It’s not often you get the chance to stand upon 500 million year old soils. It’s even rarer to have the opportunity to grow grapes from it. “Cambrian soil”, a term coined by Ron Laughton, winegrower at Jasper Hill in Heathcote, Victoria, “is soil derived from the decomposition of the cambrian volcanic basalt”, and it’s … Continue reading Ancient Integrity – Jasper Hill Wines
Sitting 200m above Port Phillip Bay, on top of Red Hill in Victoria, Shashi Singh is plating up a vegetarian pasta dish while black smoke begins to billow out from the oven in her kitchen, which over looks 10 ha of vineyard, planted exclusively with shiraz vines. The black smoke obediently dissipates into the exhaust fan … Continue reading Avani – Magic on the Mornington Peninsula.
– “Wine is a mind altering drug.” – “I think that in time biodynamics will become just another ingredient in the pie”, says Tamra Irish, winegrower and owner at Enigma Variations, a small farm and winery nestled at the foot of the Grampians in Victoria, Australia. The Grampians National Park is a remarkable site. The … Continue reading Enigma Variations. Time, Taste and Nothingness.
The Marlborough, well-known as home to one particular style of wine, where drinking it is, “like having sex for the first time“, that is, awkward, fumbling, constricting, and intoxicating, with a laughter track courtesy of a Seinfeld episode playing loudly on a TV in the next room. Oh yes, and that faint whiff of cat’s pee. … Continue reading Marlborough’s Rock Scene – Rock Ferry Wines
A Case for Biodynamics in The Wine Industry: “If you’ve been doing something all your life, and been trained in a certain way of thinking, when something comes along and turns that thinking upside down, it’s quite understandable that people aren’t going to jump at these ideas straight away”, says Hamish Mackay, educator in biodynamic … Continue reading – A Case For Biodynamics in The Wine Industry –
Time that is moved by little fidget wheels Is not my time, the flood that does not flow. Between the double and the single bell Of a ship’s hour, between a round of bells From the dark warship riding there below, I have lived many lives, and this one life Of Joe, long dead, who … Continue reading Balancing The Contradiction – Living Between Five Bells
The Hunter Valley has cast a long shadow over the NSW wine scene for many, many decades, and for good reason too, as it is Australia’s first, and oldest wine growing region. And then, there is the sleeping giant of Orange, located approximately 3 hours west of Sydney, which is, today, one of Australia’s fastest … Continue reading Out From The Shadows – Alex Retief and The Wines of NSW.
“It’s about the rock and roll”, says Tom Belford, from Bobar Wines, Yarra Valley, “you get some grapes and make some wine… it’s like you hang a mic from the ceiling, play some music, and make an album.” Bobar, is the passion project for Tom and Sally Belford, two viticulturists who met and studied together … Continue reading Rocking Out! – The Creative Simplicity of Bobar Wines.
“There’s no sidetracks, there’s no compromise, we want to be the best biodynamic producer in this region, full stop”, says a determined Mike Brown, chief winemaker at Gemtree Vineyards, in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. The Gemtree Vineyards were established in 1980, when Paul and Jill Buttery purchased a vineyard on Tatachilla Road, in the heart … Continue reading Determination and Team Work – Gemtree Vineyards
“We all just have to think back 150 years ago, it’s how all farming was done. There weren’t agricultural chemicals, so this notion of calling chemical agriculture ‘conventional’, I think is going to switch in years to come, and organic and biodynamic farming will be called conventional, while the other is going to be called … Continue reading Authentic Precision, 45º South – Felton Road, Central Otago, New Zealand.
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