Established in 1884, the Melbourne Royal Wine Awards annually attracts around 2,500 entries from over 400 wineries from across the country.

The Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy is the pinnacle of the competition. It’s awarded to the best one or two year old red wine as blind tasted by the judges.

Last year, the winner was the 2021 Old Legend Grenache from Hentley Farm in the Barossa Valley.

It was another milestone in the ascendancy of Australian grenache, which is something I’ve discussed recently on the podcast with both with Max Allen and Jane Lopes.

Hentley Farm chief winemaker Andrew Quin joins us this episode with the trophy presentation for the 2023 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards coming up this Friday November 3.

Wolf Blass once said the Jimmy Watson was worth a million dollars to the winning producer, so I started by asking Andrew about the significance of last year’s prize to Hentley Farm.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

Renowned wine writer Huon Hooke previously appeared on the Drinks Adventures podcast way back in Season One, in an episode exploring Australians’ love affair with champagne.

He’s finally back for this full-length chat about The Real Review Wine Classification, which launched in 2022 aiming to highlight the greatest wines of Australia and New Zealand that have an outstanding track record of a decade or longer.

Huon and I discuss the fresh approach he’s taken to classifying wine versus other established frameworks; and how this helps bring emerging producers to the fore, as well as wine styles and regions that might be less fashionable, but are nevertheless extremely high quality.

Case in point, the wineries of Langhorne Creek in South Australia; Bleasdale, Lake Breeze and Bremerton. The latter of those three wineries slipped Huon’s mind during our conversation, and he contacted me afterwards to see if this omission could be addressed.

The Real Review was launched in 2016 to provide unbiased, independent reviews on wine.

I started by asking Huon whether the classification has always been on the founders’ agenda.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

Two Doctors is a whiskey company founded, as the name suggests, by Two Doctors; surgeon Jerry Schwartz and Professor John Rasko AO, a clinical hematologist, pathologist and scientist.

Professor Rasko is with us this episode to discuss his epic side hustle, which utilises the brewing equipment at Sydney Brewery’s production facility in the Hunter Valley, NSW.

The brewery and distillery are based at Rydges Resort Hunter Valley, one of several hotels owned by Jerry’s other business, Schwartz Family Company, which is the largest privately owned hotel group in Australia.

Jerry’s backing has empowered Two Doctors to take an uncompromising approach to whisky production focused on premium single barrel releases aged for a minimum of six years, mostly in barrels supplied by local Hunter Valley wineries.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

In this edition of the news on Drinks Adventures:

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

Few Australian distillery launches in 2023 have been greeted with the excitement surrounding Waubs Harbour in Bicheno, Tasmania.

It’s easy to see why. The distillery’s striking location in a former oyster hatchery on the rugged Tassie coast promises a true maritime expression of Australian single malt whisky.

The founders bring with them some pretty impressive pedigree in both distilling and business generally.

Head distiller Rob Polmear was previously head of production at Lark Distillery, and head distiller at Overeem.

He’s banded together with our guests this episode – his brother Tim Polmear and Tim’s wife, Bec – who in 2015 successfully exited an e-commerce business, Flat Tummy Tea.

Since our conversation, Waubs Harbour has revealed the identity of its distributor, Proof & Company, which also represents brands including Never Never Gin, Ferrand Cognac, Plantation Rum and more.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

Renowned drinks writer Max Allen returns to the Drinks Adventures podcast this episode, three years on from our interview launching his last book, Intoxicating: Ten Drinks That Shaped Australia.

Max’s new book that we’ll be discussing today is called Alternative Reality: How Australian Wine Changed Course.

It explores the Australian wine industry’s rapid embrace of non-mainstream grape varieties over the last two decades, which can all be traced back to 2001 in Mildura, north east Victoria, where a group of visionaries launched the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.

And it includes comprehensive information about the 150 different grape varieties currently grown in Australia: what the wines made from these grapes taste like, and who the best producers are.

It’s another engaging and enlightening conversation with Max in which we also consider whether these emerging grape varieties could ultimately challenge the dominance of mainstays like shiraz, chardonnay and friends in the top echelons of Australian fine wine.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

In this edition of the news on Drinks Adventures:

And, on a personal note, announcing my new industry role as media & communications manager at Spirits & Cocktails Australia.

This is the final episode of Season 16. I'm taking a short break to catch up on back of house stuff, so we can start anew in a few weeks’ time.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

Western Australia’s Howard Park Wines featured on this podcast very early on when I interviewed then chef winemaker Janice McDonald, in October 2018.

Janice has since moved on to focus on the Margaret River wine company she founded with partner Stuart Pym, Flowstone Wines, which we explored on Drinks Adventures in early 2023.

In this episode we welcome Howard Park’s current chief winemaker Nic Bowen to the show, together with Natalie Burch, general manager and marketing director.

Nic joined Howard Park in 2021 with strong pedigree as a sparkling winemaker, having worked alongside the legendary Ed Carr at House of Arras.

Howard Park had won a major trophy for its Jete Brut NV even prior to Nic’s arrival, and in this episode he’ll share what the company is currently doing in the vineyard and winery to build on this early success.

We also touch on some of the many other projects currently underway at Howard Park and sibling brands, like the recent embrace of grenache, and the low intervention wines released under the Mon Tout label.

But first up, we go back to the beginning with Natalie Burch, who details how her family became involved with Howard Park 30 years ago, and the exciting evolution of its wine styles over that time.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

Whisky production disappeared from New Zealand in 1997 with the closure of the Willowbank Distillery in Dunedin.

But in 2009 Tasmanian entrepreneur Greg Ramsay brought together a group of investors to purchase Willowbank’s remaining stocks and re-launch New Zealand whisky to the world.

Greg joins us this episode as we explore some of New Zealand’s little-known whisky-making heritage, and the whisky renaissance that’s now underway.

His company, dubbed The New Zealand Whisky Collection, is currently preparing to launch some modern expressions, having begun production in 2021 at its own distillery installed at Speight’s Brewery in Dunedin.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.

James Christopher of Sydney’s Brix Rum is with us again this episode, following his previous appearance back in Season Two.

It was very early days for Brix when we last spoke in 2018, at which time the company was relying on imported spirit for the dark rums in its range.

Brix has now come to market with a new core range of rums fully produced here in Australia, which have superseded the imported product, in beautiful packaging designed by podcast sponsor, Co-Partnership.

It seemed a pivotal time to sit down with James for a chat about the intervening years, and some of the exciting developments at Brix – and in the Australian rum category generally – as the company enters a new phase.

Click here to open episode in your podcast player.