A great wine is nothing without a great vineyard, a vigilant viticulturist and a careful winemaker. Sometimes throughout history, some people have been blessed to be all three, but in the new world, this is rare. In most cases it takes a great team to make a great wine. “We all work together really well … Continue reading ‘No ‘I’ in Team’ – Domaine Rewa, Central Otago, New Zealand
“Just because you’re doing biodynamics, doesn’t mean you’re going to have a good vineyard,” says Steve Lubiana, winegrower and owner of Stefano Lubiana wines from Granton in Tasmania. “You have to be a good farmer first… you can put on as much compost and BD preps on as you like, but if you’re not in … Continue reading Cool Climate Respect – Stefano Lubiana, Tasmania
The Sauvage family are American mid-west cotton and wheat farmers, originally from Oberlin, Kansas, who own land holdings right around the world, including a cotton farm in Moree NSW, Australia, and the wine estate known as Koehler Ruprecht, in the Pfalz region of Germany. Son, Marquis Sauvage, is a heavy metal fan and passionate about wine. … Continue reading From the Ground Up – Burn Cottage, Central Otago, NZ
“Everyone has heard of the Garden of Eden,” says John Nagorcka, winegrower and farmer from Hochkirch Wines in Victoria, “but, you haven’t heard of the Garden of Monsanto, or DuPont.” John comes from a farming family, but moved away from the land to study radiology at university in Melbourne. He worked in the field for … Continue reading ‘Nature’s Farmer’ – Hochkirch Wine, Victoria
“One of the weaknesses of Australian wine is that many producers try to be all things to every body, and when you do that you tend to lose focus,” says Peter Fraser, Manager and Chief Winemaker at Yangarra Estate, in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. The first vines to be planted at Yangarra were back … Continue reading ‘From The Earth’ – Yangarra Estate, McLaren Vale, S.A.
“Nous sommes en pleine croissance axée terroir vin, en utilisant des méthodes biologiques pour le faire.” New Zealand Translation… “We’re growing terroir focused wine, using organic methods to do so, bru.” – – Clos Henri, in New Zealand’s famous Marlborough wine region, is located on a 3,000 year old river bed, which sits just above … Continue reading The ‘T’ Word – Clos Henri, Marlborough, NZ
1978, and a young Morgon winemaker named Marcel Lapierre is experimenting in Beaujolais with no-sulphur winemaking, from grapes grown organically. In doing so, Lapierre along with a few local cohorts, had unwittingly caused the modern genesis of vin naturel… or natural wine. Of course this didn’t happen overnight, but soon enough, with the help of some Parisian sommeliers, … Continue reading Avril Lavigne et Le Vin Naturel – Is Natural Wine a Fad?
Standing on the front porch of his home, the Settler gazed out in to the dark, breathing in the evening’s cool air. Sipping on his hot tea, he listens to cicadas as they cut through the night time silence in broad stereo sweeps. A soft breeze moves through the trees, lifting momentarily, stirring the cicadas … Continue reading Interrupted By A Thousand Candles – Yarra Valley, Victoria
The rain is incessant, from Sydney all the way south, past the the New South Wales/Victorian border. After 8 hours of driving, the tedium that is the Hume Highway, coupled with the drizzly conditions outside, it’s a welcome sight when we arrive in Beechworth, as lush green hills slope and roll underneath giant granitic boulders, … Continue reading Simple Tools, Elegant Complexity – Sorrenberg Wines
“The first batch of wine we made was just so that we had something to drink…”, says winegrower Wayne Ahrens, from his family home in the Barossa Valley, “It was a small barrel of cabernet which we made at home”. Wayne is a fifth generation grape farmer in Australia’s pre-eminent winegrowing region, the Barossa Valley, where … Continue reading ‘Get Out Of The Bloody Way!’ – Small Fry Wines, Barossa SA.
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