The Vincast - a wine podcast with The Intrepid Wino

Yarra Valley based Luke Lambert joins me on this episode of The Vincast. Originally from Brisbane he discovered a love of elegant food-friendly wines early on and after being inspired by Italian wines decided to become a winemaker, applying for university from a phone box in London. He explains how he has become one of the leading lights of small batch “hands-off” winemaking in Australia in the space of ten years.

Phil Smith runs a specialist online retail business called The Wine Depository, and worked for over eight years at Rathdowne Cellars. I invited him in on Episode Five of The Vincast to talk about the nature of wine retail, particularly as it applies to the Australian market. We also tasted the Eden Road Seedling Shiraz 2010 and assesed it from a retail buyer’s perspective.

On the fourth episode of The Vincast I sat down with Daniel Honan, originally from Newcastle with a background in journalism. Whilst working for a wine bar in London he discovered 'Real' wine, wines made using organic, biodynamic and/or natural practices. When he returned to the Hunter Valley earlier this year he wanted to learn more and share his passion with the world, and now writes about Australian wines in this vein. We attempt to dissect what these wines are whilst talking about his past present and future.

On the fourth episode of The Vincast I sat down with Daniel Honan, originally from Newcastle with a background in journalism. Whilst working for a wine bar in London he discovered ‘Real’ wine, wines made using organic, biodynamic and/or natural practices. When he returned to the Hunter Valley earlier this year he wanted to learn more and share his passion with the world, and now writes about Australian wines in this vein. We attempt to dissect what these wines are whilst talking about his past present and future.

On the third episode of The Vincast I sit down with my friend James Dossan who is a certified sommelier. We chat about what a sommelier is in the traditional meaning, what their responsibilities are in the modern dining environment, how they work with a team, and how they assess wines for their list.

On this the second episode of The Vincast we have our first get-to-know-you. Our special guest is David Bowley, the owner, operator and marketer of Vinteloper Wines. Dave makes wines from a number of different varieties that best express their region and site, some are single variety and some are blends. On the episode we talk about how he got into wine, his reason for initially pursuing a "day job" in the industry, and what ultimately led him to start the Vinteloper project.

On this the second episode of The Vincast we have our first get-to-know-you. Our special guest is David Bowley, the owner, operator and marketer of Vinteloper Wines. Dave makes wines from a number of different varieties that best express their region and site, some are single variety and some are blends. On the episode we talk about how he got into wine, his reason for initially pursuing a “day job” in the industry, and what ultimately led him to start the Vinteloper project.

On the very first episode of The Vincast I am joined by Sam Hooper, National Sales Manager for Cellarhand Wines. With a number of factors combining to make imported wines not only much cheaper but also much more readily available, Australia has seen a dramatic increase in the number of importers and the subsequent volume of imports. Working for an importer and wholesaler that has been around since 1999, I thought Sam would be well equipped to talk about this recent phenomenon that has got more than a few local producers a bit perturbed.