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For more than three decades, Huon Hooke has dedicated his pen to the world of wine. Beginning his career as a journalist in the traditional print media, Huon has witnessed the evolution of wine reviewing and criticism from the era of the print media to the digital age and now the uncharted territory of social media. Huon generously shared his insights on the Real Review's work, the current landscape of wine criticism, and the myriad challenges and exciting opportunities that lie ahead for the Australian wine industry. A heartfelt thank you to Huon for joining me.

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Andrew Burchell's vision is to put Mount Gambier on the national and global radar as a premium producing wine region. He has the passion, the love of wine and viticulture, and Mt Gambier provides the perfect conditions, including – wait for it – a volcano – yes Andrew crafts wines in the foothills of Australia’s only inactive volcano which is predicted to erupt in the next 1000 years. But far from loving the limelight, Andrew is a passionate crusader for the Mt Gambier region as a whole and of all those who have dedicated their lives to making wine there. Though he may not like to admit it, he is the perfect ambassador – passionate, enthusiastic, bubbling with personality, bold and all along adopting an approach to wine which is a little outside the conventional box, a bit like my audio in this episode. A massive thanks to Andrew for joining me. 

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Brandon Farrell travels the world tasting the world’s finest wines so that he can present them at events and as part of specially curated lists at dinners put on through his company the Brilliant Wine Co. Brandon’s travels recently brought him to Australia’s sunny shores. His intentions had originally been to get some sun and enjoy the surf, but when his network put him in touch with some of Australia’s finest producers, Brandon abandoned leisure and decided the do a blitz of the Australian wine trail, from the Hunter south to Tassie and across to WA. To summarise Brandon liked what he saw. I spoke with Brandon shortly after he returned to the US and he joined me to share his story, and insights of the current state of play in wine world. A huge thanks to Brandon for joining me. 

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The stars are aligning for Stephen Cook of Eisenstone Wines. Stephen modelled his project at Eisenstone on the production of small batch Barossa Shiraz, where success would follow Stephen’s attention to detail and captivating his audience with the resulting quality wines. Since I last spoke with Stephen, his range has grown to 12 subregional Barossa Shiraz expressions, all which tell a different story of the region and the producer. His wines continue to receive accolades and international recognition and Stephen’s success may be a blueprint for small producers to follow. As always, a huge thanks to Stephen for joining me on the show. 

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Brenden Robnik is a hard-working tradie by day, but when the sun goes down and he downs tools he morphs into the Wine Animal – who’s passion for wine and desire to share knows no limits. It doesn’t take long talking to the Wine Animal for his passion to shine through – but what is just as, if not more captivating, than the Wine Animal’s passion – is the story behind it. The Wine Animal’s story, aka the story of Brenden “Brenno” Robnik, is a story of difficulty that almost ended in tragedy, but Brenden’s love of wine shone through and forged a path that created the Wine Animal and set Brenden on an adventure that brings meaning and continual passion to him and all those he meets. Brenden “Brenno” Robnik joined me recently to share his story – and the story of the Wine Animal – A massive thanks to Brenden for joining me. 

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Melania Battiston was already an advanced Sommelier at the Court of Master Sommeliers by age 24. In 2021 Melania was rated in the top 100 most influential women in hospitality. In 2023 Melania was award young UK Sommelier of the year. In 2024 Melania was on the Decanter panel as a judge for the Decanter World Wine Awards. During COVID, Melania worked at Modena’s 3 Michelin Star restaurant Osteria Francescana – but after a tough first attempt at the Master Sommelier exam Melania checked herself- because her relationship with wine began to strain – so Melania set out on a mission to rekindle her love of wine – and this journey has taken her across the globe, from the UK, to Greece and onto Thailand – Her motto is dream it – make it and she was good enough to sit down with for a few minutes to share her story and her infectious passion. A huge passion to Melania for joining me. 

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Wine personalities don’t come much bigger than Jeremy Oliver. Widely considered to be not only Australia’s top wine authority, but also one of the top critic’s on the global stage, Jeremy Oliver’s wine story dates back to when he was a mentee of Dan Murphy at the first Dan Murphy’s store in Chapel Street Prahran. Now, with over 36 years as an independent wine critic, he has published over 30 books and has published in and been featured in numerous publications across the globe. Jeremy is extremely passionate about Australian wine but is also fearless in callings things as he sees it when the occasion demands. Jeremy recently released a paper in which he sought to summarise what he considers to be the current issues plaguing the Australian industry, from the oversupply of wine to the variance in quality, all facilitated by a systematic lack of considered oversite dating back many years. Jeremy Oliver joined me for two hours in which we sought to unpack the background to his paper. There were several topics in his paper that we did not discuss, but there is so much food for thought in what Jeremy shared. A huge thanks to Jeremy for joining me. 

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This year I fell in love with the wines of Barolo. I have long been fascinated by Italian wine, all its history and the specific characters that the diverse Italian terroir confers. Barolo is unique. Now Federica Boffa, 5th generation Pio Cesare, agrees that Barolo is indeed special and the slopes, soil and altitude confer a rare magic that those lucky enough to taste Barolo wines get to experience. The timing of this conversation was just perfect as for me - Barolo is Christmas in a bottle – beautiful, ethereal and bloody complex. Federica Boffa of the Pio Cesare wine family took some time out of her busy schedule to sit down with me to record the last episode before Christmas, in which she shares the Pio Cesare story, the story of a family with a history stretching back to 1881 and a continuous link to the town of Alba. I couldn’t think of a better way of bringing 2023 to a close for the Cellar Door Podcast. A massive thanks to Federica for joining me. 

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Will Taylor has experienced it all in the wine world. South Australian born and bred, he has spent a large portion of his career advising some of Australia’s most reputable wine businesses on how to navigate the business world. Will also has skin in the game, having operated his own successful label. Will recently joined me to share his perspectives on the state of play in the industry based on years of advising and also working in the wine industry. A massive thanks to Will for joining me. 

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Many months ago Californian wine great Wes Hagen caused me to reflect on what is the true lifeblood of the Australian wine industry – are we all about sunshine and ripeness or do we have a genuine fine wine sector, where we let real Australian character speak through our wines. On the international scene, Australia has performed strongly in what we might call the affordable, drink now, wine range – we have really had to fight to gain recognition for our fine wines, and we can thank groups like the First Families and many other passionate Australian wine advocates who have worked tirelessly to take our fine wines to the world for them to enjoy. In this episode I am again joined by Wes Hagen, and Aussie wine hero Doug Neal to talk about international perspectives on the Australian wine scene, and several other topics including the case for pinot noir in Australia, and the incredible potential in the Australian wine scene. A massive thanks to both Wes and Doug for sitting down with me.

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