May, 2012. Having quit my job at the BBC, and swapping it for a full time gig in a wine bar just down the road, I was asked by, my boss, to attend the first ever Real Wine Fair, in London. I was to attend, as a representative of the west London bar, Albertine, and report back, … Continue reading An Origin Story… Genesis – The Wine Idealist Is One Year Old
Driving along a rough dirt road, up towards the cusp of the Great Dividing Range, clouds streak and roll over lush green hills, casting some parts in shadow, making the silver rock boulders shimmer and shift colour from black to grey to comic book blue, and back again. It has rained recently, and all the … Continue reading Executing Organic Aspirations – Cobaw Ridge, Victoria
“Everything we do is done on the smell of an oily rag”, says Ben Gould, owner, manager, and winegrower at Blind Corner in Wilyabrup, Margaret River, WA. Since establishing Blind Corner in 2005, Ben has made his wines on a strictly ‘needs must’ basis. Having returned from Europe, travelling and working with his wife, Naomi, in … Continue reading Approaching A Blind Corner – Margaret River, WA
“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.
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
– “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
“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.
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