 2016, but not before he had put Gunderloch and Rothenberg firmly in the German premier league, not least for the sweet wines that won him a hat-trick of 100-point reviews in Wine Spectator. (Many may be familiar with Gunderloch’s everyday quaffer, Fritz’s Riesling, named in his honour.)If a quest to do Carl Gunderloch’s vineyards justice is a constant, much of this conversation revolves around change—generational, stylistic, climatic, technological—and, as such, provides a wonderful window onto the decision-making of an ethical farmer seeking the ultimate expression of that unique confluence of factors the French call “terroir”. Even that concept is subject to a twist here, when Johannes and I talk about his Wurzelwerk project, in which he swapped grapes with his friend, Theresa Breuer, and his brother-in-law and sister, Alwin and Stefanie Jurtschitsch. The vineyards in question were Rothenberg in Rheinhessen, Nonnenberg in the Rheingau and Heiligenstein in Austria’s Kamptal. Two other experiments we discuss are Al’s Wär’s Ein Stück Von Mir and Virgo. The former is an “ahead-of-its-time-old-school-wine”, the latter was a fascinating rendition of Rothenberg with the grapes picked, crushed and fermented—and the wine raised—in the vineyard. The idea was to give the site the ultimate opportunity to chuck all of its DNA at the resulting wine.There is inevitably talk of the VDP, a prestigious, private body of provenance-obsessed German growers, for whom Johannes serves as Rheinhessen’s regional president. We also mention Prädikat wines, which come with their own classification system. Both of these are further elucidated—and, trust me, it is interesting, relevant and understandable—in a bonus episode for paid subscribers (with an accompanying Substack post).Early on, Johannes mentions vintages he worked overseas with his (now) wife Marie. These were Jackson-Triggs in Canada’s Okanagan Valley, Martinborough Vineyard in New Zealand, and Jim Barry in Australia’s Clare Valley.Finally, among the growers Johannes cites as sharing his conception of a vigneron’s role are Philipp Wittmann (Rheinhessen), Cornelius Dönnhoff (Nahe), Tement and Wohlmuth (Südsteiermark/Southern Styria, Austria) and Vino Gross in Slovenia. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

From McLaren Vale to Marlborough, straight-shooting natural farmer Anna Flowerday has walked the walk with “vine Jedi” husband Jason—all the way to the title of NZ Vigneron of the Year.“Wines made with cowshit not bullshit” went the famous tagline at Te Whare Ra (TWR), the Marlborough estate Anna runs with her husband, Jason. It’s apt in so many ways: the indelicate language, the allusion to the use of manure in biodynamic viticulture and the disdain for dissimulation in the way people present their wines.Te Whare Ra is a Māori name meaning ‘house in the sun', and the vineyard was originally planted in 1979. Anna and Jason purchased the land in 2003 and have developed it into a humming 11-hectare site of predominantly loam over clay soils.Anna is a straight-talker, and one happy to voice and stand by her beliefs. She is a fierce advocate for organic viticulture, and TWR is certified by BioGroNZ. She champions her region of Marlborough as loudly as anyone. She has organised and spoken at a string of industry conferences, including a star turn at the Terroir Conference in Shanghai in 2017, where she shared the bill with global luminaries Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, legendary consultant Stéphane Derenoncourt, Château Ausone owner Pauline Vauthier, and Rhône royalty Philippe Guigal. She is also thoroughly at home in the cellar door in Renwick, where she loves to encourage curiosity in all-comers and won’t shy away from difficult questions.She is, as this episode shows, what we used to call “natural”. Like the aromatic whites that make up the lion’s share of the TWR range, her candour is refreshing, too.I have known Anna for over a decade and have had the pleasure of seeing her and Jason in their element on the farm. I used to work for her Australian importer (whose co-owner, Patrick Walsh, appeared on episode 4), and refer here to an interview she gave in October 2014.The conversation for this episode took place during the week she and Jason were named New Zealand Vigneron of the Year by The Real Review, a prominent wine ratings website in Australia. We talk about the implications of this accolade for their small business.From her McLaren Vale childhood, she mentions Corrina Wright (née Rayment) of Oliver's Taranga and Malcolm and Richard Leask of Hither & Yon. The mentor she cites in her early hospitality role is Peter Morelli of Red Ochre Grill.Of Jason Flowerday’s history, the wineries he’d worked at in the Clare Valley (where Leasingham, then a brand of Hardys, is located) were Skillogalee and Crabtree. He was initially in Australia with NZ company Selaks (which also appears in my story on Kiwi-born Clare-dweller Col McBryde).Several names crop up going back to Anna’s days at BRL Hardy, including the inspirational higher-ups at the time, Peter Dawson and Tim James, who now make wine together in Tasmania under the Dawson James label. Stephen Pannell (Pannell Enoteca) and Glenn James (Billy Button) were the seniors then, and he talented group of namechecked peers include Pannell was group Red Winemaker then and Glenn James was group White Winemaker and then yeah was like Sue Bell (Bellwether), Larry Cherubino (Cherubino), Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT), Rob Mann (Corymbia), Fran Austin (Delamere) and Cynthea Semmens (Marion's Vineyard). Tintara is the name of a brand and historic winery in McLaren Vale. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

A discernible warmth always manages to seep through Christina Pickard’s writing, and it does nothing to lessen the import of her output, which is serious, considered and searching. The affection is infectious.Christina is based in the Hudson Valley in her native New York State, and her primary role is as writer-at-large for Wine Enthusiast, where her beat is Australia, New Zealand, the UK and New York.The two of us met years ago when she was living in Perth and writing for various magazines, including Decanter, Gourmet Traveller WINE and Halliday Wine Companion. Her years in WA made the wines of Margaret River and beyond ripe for discussion; for more on this area, make sure you check out episode 3 with our mutual friend, Erin Larkin.Some of the lesser-known Australian mentions go the way of William Downie and Patrick Sullivan in Gippsland, Victoria, and—on the subject of natural wine—James Erskine of Jauma and Anton van Klopper of Lucy M. On the subject of “natty” wine, in this conversation, we’re working with a definition of no additions in the winemaking process, including eschewing protective additions of sulphur dioxide (SO2). Pét-Nat is Pétillant-Naturel, a style of sparkling wine associated with this movement where the wine is bottled and sealed before the first fermentation is complete, leading to a cloudy wine with trapped CO2 from the ongoing fermentation creating the fizz. For more on natural wine—the concept, perceptions and positions—this is an excellent read from Simon J Woolf.Central to Christina’s London experience was Vinopolis, the wine-centric commercial visitor attraction in Southwark, which operated from 1999 to 2015. English wine also features in our chat—and pops up in our bonus segment on sparkling wine—and a couple of relative big-hitters, Gusbourne and Chapel Down, are namechecked here alongside Tim Wildman MW’s more leftfield Lost in a Field project.That brings us to the relatively obscure world of hybrid grapes, which Christina explains. These are the result of the crossing of two different Vitis species, such as the “European” grapevine, Vitis vinifera (to which all those famous mainstream grape varieties you know belong), with native North American species such as Vitis laubrusca, riparia, rupestris or berlandieri. (As an aside, grafting vinifera onto rootstocks derived from these species has been vital in giving the former resistance against pests like phylloxera or otherwise adapting it to inauspicious growing conditions.) The idea of quality wine from these hybrids and heritage varieties is the source of renewed curiosity—but most people, including me, have a lot to learn! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Steve Flamsteed grew up in a full and lively household and succumbed to the pleasure of feeding people at a young age.Infected by punk energy from a young age, this lifelong devotee of good music has never lost the instinct of providing for—and feeding off—others.At the same time, a man whose curiosity led to a career-seeking quandary because cheffing, cheesemaking and wine all called with equally seductive siren voices.And though he chose wine, you feel the fusion of these things fuels his every move.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Steve is best known to most people for his 20-year stint as winemaker at Giant Steps, whose single-vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir program was part-funded by the fast-growing wine brand Innocent Bystander.Steve joined serial drinks entrepreneur Phil Sexton—the man behind WA winery Devil’s Lair and the beer labels Little Creatures and Matilda Bay—right at the start, creating a multi-faceted drinks brand alongside a high-end label pushing the Aussie envelope with cool-climate site expression. Innocent Bystander has since been sold to Brown Brothers and Giant Steps to US group Jackson Family Estates. Mel Chester now makes the wines for the latter.The Beaujolais estate Steve works at is Domaine Saint Charles, where he met Dean Hewitson, who runs his Hewitson label out of the Barossa Valley. Milawa Cheese Company is where Steve worked with founder David Brown in Victoria’s King Valley. And I hope Steve whets your appetite for what I hope will be more Beechworth in the show. The names he mentions are Giaconda, Savaterre, Sorrenberg and A. Rodda.Steve is the third alumnus of Roseworthy Agricultural College to appear on the podcast. Meg Brodtmann (episode 9) and, especially, PJ Charteris (episode 8) shine a light on this storied Australian institution. While he was there, he mentions sharing a flat with Dave Bicknell and Nicky Harris, a husband-and-wife team these days making wines under the Bicknell FC label, while Dave is better known as the winemaking force behind Oakridge in the Yarra Valley.And we didn’t talk about the exceptional Yarra Valley Chardonnay Steve makes with his friend Dave Mackintosh under the Salo label (not much of it around, but do seek it out; it’s a brilliant wine). We did, however, mention his Decades project from Tasmania, and I hope you’ll be tempted to see what Steve does with that vineyard after hearing what makes this warm, intelligent, sensitive soul tick. You can here more about it in our bonus episode.Finally, Steve mentions a couple of things that are piquing those interests. One is the mezcal and tequila family of drinks deriving from the agave plant; the other shoutout goes to Lachlan Barber and the salty, briny wonders he's importing from his Sydney-based company, Cortez Trading Co. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

A podcast that muses on the greater good of wine was never going to miss a chance to speak to one of the world’s most-renowned living thinkers.Anthony Grayling is a prolific author, as well as Master of the New College of the Humanities and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.I caught up with him at the tail-end of his three-week stint as philosopher-in-residence at Margaret River’s Voyager Estate, whose winemaker, Tim Shand, made this episode possible.Professor Grayling is a regular visitor to Australia and appeared at this year’s Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, followed by Melbourne Writers Festival, where he discussed his new book, Discriminations: Making Peace in the Culture Wars.Our conversation centred upon his previous book, Philosophy and Life: Exploring the Great Questions of How to Live, and how we might apply those lessons to growing, drinking and enjoying wine. A central concern is the Socratic challenge: the idea that the unconsidered life is not worth living—that if you don't reflect on your life and don't identify and choose the values you live by, then you are not fully living. “Most people would rather die than think, and many of them do!” said Bertrand Russell. Well, for the sake of wine, the planet and each other, Vininspo! is a fierce advocate of freedom of thought—well, let’s go one further: our responsibility to question, think and act accordingly.This was a fascinating discussion about curiosity, authenticity, resilience, fulfilment and much more.As well as Socrates himself, we discuss the Cynics, Epicureans and Stoics. Plato comes up, as does Cicero’s work De Amicitia. Also mentioned are Spinoza, Walter Pater, Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, whose Existentialism is a Humanism essay drives a complete answer on authenticity and commitment.In addition, I quote Robyn Archer from her 20-year-old Alfred Deakin Innovation Lecture, “Imagination and the Audience: Commissioning for Creativity”, as well as an excerpt from Nietzsche as cited in Geoff Dyer’s brilliant book, The Last Days of Roger Federer.A.C. Grayling among the organically farmed vines at Voyager Estate. Photo and cover image by Ovis Creative. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

When you’re blessed to know a good teacher, you kind of think other people deserve the benefit of their wisdom.Meg Brodtmann MW was one of the first people to formally “teach” me wine as a lead lecturer in levels 3 and 4 of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET).She was straight-shooting, down-to-earth and amusing; her lack of hauteur belies a fierce intelligence, and tasting wine with her continues to be hugely enjoyable.As a Master of Wine, Meg reached the pinnacle of wine learning long ago, but she even scaled that peak with distinctly Brodtmannesque whateverness.As well as leading a vast number of students through all levels of the WSET system, Meg continues to judge, consult and make wine, as well as co-hosting an award-winning podcast, Wine with Meg + Mel.Most aspects of this hugely enjoyable conversation are self-explanatory, but as always, a bit of context is necessary.Meg studied at Roseworthy Agricultural College, which PJ Charteris spoke to me about at length in Episode 8. Meg then talks about going to Gaillac in southwest France. The local grapes she mentions are the white grape Len de l'El, the sparkling grape Mauzac and the reds, Duras and Braucol, aka Fer. She refers to these as grapes for “appellation wines”, meaning wines with a more specific designation of origin (or tie to the region). Vin de Pays is a category that generally has looser rules around permitted grape varieties and other things.Chile also plays a key role in Meg’s life. Her husband, Kiwi-born Pete Mackey, got a job making high-end Cabernet in the Apalta Valley, which is part of the Colchagua Valley, which is in turn part of Chile’s Central Valley. This whole area produces a huge amount of wine to a high standard; in this narrow country with serious influences from mountains and ocean, the shifts in quality potential, style and variety are marked across every nook and cranny. Safe to say, the sky's the limit with the right grape in the right area, and we cover quite a few varieties and regions.The Yarra Valley winemakers Meg gives a shoutout to are: Jayden Ong, Natillie Johnston of Tilie. J,, Stuart Dudine of Alkimi, Syd Bradford of Thick as Thieves and TarraWarra's Sarah Fagan (Fages to her mates; read more about her here).To learn more about the Master of Wine and Wine Spirit Education Trust, please refer back to my Substack post on Andrea Pritzker MW (Episode 2). Some of the fellow students Meg mentions are: Xenia Ruscombe-King (née Irwin), who works for high-end British grocery chain Waitrose, wine critic Tim Atkin, Norrel Robertson of El Escocés Volante and New Zealand-based consultant winemaker Alastair Maling. Angela Muir of Cellar World International, which played a pivotal role in Meg's formative winemaking years, is also a Master of Wine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

PJ Charteris has ping-ponged between New Zealand and Australia his whole life, and few winemakers wear their wanderings on their sleeve quite like him.PJ and his wife, Chrissi Pattison, run the Charteris wine label from their cellar door in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, where they also peddle the New Zealand wines PJ makes in Central Otago.Kiwi PJ met his Australian bride while they were both working at Brokenwood in the Hunter Valley, the Semillon-synonymous region that has been a constant in PJ’s career.Having grown up in the Waikato on New Zealand’s North Island and got his first job among the vines there as a 13-year-old, a spot of luck took him to Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia. This set him up with experience and acquaintances that brought on the crisscrossing stepping stones of his future journey.One of the (literally) biggest influences was Lindemans, where PJ served in the Hunter, at Karadoc in Mildura (Victoria)—where he talks about blending the multiregional Bin 65 Chardonnay, and in Coonawarra, where he cites the prestigious red-wine trio of Pyrus, St George and Limestone Ridge.Lindemans at the time was part of Southcorp (later morphing into Treasury Wine Estates), which owned several brands across Australia, hence PJ’s exposure to various regions and portfolios.One of those is Penfolds, maker of Grange—Australia’s most famous red wine—and the project we discuss is Yattarna, where PJ effectively scoured the country to conjure a white Grange. At one point, this may have been Riesling, Semillon or Chardonnay, but Chardonnay won out and Yattarna has become a storied blend of immense intensity and complexity.PJ drops a lot of names here; the sheer number and calibre of these peers is one of the most endearing parts of his story. There are too many for these show notes, but I will fix the spellings in the transcript so that you can look them up. There are a few that need some context, though.Michael Brajkovich MW of Kumeu River is the New Zealander PJ cites as a notable Roseworthy predecessor. Tom Carson, the “fourth axis” of the team under Tim Knappstein, is the long-serving winemaker at Yabby Lake on the Mornington Peninsula and grows his Serrat wines with his wife Nadège in the Yarra Valley. The schmick wines they drank together are La Tâche (Pinot Noir from Burgundy) and the Bordeaux châteaux Margaux and Haut-Brion.David and Ginny Adelsheim are the Oregon pioneers PJ worked for. As well as running Adelsheim, they were then making wines for Domaine Drouhin, the US outpost of a Burgundy estate.Among the Lindemans legends, Philip Laffer is the chap who’d recently left, leaving Phillip John and Geoff Hendricks as the top duo, while (ex-Seppelt) sparkling wine maestro Ian Mackenzie and former Penfolds Grange maker John Duvall were a couple of the senior influences.I’m glad PJ shone a light on the NSW regions. Just so you know the names and can seek them out, he briefly mentioned Cowra and Canowindra and was especially excited about Orange, Tumbarumba and Hilltops.In the Hunter Valley section, PJ speaks of James Busby and his brother-in-law William Kelman (PJ calls him John by mistake). Busby is credited with planting the seeds of the Australian wine industry, having brought an extensive collection of European vine stock to Australia in the first half of the 19th century. PJ also mentions the work of Julie McIntyre, author and research fellow in history at the University of Newcastle, as well as Max Allen's excellent book, Intoxicating. Oh, and those other Semillons to drink and compare (among others) are Andrew “Thommo” Thomas and Mike de Iuliis. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Jeff Porter’s jovial face now beams at roomfuls of amateurs and professionals who’ve flocked to hear his pronouncements on Italian wine. How times have changed since he was a filthy, reeking dishwasher no one wanted to go near.A man with a seriously healthy sense of humour, a love of hospitality and a bent for the theatrical, Jeff has played just about every role going right across the wine scene.Most of these experiences are given rich context by Jeff, from his discovery of wine as a dishwasher for a sympathetic chef, through retail at Central Market in Austin, Texas, and various restaurant jobs in California.The pinnacle of his sommelier career came as wine director at the iconic Manhattan restaurant Del Posto, which closed in 2021. Having fallen for Italian wines during his time in Napa, Jeff was headhunted to head up Del Posto, which became renowned, among other things, for an epic Italian list and a treasure trove of Jeff’s second love, Champagne.Among his media roles, Jeff and I talked about his show Sip Trip, which you can find on YouTube. (I recommend that you do.) For the past few years, he’s served as writer-at-large for Wine Enthusiast, where he reviews the wines of Northern and Central Italy.Some of the more affordable wines Jeff mentions as gateways are the dry whites from the grapes Verdicchio and Fiano (closely associated with the Marche and Campania respectively), and the red wine Valpolicella DOC, a blend from the Veneto traditionally based on the Corvina grape with others like Corvinone, Rondinella, and Molinara potentially in the mix.There is no room here to go into the minutiae of Barolo and Barbaresco, two of Jeff’s favourite wines. But these are both made from the Nebbiolo grape grown in delineated areas (DOCGs) of Piemonte, northeast Italy. The podcast features the term MGA, which stands for Menzioni Geografiche Aggiuntive. These are what the French would call “crus” or lieux-dits—specially recognised, distinctive sites.I met Jeff when he visited Australia in late 2023. We judged together the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show in Mildura, Victoria. The show traces its roots to the turn of the century, when a few visionaries decided it was time to celebrate grapes that go beyond the usual suspects of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Syrah, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, et al.Mediterranean vine varieties, especially from Italy, feature heavily at AAVWS, and Jeff gives an interesting perspective on this experience in our conversation.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Emma Rice was devastated to be told early on in life that she had looks and personality—not intelligence—going for her, and should therefore aim to be a secretary to a wine merchant.A life-changing double magnum of 1979 Krug Champagne had been the catalyst to her seeking advice on how to break into wine, only to have her boss throw this sexist advice back in her face.She immediately quit and started beating out—with no clear vision—her own path.Eventually, she stumbled across an ad for a Wine Science degree at Plumpton College in East Sussex in the south of England—a move that would change the course of her life.I first met Emma in 2016, by which time she had served for eight years at leading English sparkling wine estate Hattingley Valley in Hampshire, where she was twice named WineGB Winemaker of the Year.Emma Rice hard at work in her Hattingley Valley days. Photo credit: Felicity CrawshawShe remained at Hattingley until 2022 and now works as an independent consultant.In recent weeks, she has released her first two sparkling wines under her own name from the 2009—wines that themselves have an extraordinary back story.Emma speaks of the risks and rewards of winegrowing in Great Britain, from the the vicissitudes of the weather to the verve and finesse of chalk-grown grapes. She is intimately familiar with terroirs, fruit quality and technical progress across the country.She also reflects on the challenges and triumphs at Hattingley Valley, including the shifting perceptions of English wine in the global market and refining her approach to making world-class traditional-method sparkling wine.The saga around her own pair of Winemaker's Reserve could perhaps serve as a metaphor for the hoops English winegrowers have to jump through—but at the end of it all, Emma has learnt from mistakes and is enjoying being part of the success of her friends and clients. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

The autonomous community of Galicia in northwest Spain is the Iberian Peninsula's coolest corner—but it's so hot right now.This is where the rain in Spain mainly falls, with lush green hills, mountains and meandering canyons sprawling inland from the craggy Atlantic coast.The city of Santiago de Compostela has drawn pious pilgrims for centuries, but Galicia has endured times of famine and hardship, where it was more famous for people fleeing than filing in.Happily, it's in a good spot right now, enjoying fame for its unique, Celtic-esque culture, the warmth of its people, the beauty of its shoreline, the delicious bounty of its seafood and—yes—the brilliance of its wines.Noah Chichester fell in love with this area when he went there to teach English. He ended up staying for a few years, becoming fluent in the language and knowing its wines and growers inside out.His website, winesofgalicia.com, is an indispensable authority on Galician food, wine, tourism and culture.Our conversation here centred on Noah’s formative years and how his passion for wine and Spain came about.We also talk about navigating Galicia from a visitor’s point of view, looking at the character of the people and where they live.He also takes us step-by-step through the five Galician DOs—Denominaciones de Origen, or Protected Designations of Origin—looking at the winegrowing conditions, grape varieties and styles of the wines.The Albariño of Rías Baixas is the drop-off point for most people, but there is so much more besides, with an exciting array of grape varieties across varied, and evocative, landscapes.We also recorded a bonus episode, where Noah offered a range of recommendations on wines to try from all of the DOs, from gateway bottles to artisanal treasures.You’ll find additional video content on my website to give you a sense of these places we talk about, and I cannot recommend Noah’s website highly enough if you find yourself being sucked into the seductive world of Galician wine.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Many of us dream of a career as an idolised artist, but Patrick Walsh got so close to pop stardom he could almost taste it—only to have the dream cruelly snatched away.(For now, at least.)But there are no hard feelings. When it comes to passions, Patrick’s cup overfloweth; maybe that’s what keeps him grounded.A lover of Liverpool Football Club, outback land-rovering and futurist music, Patrick and his wife, Virginia, founded CellarHand in 1999.This Melbourne-based importer and wholesale distributor is known as a specialist in Germany and Austria, bringing in a host of household (for aromatic, high-acid wine-lovers!) names such as Dönnhoff, Dr Loosen, Gunderloch, Koehler-Ruprecht, Emmerich Knoll and F.X. Pichler.Its portfolio also takes in Australian and New Zealand wines from the likes of Yeringberg, Stefano Lubiana, Deep Woods, Frankland Estate and Burn Cottage.Our conversation spans decades and far-flung regions, from the first stirrings of the Melbourne fine wine and dining scene to the present-day sommelier zeitgeist; from homegrown Cabernet Sauvignon to obscure varieties in lesser-known corners of Europe.Context around certain names and wines might be useful.Patrick’s early career revolved around Melbourne’s restaurant scene; many of the characters involved will not be familiar to everyone—perhaps not even that of the crooning Welsh heartthrob—but their role in that milieu will be self-evident.One of the French wine anecdotes revolves around a lady named Lalou Bize-Leroy, the formidable woman at the helm of Domaine Leroy in Vosne-Romanée in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. This is one of the most prestigious estates on the planet, and Lalou also makes wines under her Domaine d’Auvenay label (also name-checked). The dog story revolves around the Chambertin Grand Cru—one of the world’s most revered Pinot Noir vineyards.Ernst Loosen is one of the German winegrowers named. Many will be familiar with the Riesling wines of Dr Loosen in Bernkastel in the Mosel Valley. Philipp Wittmann and Johannes Hasselbach of Gunderloch, growers in the Rheinhessen, are also mentioned.Austria is a fruitful topic of conversation but Patrick alludes to the darkest days in the country’s wine history—the scandal of 1985. This incident, which caused the collapse of the country’s exports, involved wineries that were found to have illegally adulterated their wines using diethylene glycol. This toxic substance is a minor ingredient in some brands of antifreeze and was used to make the wines taste sweeter and fuller-bodied. The country has worked exceptionally hard since to improve its image and impress upon the world its high standards and exceptional wines. It has been successful in this endeavour.Staying with Austria is some talk of Federspiel and Smaragd wines. These are two classifications of wines of the Wachau Valley on the Danube River. Smaragd denotes a dry wine from the ripest, most powerful grapes. Federspiel refers to a more medium-weighted, dry wine with around 12.5% alcohol.The Wachau growers referred to are Prager, F.X. Pichler, Franz Hirtzberger and Emmerich Knoll (what Patrick calls “the fab four”), as well as the excellent cooperative, Domäne Wachau. These are outstanding growers of dry Riesling and Grüner Veltliner. To dig deeper into the fascinating terroir of the Wachau you can watch this 10-minute video.Under winemaker Fritz Miesbauer, Stadt Krems and Stift Göttweig ply their trade in the neighbouring Kremstal. The River Kamp flows into the Danube near here, and that’s where you’ll find Weingut Bründlmayer.The other Austrian topic is Blaufränkisch, the superb black grape exploited by Roland Velich (of Moric) and Hannes Schuster in the Burgenland region. Hannes also makes reds from Sankt Laurent and Rotburger (aka Zweigelt) and a white from Furmint.This latter is the key Hungarian white grape we discuss, along with Hárslevelű. These are the most important grapes in the famous Tokaji sweet wines, but we discuss dry renditions. We also briefly mention Roland Velich’s brother Heinz, who makes wines from Muscat Ottonel and Welschriesling, among others.And finally, we have a look at Corsica and the wines of Manu Venturi of Clos Venturi and Domaine Vico (introduced to Patrick by Virginie Taupenot of Domaine Taupenot-Merme in Morey-Saint Denis). Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu and Carcaghjolu Neru are the hard-to-pronounce red grapes.The final wine Patrick mentions is the Loosen Barry Wolta Wolta Riesling, a collaboration between the Barry family of Clare and Ernst Loosen in the Mosel—Aussie grapes vinified the German way!And football? That’s soccer. Fernando Torres was a fine and handsome player.You can track down many of the wines mentioned at www.cellarhand.storeI hope you enjoy the show.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Aesthetics and integrity matter to Erin Larkin, the Wine Advocate reviewer for Australia and New Zealand.She grew up in Perth, a chic street urchin around the oceanside neighbourhoods of Perth who found joy in making things. That turned into an early career in fashion and a lifelong love of style, patterns, materials, details—and dressing well. As is often the case with creative people in underpaid jobs, she moonlighted in bottle shops and borderline hospitality, where parallels with her approach to fashion and a burgeoning curiosity in people and places plunged her deep into the world of wine. In 2020, Erin became a critic at Halliday Wine Companion, Australia’s most prolific publisher of reviews. She balanced this with various presenting, judging and writing gigs.A couple of years later, a fateful call from The Wine Advocate made her a full-time international critic. She’s the first Australia-based reviewer for the publication, which grew out of Robert M. Parker Jr's late-1970s direct-mail newsletter, The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate. Parker went on to become the world's most influential wine critic, and his magazine has grown into a crack international team headed by editor-in-chief William Kelley.Erin and I were both selected as scholars for the Len Evans Tutorial in 2022. Andrea Pritzker MW was also a member of that contingent; for more on LET, as it’s known, please listen to episode 2 of the podcast. Erin is thoughtful and thoroughly articulate about the evolution of her writing and approach to criticism. There is a large element of making your own luck in the way she has thrown herself into opportunities in wine, thriving on curiosity.We also went into depth about the most exciting wines coming out of Margaret River, Swan Valley and Great Southern in her home state of Western Australia. I really hope you enjoy the conversation. And I’d love to hear from you—please like, subscribe, share and comment. Your curiosity and input make the wine world go round! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Think about your first taste of a world expanding beyond your borders. When you’re small, so is your world; foreignness is a stone’s throw away. You have only a handful of experiences. Everything is new.I grew up in Rye, East Sussex, in the southeast of England. I loved it there. From that town, we’d venture out. Places like Tenterden and Hastings were foreign, then became familiar. Less regularly, we might go to Brighton, big enough to have a football team that played on TV—but that was still in the same county.We checked off London, too, the grand capital. We had cousins in other counties: Norfolk, Suffolk and Berkshire. Interminable car rides, but worth it to discover uncharted territory.And there were rumours of other lands and times all around us. Julius Caesar was said to have landed nearby, and a Norman king called William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings in 1066. He came from France, so that was close.Horizons busted left, right and centre. The world was already mindblowing.I learned French at primary school, a special treat because a teacher had married a mademoiselle or something. We had a workbook called Salut! filled with words to learn, sentences to complete and market scenes to colour in.Before I was 10, we went on a school trip to France—just an hour away by ferry—and stayed a few days. The ham (jambon), cheese (fromage), bread (pain), butter (beurre) and jam (confiture) were all different (and yummy). Loaves were “baguettes”, and they were long and thin. Best of all, they had things called “croissants” and bowls—not mugs, bowls—of hot chocolate for breakfast.What was also cool was that if you said the stuff from Salut! to grown-ups in France, they understood you. They smiled at you. And they talked back.You learned that “voyager” means “to travel”, and “Bon voyage” was “Have a nice trip”. But why even bother saying that? Of course, you were going to.Because travelling was easy. And fun. You just made it up as you went along—listened, copied, tried stuff, and it all fell into place.I’ll be honest: I don’t believe the wine world works like this.But I’ll also say this: It absolutely bloody well should.Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Sure, wine presents challenges, just like travel—you need a passport to travel, a smattering of local lingo, a handle on local customs and the ability to whittle down options from the seemingly infinite to the feasibly doable.In the travel realm, you take these in your stride. Some, indeed are a titillating part of its novelty.In wine, they can present barriers.You might say wine is complicated, but it isn’t. It undoubtedly gets complicated, but that doesn’t have to happen until you’re good and ready. (And, when you are, that’s another part of its magic.)But look at it this way. Paris is complicated. Yeah, yeah, I know people “do Paris”, often on the same trip as they might “do Rome” and “check out Prague”. But scoffing a pain au chocolat halfway up the Eiffel Tower is just the start of the story. How far do you want to go?The key is, the start of the story should be fun and kindle the curiosity to dig deeper. To take the next step in your stride should take little more than the inquisitiveness and consciousness (and smidge of audacity) that got you this far.But here’s the problem (and I’m here to solve it): When you travel, you have baggage. Literally.When you come to wine… well, it’s wine that has the baggage. And it really shouldn’t, so let’s get rid of it.Too much (read almost all) content in this realm starts with the premise that wine is somehow special. Of course, wine is somehow special, otherwise, why would Vininspo! exist? But it isn’t special in the way they make you think it is.Wine is wholly relatable. The fermented juice of fruit grown by people in nature. It’s straightforward. If you drink wine and count it as part of your culture, you’re fortunate.But again, you’re not fortunate in the way they’d have you believe.You’re lucky because you have the wherewithal to avail yourself of a drink that exists for pleasure. You won’t die without it, but you have a good chance of living better with it.But here’s the point. It’s not “special” in the sense that it’s the preserve of the initiated, the in-crowd, the elite. And you’re not “fortunate” in the sense that you’ve been granted access by the beneficence of some omniscient deity.Everyone should feel they belong in the world of wine and feel their voice deserves to be heard. A bottle of wine contains mysteries; we’re the traveller knocking at its door. And the precious innocence the traveller brings—like that Salut!-reading schoolkid with his croissant-flaked grin— should be warmly welcomed. I’ve been shown outrageous kindness by strangers as I’ve travelled the world. My countless stupid questions have been greeted not by scoffs and scorn but by patience and a will to have me understand. If anything, my ignorance has been accepted as a token in exchange for enlightenment. We live in times where fleeting, second-hand impressions stand in for first-hand experience. But away from the smartphone screen, we know there’s no substitute for living in the moment. The world around us is fascinating. Its palette of sights, sounds and tastes is so rich and varied. The layers of history and possibilities of the future. And perhaps we forget that love and friendship go far beyond what we might have now. People, for all their faults, are amazing.What’s special about wine is that it brings together all this wonder. As with travel, there’s no one set journey, no universal itinerary, no ultimate destination. There are endless meandering, crisscrossing paths. Each is lined with sensations and surprises.To navigate them, just pay attention. Look. Sniff. Taste. Listen. Talk. Learn. On the way you might change your mind; that’s fine. You’ll get good advice, take-or-leave tips and unwanted input.But—and here’s the important bit—the person leading the way is you. Every single step can be more rewarding than the last. Every prior experience illuminates the next moment.By paying attention—to sensations and the worldly detail around wine (Who made it? From what? Where? When? How?)—you’ll write your own inner travelogue. That journal you pen in your imagination informs and enriches future experiences. And—like the traveller emboldened to speak up and become immersed—it makes the world light up and open a little wider.Everything is new. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

This is a highly relatable story that highlights what happens when an inquisitive, broad-minded go-getter happens to tug on the wine-discovery thread.That said, there are a few references to education experiences that give useful context.As a member of the Institute of Masters of Wine, Andrea Pritzker MW has achieved the pinnacle of achievement in wine academia. The MW started out in the 1950s as a qualification for the UK wine trade and has transformed into a hugely coveted and highly regarded qualification the world over.As we discuss, the exam is notoriously tough, comprising a rigorous theory, tasting and research papers covering all aspects of wine production, evaluation, business and beyond. Today, there are some 425-odd MWs based in 30 countries.Andrea's Wine inTuition business offers courses at all levels of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET).This set of formal, UK-administered qualifications covers tasting and theory across all key wine global styles. It runs from the rudimentary one-day beginner certificate to the prestigious and demanding WSET Diploma, viewed by many as a stepping stone to the Master of Wine.Finally, we speak of the Len Evans Tutorial, which has been described as "the greatest wine school on earth". Taking place each year in the Hunter Valley, NSW, since 2001, a dozen scholars are selected from all segments of the wine profession—winemakers, viticulturists, sommeliers, writers—to take part each year.Over five days, scholars are put through their paces in a series of 30-wine judging sessions, with their performance scrutinised by a panel of veteran judges, category specialists and former top scholars. There are also masterclasses and dinners with a focus on reading, assessing and articulating some of the finest wines on earth—many of them old and vanishingly rare.Andrea and I were privileged to get called up in 2022, and yes - she came out on top! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe

Alsace is an oft-misunderstood place. It's easy to see why; it's a highly complex character with a rich, diverse history and culture.Who better to help us get to grips with this fascinating place and its wines than Australia-loving Alsatian, Frédéric Blanck?Freddy's ancestors came to Alsace some 250 years ago. They farmed everything, including grapes. And in the mid-’80s, Freddy and his cousin Philippe decided to rename the domaine after their grandpa and turn it into one of the region's leading lights. “Vins d’émotion” is the estate’s tagline—wines of emotion—I think that sums it up pretty darn well.Freddy likes to come to Australia every summer. He loves it here, plus a couple of his children live downunder—including his son, Lucas, who is the owner and vigneron at Kerri Greens in Red Hill.I hope you enjoy our conversation, and learn something about this beautiful place. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit edmerrison.substack.com/subscribe