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Mountains/Wine/People – The Beautiful Central Otago…
I used to be one of those Australian’s – you know, the one’s that don’t bother with countries that are too close to their own to really care to go and take a look. Much like many Brits that don’t quite...
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Haunting Wines, Madmen, and some band you’ve probably never heard of…
It was a Wednesday night in Sydney. The Tuesday before, I’d been invited down, by Richard Harkham, to a tasting at Circular Quay, to explore and experience ‘What’s New’ from Andrew Guard‘s most...
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Ancient Integrity – Jasper Hill Wines
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...
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‘Get Out Of The Bloody Way!’– Small Fry Wines, Barossa SA.
“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...
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An Origin Story… Genesis – The Wine Idealist Is One Year Old
May, 2012. Having quit my job as a news journalist at the BBC, and swapping it for a full time gig in a wonderful wine bar just down the road, I was asked by the owner, my boss, and something...
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It All Comes Down To Taste… Andrew Guard Wine Imports.
What’s wrong with being a wine geek? Not much if you ask fine wine importer and distributor Andrew Guard, who, at the end of 2012 was named 66th in the the Top 100 of The Sydney Morning Herald’s (SMH)...
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Early Start Early Finish / Vintage 2014 – Hunter Valley
4am – The alarm finally goes off. I wake up instantly because I’ve not really been sleeping. I’ve been drifting in and out of consciousness with faint coloured images of red, white, and green shuffling...
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Go! to Rootstock, Sydney – 2014
- GO TO ROOTSTOCK! - Just about every Australian and New Zealand winegrower I’ve written about, here on The Wine Idealist, will be at this weekends festival. Taste their natural, organic and biodynamic...
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The Rise of the Counter Culture – Rootstock 2014
Coming back bigger and better is a term usually reserved for rubbish sequels of big blockbuster films, and a bit of a cliché these days, but this is fact, not fiction, and Rootstock 2014 was bigger,...
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A Whole New World – Hans Herzog Estate, Marlborough N.Z.
“In the new world, everyone talks about winemakers, like they’re heros,” says Hans Herzog, owner and vigneron at Hans Herzog Estate in Marlborough, New Zealand, “but we should be talking about the...
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Organics is Easy – Huia Vineyards, Marlborough, NZ
“I don’t know why everyone isn’t organic. I think it’s really simple,” says Claire Allan, winegrower and proprietor at Huia (pron. ‘who ee ah’), located in the Marlborough winegrowing region of New...
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The House in the Sun – Te Whare Ra, Marlborough NZ
“With the way wine seems to be going, I think you need to be a winegrower, not just a viticulturist, or winemaker,” says Jason Flowerday, winegrower, and part owner with his wife Anna, of Te Whare Ra...
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Avril Lavigne et Le Vin Naturel – Is Natural Wine a Fad?
1978, and a young Morgon winemaker named Marcel Lapierre is experimenting in Beaujolais with no-sulphur winemaking, from grapes grown organically. In doing so, Lapierre along with a few local...
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Advance Australia and New Zealand Real Wine Fair – 2014
Two years ago I attended the first Real Wine Fair as a nervous wine novice. I went to taste some wine to, perhaps, include on the list of a West London wine bar I worked in. That experience changed my...
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Wine Idealism – The Changing State of Australian Wine
“Just as any fad becomes a fashion, a fashion becomes a trend, a trend becomes a change; so then, when enough changes unite, it becomes a paradigm shift…” The Wine Idealist has taken a small step into...
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Happiness and the Human Touch – Seresin, Marlborough, NZ
“There’s something we don’t talk about, which I think is the most intriguing thing about wine,” says Colin Ross, Estate Manager at Seresin, in Marlborough, New Zealand. “We ignore the alcohol, the...
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Who Is Brad Hickey? – Brash Higgins, McLaren Vale, SA
Brash Higgins, the man, doesn’t exist. In 2007, he was an idea, used to harbor and conceal an illegal alien from the prying eyes of the Australian authorities. An alias, an alter-ego, conceived in the...
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‘Natural Wine, Defined’– The Chicken Nugget Argument
What’s In That Chicken Nugget? – NPR.org Placing the word ‘natural’ in front of the word ‘wine’, without any apology, or fear of reprisal, the considered use of quotation marks, or adding the phrase...
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Un-compromised Intuition – Woollaston Estate, Nelson, NZ
“My philosophy with winemaking is uncompromising,” says Shane Munn, winemaker at Woollaston Estate, located in Nelson, at the most northern winegrowing region of New Zealand’s south island. “We let...
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‘Natural Balance’– Muddy Water, Waipara, N.Z.
Flying over the Southern Alps of New Zealand’s south island, giant folds of earth burst up towards the sky, kissing the long white cloud that hangs silently on the wind, and leaves a white lipstick...
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