I first heard Ginny Willcock speak about wine in Adelaide back in 2013 when I attended Savour Australia as a freelance journalist for Business Insider. This event courted wine-buyers, writers and opinion-shapers from across the globe in an attempt to reset the image of Australian wine. On an afternoon where delegates were assigned breakout sessions, I ended up in a fancy Cabernet Sauvignon tasting fronted by Gin, with Sue Hodder of Wynns also on the panel. Sue was great value, too, but Gin blew me over like a gust of fresh air. We were there, after all, because the world’s affection for Aussie wine had dimmed, and its essential, endearing Aussieness had retreated into itself. When Ginny spoke, that essential, endearing Aussieness came rollicking back like a wave rolling in from the Indian Ocean.

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The fact that we were discussing Cabernet—that most refined and distinguished of noble red grapes—with unfettered, infectious enthusiasm rather than the pomp and guff ordinarily de rigueur in these soulless dissections, heightened the effect. And Gin’s wines are immaculate. Like her, they are also brimming with energy, personality and emotion.

Gin is chief winemaker at Vasse Felix, where she began working back in 2006. During that time, she’s won countless awards, including being crowned 2026 Winemaker of the Year by Halliday Wine Companion. Vasse Felix was the first estate to be planted in Margaret River, back in 1967, by Dr Tom Cullity. The Holmes à Court family now owns it, and Gin speaks warmly about her partnership with Vasse Felix owner and chief executive Paul Holmes à Court. Bart Molony, chief viticulturist and 2025 Halliday Wine Companion Viticulturist of the Year, has been at Gin’s side throughout her tenure.

Heytesbury is the name of Vasse Felix’s pinnacle Chardonnay, while the Tom Cullity bottling, initially aired as an idea before Cullity’s death in 2008, became the estate’s top Cabernet cuvée from the oldest vines from the 2013 vintage. Idée Fixe is the name of this group’s traditional-method sparkling wine project.

Going back in time, Ginny mentions the family farm in Bindoon, which is slightly inland, some 75km north of Perth. She also mentions her sister, Cath Willcock, a very dear friend of Vininspo! and founder of wine distributor IMBIBO. From her study days, she gives a nod to Pat Iland, a former lecturer in chemistry and viticulture at Roseworthy Agricultural College. Her friendship with Stephen Pannell, my guest on episode 30 of the podcast, has also been pivotal. Peter Leske’s name is dropped in reference to the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), and the late Bryce Rankine, author of the influential work Making Good Wine, is also mentioned. Capel Vale, where she got work experience, is in WA’s Geographe region.

In Margaret River phase one, the following characters appear: Mark Messenger, who was a long-serving winemaker at Juniper Estate; Clive Otto, formerly of Vasse Felix and Fraser Gallop; Conor Lagan, then of Xanadu; Bill Ullinger of Redgate Wines; and Gin’s husband Mike Gadd, then of Cullen in Wilyabrup.

Kym Milne MW—I hope a future podcast guest—set Gin up with the ill-fated vintage in Albania and subsequent Italian jobs in Trento (Trentino-Alto Adige), Trapani (Sicily) and at Farnese in Abruzzo. Other jobs followed at Cloudy Bay (Marlborough, NZ), Cape Mentelle, and Evans & Tate (Margaret River), and at the contract winemaking facility run by Mike Calneggia.

In present-day Margaret River, the following get a shout-out: Tim Shand (Voyager, episode 15), Julian Langworthy (Nocturne/Deep Woods, episode 28), Jo Perry (Dormilona), Dylan Arvidson (LS Merchants) and Jacopo ‘Japo’ Dalli Cani (McHenry Hohnen). Vanessa Carson (Lenton Brae) was the friend who accompanied Ginny to Spain, where the latter’s epiphany occurred at the Roda winery in Rioja.

On a slightly different note, Gin talks about the Gin Gin clone of Chardonnay, for which Margaret River is known. It is particular to Margaret River, and appears to have an aroma and structure profile of its own, accentuated perhaps by the ripening conditions (although these vary considerably across the region) and by its susceptibility to millerandage (aka ‘hen and chicken’), whereby bunches have an excessively high proportion of small, seedless berries in among their plump, juicy, seeded berries. And finally, Gin’s joke about being the monks of Margaret River is an allusion to the monks of Burgundy, who observed the quality of grapes grown in different plots that subsequently became classified as, in ascending order, village, premier cru and grand cru.

You'll find extensive show notes below to help clarify any details in this wide-ranging conversation. In the meantime, I'd love to count on your ongoing support to make this and other Vininspo! work possible. Here is where you can follow and share what I do.

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The epithet “worthy” used to get bandied around newsrooms to describe stories about meritorious subjects that were too… worthy to be truly interesting. Optimistic, spiritual, caring and inclusive to a fault, Sue Bell could almost sound a bit worthy if it weren’t for her soulful wines, mischievous snigger and sheer feel-good factor.

Sue is the person behind the Coonawarra-based Bellwether label, which she established with business partner Andrew Rennie in 2008. She became sole owner in mid-2025, describing herself at the time as “excited and terrified”. We talk about that in our conversation, as well as the community that has developed around the Bellwether’s HQ, the historic Glenroy Shearing Shed. Among other accolades, Sue was named Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology Winemaker of the Year in 2014. You can taste her wines at the shed, which also offers camping and glamping options and hosts various events.   

I’m pleased Sue shared her wisdom on a fair bit of unsung geography, covering a fair bit of ground—literally—around the South Australia/Victoria border. I hope that listeners might look out for these regions on wine labels and maybe even pay them a visit. These include Coonawarra itself, as well as Mount Gambier, Mount Benson, Padthaway and Wrattonbully. The Kanawinka Fault is the geological fault line that stretches from Portland in Victoria to Naracoorte in South Australia, where you’ll find the World Heritage-listed caves. The Bonney Upwelling is the oceanic phenomenon that has a crucial influence on local grape-growing conditions.

As so often when mapping the trajectory of my guests, a galaxy of Aussie wine stars has plotted Sue’s path to where she is today. From McLaren Vale, she mentions early experience at Noon, Woodstock and Primo Estate, with Primo’s Joseph Grilli offering some particularly valuable advice.

From her days at Southcorp, which has morphed into Treasury Wine Estates. She worked under Wayne Falkenberg at the Karadoc winery in Mildura (Corrina Wright in episode 28 and more so PJ Charteris in episode 8, talk about formative experiences here), Rouge Homme in Coonawarra, Seppelt Great Western (where she worked with great friend Kate Goodman) and Magill Estate (Penfolds). The late Neville Falkenberg was her boss on the Penfolds white team, where she worked alongside PJ Charteris, Steve Chapman, and others. From this period, she also mentions a viticulture placement in Eden Valley with Allen Jenkins, well known for his work at Wynns, and Suzi Hilder, now of Smallfry in the Barossa.

Sue’s cohort at Hardys has also come up a lot in this show. Many have praised Peter Dawson’s influence, while other members of the gang include past podcast guests Stephen Pannell (S.C. Pannell), Rob Mann (Corymbia), Anna Flowerday (Te Whare Ra) as well as Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT, Clare Valley), Fran Austin (Delamere, Tasmania), Alex McKay (Collector, Canberra District), Ed Carr (House of Arras) and communications specialist Bec Hopkins. Tom Newton gets a nice mention; he was with the Hardys group for 36 years, finishing up as Accolade’s Group White Winemaker in 2018. Eileen Hardy is the prestige label of the Hardys portfolio (now owned by Vinarchy), while Bay of Fires is a Tasmanian brand in the same group. B*****d Hill, meanwhile, is a Yarra Valley vineyard now owned by Jackson Family Wines, whose Giant Steps brand is producing single-site wines from here.

Sue speaks of the trip she took as dux of the Len Evans Tutorial after she left Hardys. LET is the annual scholarship experience held in the Hunter Valley, NSW, since 2001 and dubbed “the best wine school on earth”. That same year, she had a fateful conversation with Mike Brajkovich MW of Kumeu River in New Zealand. Having established Bellwether, Sue credits the help of the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) as an invaluable source of information and support for the nation’s producers.

Other names that crop up are Ashley Ratcliff of Ricca Terra in the Riverland and the Chalmers family in Mildura (hear more about the latter in this episode). Meanwhile, Sue mentions Louise Hemsley-Smith (Battle of Bosworth), Louisa Rose (Yalumba) and Rebecca Wilson (Bremerton) in the segment on Sips in the Sticks.

It’s weird and fitting that the first serious comment on a wine blog I wrote came from Stephen Pannell. The lack of preceding remarks speaks volumes about the anonymity in which I was operating; the fact that the most decorated winemaker of his generation deigned to pipe up says a lot about how much he cares.

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I was in a hotel room in Milan when Steve’s message popped up in response to a Nebbiolo post I’d written that featured a wine of his—a 2010 Nebbiolo. He said something modest and grateful and told me I needed to see Massolino in Serralunga d’Alba while I was in that part of the world. As it happened, I’d already lined up an appointment for the next day; it was a happy coincidence that made me love Nebbiolo that little bit more.

I have since had the pleasure of interviewing Steve several times, representing his wines and following his various, exceptionally ambitious projects very closely. During that time, he has won Australia’s most prestigious wine award, the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy, for the second time, been named Australian Winemaker of the Year, established a cellar door in McLaren Vale and bought four vineyards that individually specialise in Mediterranean varieties, Nebbiolo, Grenache and warm-climate Shiraz. He is a universally recognised flag-bearer for either the emergence or renaissance of each of those categories in Australia, with a reputation that extends far beyond these borders.

Thanks to Steve’s patience and openness, we cover all of this, and his extraordinary trajectory, in our conversation. Protero is his sole vineyard outside McLaren Vale. This Adelaide Hills site has Nebbiolo as the headline act alongside other northern Italian varieties. The S.C. Pannell cellar door and Portuguese, Iberian and southern Italian varieties are on Oliver’s Road. The Shiraz, including the wine that won the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion Best Shiraz of the Year, grows on his Koomilya Vineyard. Little Branch—an anglicised version of Lindquist, the maiden name of Stephen’s wife, Fiona—is his 100-year-old Grenache vineyard.

Fiona is given a fitting tribute here, as is Steve’s general manager, Tom Grant. His distributor, Patrick Walsh, is mentioned, too (he’s the other Depeche Mode fan alluded to). Patrick is the founder of CellarHand, for which I work, and was himself interviewed for episode four. A mutual Barolo connection exists here. G.D. Vajra is the winery that Steve worked for, and he speaks at length of his relationship with its owners, Aldo and Milena Vaira. CellarHand and S.C. Pannell import these wines into Australia. Another pseudo-Italian connection is David Gleave MW, who is in fact the Canada-born, UK-resident founder of Liberty Wines. David also established Willunga 100, a McLaren Vale Grenache specialist featured here. David Ridge is an Australian importer of Italian wine. Paolo de Marchi, meanwhile, is synonymous with the great Chianti Classico estate. Isole e Olena.

Steve is the son of Bill and Sandra Pannell, who founded Moss Wood in Margaret River and went on to establish Picardy in Pemberton, Western Australia. His early French connections include the late Burgundy broker Becky Wasserman-Hone, Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault, Bertie Eden of Château Maris in the Languedoc, Jacques and François Lurton, and the late Gérard Potel, then of Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in Volnay. Steve also pays tribute to his dear friend Nicolas Potel, founder of Domaine de Bellene, who died in June this year.

A whole host of Australian characters come up in this conversation. Steve first met Petaluma founder Brian Croser when he was a kid in WA; likewise, the late Len Evans, whose famous tutorial (“the greatest wine school on earth”) is also discussed. Huon Hooke is the wine writer he worked alongside in Sydney, and Jim Whittle, who died in 2014, was their larger-than-life Sydney retail manager.

Among Steve’s cohort at Roseworthy Agricultural College were Virginia Willcock of Vasse Felix, Peter Gago of Penfolds (an interesting perspective on young Gago here), Reid Bosward, Wendy Stuckey and Nick Haselgrove. Hardys was another incredibly formative experience for Steve—this is where he won his first Jimmy Watson for the 1995 Eileen Hardy Shiraz. Anna Flowerday, my guest on episode 13, spoke about this golden age of Hardys talent overseen by Tim James and Peter Dawson, and including the likes of Larry Cherubino, Rob Mann (Corymbia) and Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT).

Other names mentioned in passing include: Wendouree, the legendary Clare Valley estate whose character, as expressed by custodians Tony and Lita Brady, has so influenced Steve; Adelaide Hills wine-grower Tim Knappstein (who enjoys a cameo here and here); Warren Randall, owner of Seppeltsfield in the Barossa; English-born, South Australia-based wine writer Tim White; Simon Benjamin, co-founder of Iberia-inspired Bar Lourinhã in Melbourne; and Mark Lloyd, who has long been a frontrunner with alternative varieties with his beautiful family estate, Coriole, in McLaren Vale.

While Italian footballers are known for their histrionics, Trembath & Taylor has scored goals and won fans while sparing us the theatrics. Arguably Australia’s foremost importer of Italy’s wines plays the game with no shortage of passion, but has passed it on to a legion of converts in a refreshingly low-key manner.

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The rock-star billing of Brunello, Barolo, Barbaresco et al makes it hard to believe that the wines of Italy were playing to tiny crowds 30 years ago, when Trembath & Taylor started out. Matt and I cover their trajectory and modern trends extensively in this conversation. Inevitably, we cover several regions, grapes and styles. Some may be new to you; that’s part of the point. One aim of my Substack is to be a one-stop shop for fostering curiosity and answering it… but I haven’t really got started with the educational materials. Still, Matt fleshes out many of the points; where you’re left wondering about anything, please leave a question in the comments.

I will try to pick out a few key mentions to help you navigate further reading. Matt mentions a host of local personalities when talking about this formative experience at The George Hotel in the Melbourne seaside suburb of St Kilda. These include the late restaurateur Donlevy Fitzpatrick, who created The Melbourne Wine Room with Maurice Terzini, Karen Martini, and Michael Sapountsis—all of whom became prominent figures in the Australian dining scene. Other members of the cast include winemakers Barney Flanders (check out his excellent Garagiste label) and David Chapman (ditto for Allies), as well as wine writer Marcus Ellis.

A few acronyms crop up when we discuss education. A few acronyms often appear in discussions about Italian wine classification. DOC stands for Denominazione di Origine Controllata (Controlled Denomination of Origin), DOCG for Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, and IGP for Indicazione Geografica Protetta (Protected Geographical Indication; previously known as IGT, where the T stands for Tipica). IGP wines generally allow greater freedom in the choice of grape varieties, sourcing, and methods of harvesting, vinification, and maturation. Stricter regulations govern DOC and DOCG wines, and while DOCG is often assumed to indicate higher quality, this isn’t the case—it all depends on the specific DOC or DOCG, as each sets and enforces its own rules.

Matt refers to WSET (the Wine & Spirit Education Trust), the London-based organisation for which I am an accredited educator, and which has a significant global presence through its structured courses, ranging from Level 1 to 4. I have interviewed a couple of other educators—Andrea Pritzker and Meg Brodtmann—both of whom happen to be MWs, and the Master of Wine program also comes up in our conversation. Kate McIntyre MW is the person for whom he filled in at Trembath & Taylor. Kate’s family winery is Moorooduc Estate on the Mornington Peninsula.

Todd Slater and Iona Baker are the sales staff members mentioned. Both previously worked in restaurants with serious Italian credentials, the former with Stefano Manfredi in Sydney and the latter with Guy Grossi in Melbourne.

Quite a few producers are namechecked. These include Hofstätter in Alto Adige and Brancaia in Tuscany, which produced the first two Italian wines Matt tasted: Pinot Nero and the Il Blu Merlot blend, respectively. Other names include Ottin (Valle d’Aosta), Marcarini, Poderi Colla, Chiara Boschis, Conterno Fantino (Piemonte), Pieropan, Speri (Veneto), Damiano Ciolli (Lazio), Costanti, Fuligni and Poggerino (Tuscany).

Last, here are a few of those more obscure grape varieties to track down: Prié (Aosta), Timorasso and Cortese (Piemonte), Rossese di Dolceacqua (Liguria), Ciliegiolo (Tuscany), Cesanese (Lazio), Carricante, Grillo, Catarratto, Frappato, Nerello Mascalese (Sicily).

The first time I met Corrina Wright, she was done up in Viking garb and grinning like a Cheshire cat. It was Melbourne’s inaugural Game of Rhônes tasting, a celebration of all things Grenache, Shiraz et al, and one of those too-rare wine events where a cheerful disposition is de rigueur. But even Corrina’s resting b***h face is probably a big, warm smile. Injustice and inanity are enough to wipe it off, but only for as long as it takes for her to speak up, pitch in and set it straight.

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Corrina’s ancestors, William and Elizabeth Oliver, left Scotland for McLaren Vale in late 1839 and established two properties that remain in family hands. Corrina Wright (née Rayment) is a member of the sixth generation to work the land here, and the first to make wine under the family label, Oliver’s Taranga. It’s a full family affair, with several relatives involved in the business, including her cousin Brioni Oliver. Together, they produce a range of first-rate wines, from McLaren Vale’s red staples of Shiraz and Grenache to an array of modern iterations of alternative varieties that have found such a happy home in this beautiful area’s warm Mediterranean climate.

One of those grapes is the Campanian native white, Fiano, and we spoke in the week preceding Australia’s first-ever Fiano Day. Corrina was the spearhead for this informal celebration of an increasingly popular vine variety.

As you listen to the interview, you’ll learn not to be surprised to see Corrina leading from the front. We talk about the many community roles she takes on. She is the president of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS) committee, and regular listeners will have heard me discuss this movement with the likes of Jeff Porter, Kim Chalmers and Max Allen. She is also on the action board of Australian Women in Wine. We discuss this organisation and its own awards, an initiative begun by Jane Thomson OAM, founder of The Fabulous Ladies’ Wine Society.

Corrina has also served on the boards of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, McLaren Vale Grape, Wine & Tourism Association and the Australian Society of Viticulture & Oenology. In other acroynym news, she was ASVO Winemaker of the Year in 2019, and still sits on the board of the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), which runs the Advanced Wine Assessment Course (Awac). We discuss Awac in the section about training your palate.

Corrina talks about studying at Roseworthy, an institution that has come up in many of these podcasts—not least with PJ Charteris, who also gives further insight into Southcorp, Penfolds and Karadoc. Among Corrina’s cohort were the likes of Pete Fraser (Yangarra), Andy Coppard (Lino Ramble), Tony and Briony Hoare (Beach Road Wines), Ben Glaetzer (Glaetzer Wines) and Sue Bell (Bellwether). She also studied at UC Davis in the US, where she came into the orbit of chemical engineer Roger Boulton, sensory scientist Ann Noble, and Nick Dokoozlian of Californian wine giant Gallo. Another American mentioned is the hugely influential critic, Robert Parker, founder of The Wine Advocate.

Somewhat more leftfield is the superb story of Corrina’s Ihana wine collaboration with Finnish F1 driver Valtteri Bottas.

Some people don’t even believe there’s a vineyard there, let alone the site that spawned a second coming for one of the country’s most hallowed cool-climate regions.

Reg Egan was working as a lawyer when he decided to plant a vineyard in the Yarra Valley in 1963. The site he chose was not far from his Melbourne practice—so close, in fact, that he was sure he’d have to sell it in the medium term. He had a contingency for that, which didn’t work out as he’d expected. That’s a fascinating anecdote covered in this interview with his younger daughter, Maryann.

By the mid-1980s, Reg had given up the law and was working on the vineyard full-time. The mélange of varieties he’d started with eventually whittled itself down to a range of four wines, named for his granddaughters: Amelia (Chardonnay), Lily (Pinot Noir), Amelia (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot) and Hannah (Cabernet Franc/Merlot).

Those are the daughters of his daughters, Liz and Maryann Egan. Liz went on to become a celebrated chef and restaurateur, while Maryann studied wine, working patchily among the vines in her early years before assuming the helm at Wantirna Estate over the past couple of decades.

We touch on other icons of the Yarra Valley here. Maryann mentions being good friends with Sandra de Pury, the fourth-generation winemaker at Yeringberg. This storied estate was founded in 1863 and underwent a significant hiatus during the Yarra’s post-Great War dormant period. Maryann also mentions Sam Middleton, third-generation vigneron at 1971-founded Mount Mary.

Sam’s grandfather, Dr John Middleton, and his wife, Marli, were among a legendary quartet of friends, along with the Egans, Ian and June Marks of Gembrook Hill and Dr Peter and Margaret McMahon. You can read more about this foursome here. Suffice to say, each of them has had a tremendous impact on notions of the quality potential and terroir stamp of Australian wines.

Another doctor features in this piece: Bailey Carrodus. Reg and Bailey planted the vineyard that would become Yarra Yering—another top-flight Australian producer. How that panned out is quite some story, but not widely known.

When it comes to Maryann’s own career, she worked a harvest at Tyrrell’s, one of the greats of the Hunter Valley, NSW, and there met Wayne Donaldson. The latter was the first winemaker at Domaine Chandon, the Yarra Valley bubbly outpost of LVMH, owner of Champagne house Moët et Chandon. During her six-year stint at Chandon, Maryann’s boss was influential Aussie sparkling-wine pioneer Tony Jordan, who passed away in 2019.

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After leaving Chandon to have her two children, Maryann scored a presenting role on the television show Wine Lovers’ Guide to Australia alongside co-hosts Grant Van Every and Pria Viswalingam. Australian residents can still stream both series of the programme, which first aired in 1999, on SBS on Demand.

Maryann speaks with fondness of visiting winemakers on her travels, and credits Melbourne fine-wine merchant Prince Wine Store and CellarHand, Wantirna Estate’s Australian distributor (for whom I work), with setting up some of those connections. The trio of wonderful women we name-check are Virginie Taupenot of Domaine Taupenot-Merme in Morey-Saint-Denis, Elsa Matrot in Meursault (both in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or) and Claudia Cigliuti of Barbaresco producer Cigliuti.

Julian Langworthy first struck me as the embodiment of happy-go-luckiness. A healthy irreverence, ready quip and loud laugh were standard issue, and he seemed to be breaking and losing more trophies than anyone else was winning.

I was the Victorian chair of Wine Communicators of Australia when Julian’s 2014 Deep Woods Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon won the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy at the Melbourne Royal Wine Awards. No wonder he looked like the cat that got the cream at the awards lunch we organised; Australia’s most prestigious wine trophy came with a $20,000 cheque to do whatever he liked to “further his wine education”. We talk about that on the podcast.

Around the same time, Julian brought his own Nocturne wines to us at CellarHand, in the hope that we would agree to be the brand’s first Australian distributor. We said yes. The wines—a single-vineyard Margaret River Chardonnay, Cabernet and rosé back then (the rosé has since migrated to the subregional range)—were excellent, and there was no chance that you’d let this combination of charisma, ambition, ebullience and prowess slip through your fingers.

Julian’s day job is chief winemaker and general manager of Deep Woods Estate, which is the linchpin of the Fogarty Wine Group (FWG). We discuss Deep Woods at length, from his unorthodox hiring by owner Peter Fogartry to the operations of the group, which owns vineyards and brands across four Australian states, including Dalwhinnie in Victoria, Lowestoft in Tasmania and Lake’s Folly in NSW.

We talk a bit about trophies, and I suggest we shouldn’t be blasé about the wins. Nor am I exaggerating this aspect of Julian’s career. Nocturne itself has picked up its fair share of silverware, while Jules has been crowned Halliday Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year and picked up the Len Evans Trophy, Stodart Trophy, Max Schubert Trophy and Decanter World’s Best Cabernet. Deep Woods has won more than 60 trophies and 200 gold medals on his watch—and FWG more broadly is a constant presence on the podium under his overall guidance.

Jeff Burch of Howard Park Wines is also mentioned in connection with Julian’s move to Deep Woods in his native Margaret River. That same hallowed region is home to several world-famous producers. Julian refers to the “founding families”, an informal term covering the likes of Cullen, Leeuwin Estate, Cape Mentelle, Vasse Felix and Moss Wood. The so-called “cool kids” mentioned as having managed to join that first rank include Stella Bella and Xanadu.

From Adelaide University days, Julian mentions erstwhile bottleshop colleague Sophie Otton, now a Sydney-based bar owner, sommelier, wine judge and writer. His lecturers included sensory evaluation specialist Patrick Iland, viticulture guru Peter Dry and Clare Valley icon Jeffrey Grosset, one of Australia’s foremost Riesling growers. Among Julian’s winemaking student cohort were Peter Dillon of Handpicked (married to winemaker Imogen Dillon of Ten Minutes by Tractor on the Mornington Peninsula), Peter Dredge of Dr Edge in Tasmania, former Bleasdale winemaker and Jimmy Watson winner Paul Hotker, Anna Pooley of Pooley Wines and Bubb + Pooley in Tasmania, and Dan Stocker of Heretic Wines in Margaret River.

It was at Wolf Blass that Julian first took telling steps in a winery role (and where Chassagne-Montrachet-based white Burgundy legend Pierre-Yves Colin was somewhat incongruously hanging around!). The Barossa winery was part of Beringer Blass and has now been subsumed into Treasure Wine Estates. Jules moved to Coonawarra within that same group, working at Jamiesons Run and then at Wynns Coonawarra Estate. The community members namechecked there include Emma Bowen of Bowen Estate, Dan Redman of Redman Wines and Dru Reschke of Koonara Wines. Last, but certainly not least, are a couple of hugely influential mentors at Wynns. One is Greg Tilbrook, the other the much-admired Sue Hodder, who herself has won just about every accolade as senior winemaker for this bastion of Australian Cabernet.

I vividly recall my first meeting with Kathleen Quealy. I had tasted and delighted in her Pobblebonk field blend of Friulano, Riesling and Pinot Gris, and followed it up with the Rageous red, an unlikely marriage of Sangiovese, Shiraz and Pinot Noir. Among the Mornington Peninsula’s calm little sea of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, these outlandishly named, labelled and assembled interlopers smacked of anarchy.

Rocking up at Balnarring Vineyard felt like landing in the outskirts of an Irish country town where time stands still. A charmingly ramshackle, take-us-as-you-find-us backyard of ambling hens, drying washing, bicycles and bric-a-brac announced, fittingly, the home of the Quealy-McCarthy clan.

That wasn’t your average interview. Unfiltered, unguarded candour and randomness spilt out, and I learned and laughed a lot. We’ve spoken a lot in the intervening years, but this episode 25 of Vininspo! podcast still felt like the first time.

Max Loder was the viticultural lecturer and Pinot Gris advocate who influenced Kathleen during her time at what is now the Charles Sturt University campus in Wagga Wagga, NSW. Her husband, Kevin McCarthy, did his winemaking studies at Roseworthy Agricultural College (discussed at length here). T’Gallant is the name of the winery they founded on the Mornington Peninsula in 1990. Thirteen years later, they sold it to Southcorp, which was subsumed by Fosters and morphed into Treasury Wine Estates. TWE sold T’Gallant in 2022; it has since reopened under new ownership and continues to operate from its Main Ridge home.

Kathleen was dubbed the Queen of Pinot Gris by the renowned Australian wine commentator James Halliday, for whose Coldstream Hills estate Kevin McCarthy worked in the Yarra Valley in the mid-1980s. Her range has bottlings labelled Grigio and Gris; generally speaking, Australian producers use the Italian styling to denote a crisper, lighter-bodied rendition that leans towards the grape’s airier aromas and lightly fruity side. Gris, from the French for “grey”, tends to denote a riper, more richly textured rendition with more spice and earthy, exotic aromas.

On the subject of Pinot Gris, I reference Max Allen’s book, Alternative Reality, which Max and I discussed on episode 24. The Chalmers family is central to that book and crops up when Kathleen and I discuss sourcing so-called alternative grape varieties. The best place to hear more about that fascinating area is by tuning into episode 17 of the podcast with Kim Chalmers.

Quealy Winemakers is based at the organic-certified Balnarring Vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula. Its range of wines takes in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—the region’s most celebrated grapes—and much more besides. The diverse and distinctive label artwork by celebrated designer Ken Cato is in keeping with this estate’s singularity.

Kathleen is justly proud of the progress her son, Tom McCarthy, has made. Tom’s range of skin-contact wines is called Turbul. It began over a decade ago with a Friulano that spent an extended period of time in contact with its skins to become a so-called orange or amber wine. As mentioned, this range has grown to four wines, with Malvasia, Ribolla Gialla and Moscato Giallo entering the fold. They are proper, considered, fully realised wines of intent; I urge you to watch this video and seek them out. While these wines take their cue from traditions around the border of Slovenia and northeast Italy, Tom has also followed in footsteps closer to home; in 2008, Kevin McCarthy’s T’Gallant Claudius gave Australia its first fully committed amber wine from Chardonnay, Traminer and Moscato Giallo.

Not starting with an end in mind has led this English-born, multi-award-winning writer to unearth profound connections down labyrinthine rabbit holes.

Max Allen is too young to be deemed a national treasure, but that’s what he is. In a field where the esteem in which commentators are held is generally a measure not of perspicacity or originality but of perceived influence on potential sales, Max’s gift—and thirst—for meaningful storytelling is a rare and precious thing.

Max is an award-winning journalist and author who earns a crust as drinks columnist for the Australian Financial Review (AFR), is a longtime contributor to Gourmet Traveller Magazine, and serves as the Australian correspondent for jancisrobinson.com. He has written several books about wine, some of which are discussed in our conversation and require a bit of context here.

The latest of these is Alternative Reality (2023), which tells the story of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS). I quote a section from the book’s preface, written by Mildura-based chef and show founder Stefano de Pieri. For more on the show’s origins, please listen to episode 17 with Kim Chalmers.

We also speak at length about Intoxicating: Ten drinks that shaped Australia (2020). Way-a-linah is the indigenous drink that kicks off the book, and pretty much the only way you’ll find out more about it is to read Intoxicating—which I suggest you do, because it’s an original and engrossing book that showcases Max’s specific talent for teasing out meaning.

Other books mentioned are The Future Makers: Australian Wines for the 21st Century (2010) and Red and White: Wine Made Simple (with photographer Adrian Lander, 1997). We discuss Max’s various collaborations with Lander, including a short film on Yeringberg, which won the Louis Roederer Artistry of Wine Award in 2014.

The Yeringberg estate in the Yarra Valley features prominently in the discussion. It was the subject of Max’s first story for The Age newspaper. Max has written and presented at length about Coranderrk Station and the relationship between William Barak and the de Pury family. The image he mentions was used on the front cover of the first volume of Andrew Caillard’s peerless history, The Australian Ark. You can delve into Max’s work on this here.

Other literary collaborations have taken place with food writer Richard Cornish, mentioned in passing, and Gerald Diffey, proprietor of Geralds Bar in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton (and an offshoot in San Sebastián, Spain!). Gerald’s book, edited by Max, is called Beggars Belief (2021). In a sombre note, we talk about Max’s friendship with Sam Hughes, artist, musician and public face of Natural Selection Theory. More reminiscence about Rootstock’s raw energy can be found in episode 12, featuring wine writer Christina Pickard.

Another story we reference is a recent AFR article titled End of the Vine. It deals with the impending loss to property development of the great Balgownie Vineyard just outside Bendigo. The site was planted in 1969 by Stuart Anderson, now in his nineties. Max’s piece, another collaboration with Adrian Lander, delves into the site’s history and symbolism. Stuart’s protégé, Michael Dhillon, is part of the story, too. Dhillon’s family estate, Bindi, grows superb, soulful, profound wines in the Macedon Ranges in Victoria. As if to confirm Max’s comment about pupil becoming master (and mentor), Dhillon this week won the Legend of Melbourne Food and Wine Award, following in the footsteps of past winner, Stuart Anderson.

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It makes sense when you meet Steve Lubiana that he was up to his chin in grape skins from the moment he could walk, snapping at the heels of his winemaker dad. There’s barely a moment when Steve isn’t playing with plants, fermenting stuff or pouring drinks to try with food.

I first met Steve and his wife Monique, who is just as much a part of Stefano Lubiana, in Milan, of all places. They were looking at equipment at a wine industry fair that I’d been sent to cover for an Australian technical magazine. Though Stefano Lubiana is famous as Tasmania’s first certified organic and biodynamic vineyard, what’s sometimes overlooked in the best naturally run estates is the attention to detail in farming and the winery. That goes for something as prosaic as machinery (and Steve, we discover, likes machines). It makes sense, though; when you work so hard to grow the finest fruit, you don’t want anything to impede its pristine flow to the bottle.

Steve and Monique’s vineyard is in Granton, near Hobart in the lower Derwent Valley. We talk a lot about the specific details of the region and the site. Tasmania has become such hot property over the last 15 years, it’s hard to imagine the scene as it was 35 years ago. Claudio Alcorso is credited with planting the island’s first commercial vineyard at the end of the 1950s at what became Moorilla (referenced in the conversation), and Andrew Pirie, who founded Pipers Brook Vineyard in the ’70s, is also mentioned. But winegrowing ventures were few and far between. It’s also worth noting that, although Tasmania is legally treated as one Geographical Indication (GI), the conditions experienced by growers ensconced in its various pockets vary widely. Despite theoretical proximity to one another, the sense of frontier growing persists. That’s farming on the margins, I suppose.

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The wine that Steve mentions attempting as a schoolkid was Amarone, a style that hails from the Veneto region of northeast Italy. It’s a red wine made with partially dried grapes, and you could see how the slightly sweet, rich, chocolatey, enveloping texture might appeal to a child (even if the elevated alcohol isn’t ideal). Staying in or around the Riverland, Bill Moularadellis (founder of Kingston Estate) and Andrew Peace have become big players in this warm, dry, productive area of irrigated vineyards. Other classmates at Roseworthy included Vanya Cullen (of Cullen Wines in Margaret River), Nick Butler and Matt Aldridge.

Steve’s early vintages overseas were spent at Castello di Ama in Gaiole, Chianti, and with Bauchet Frères in Bisseuil, Champagne, where he stayed with Lionel Legras in the Côte des Blancs village of Chouilly. Later vintages came with Gerhard and Brigitte Pittnauer in Austria’s Burgenland (Gerhard’s importer, Steve’s distributor and my part-time employer are one and the same: CellarHand), and with Saša Radikon in Friuli. Radikon is known for the skin-contact (“orange” or “amber”) white wines that were common in the days of Steve’s forefathers and became particularly trendy in the 2010s. Their texture and the bleeding of aroma and flavour into surprisingly exotic, often savoury, zones make the best examples deeply compelling and great potential partners with food.

Alex Podolinsky is the man Steve mentions as popularising the biodynamic agriculture movement in Australia. We talk a bit about the effects of biodynamic viticulture, and I aim to put together a more explicit, specific detailing of these practices through some medium soon. Watch this space. Also, you can listen to Anna Flowerday of Te Whare Ra on this subject in episode 13.

Steve and Monique’s son, Marco, has his own label and is increasingly influential at Stefano Lubiana. He’s a brilliant young winemaker (winner of the 2024 Young Gun of Wine title in this Australian competition), and together this family crafts an excellent range of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (various tiers and selections) as well as aromatic whites and fuller reds.

Sparkling was where it started, though, and there are a few terms that may need some explanation. Steve mentions the cuvée being used for these wines; he is referring to the most pristine part of the juice before pressing risks any harsher textural compounds from the skins entering the fray. Tirage refers to the stage where the fermented base wine is put to bottle for a second fermentation—the one that gives it fizz and lees influence in traditional-method sparkling wine. Steve’s ideas on this are interesting. And disgorging (sometimes called degorging) is where the yeast lees are expelled from the bottle, with the bottle resealed with a cork for eventual sale, sometimes with the addition of “dosage”—a dash of balancing sweetness. (The current disgorgement of Steve and Monique’s famous Brut Reserve has a dosage of about 4.5g/L.)