Wine shows cop a lot of flack. You need only read the feedback to my post on the 2018 Sydney Royal Wine Show exhibitors tasting to see that. But is it justified? And indeed do …
Sorry everyone, I failed. Last week, I said that I'd try to post some tidbits from my time judging at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles in Beijing, China. Except I didn't event get close. Long days …
2015 Sydney Wine Show - Results + Tasting the Winners Last week saw the 2015 Macquarie Group Sydney Royal Wine Show (to use the full name) winners announced and, carrying on a tradition that now dates …
Deep Woods Reserve Chardonnay 2013 (Margaret River, WA) 13.5%, Screwcap, $45 I'm on a little 'trophy taste' this weekend, first the Bleasdale Pinot Gris and now this Chardonnay - which took out the 2014 James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge …
Wine Shows: Are the 100 point score totals useful or just confusing? The Winemakers Federation of Australia (WFA) have announced this week that they're reviewing the Code of Practice for the Display of Awards, examining whether …
2014 Royal Sydney Wine Show - results and musings The 2014 Macquarie Group Sydney Wine Show results were officially announced on Thursday night, with this wine scribe present at the trophy presentation dinner in my official …
The 2013 Sydney Wine Show Trophy WinnersI'm a fraction behind on this update, considering that the results were released almost a month ago, though still worth detailing methinks. Mike Bennie accepting a wine Logie for best …
NSW Wine Awards 2012 Results As a wine judge, there are few things more satisfying than looking at a list of show results and thinking 'now that is a smart set of wines'. That's how I feel …
Crumpled. Or at least I was the next day... 2012 Sydney Wine Show: A few of the winners As is my want, I spent last Friday and Saturday immersed in all things Sydney Wine Show related, …
Behind the curtain: Judging at the NSW Wine Awards 27 young Semillons = the breakfast of champions For breakfast yesterday I had 27 2010 and 2009 Semillons (served blind).... Ok, so it was more like second breakfast (I …
Winestate Wine of the Year Awards 2010 - a look at some of the winners Winestate Wine of the Year - Top win for Lake Breeze Each year, Adelaide based stalwart magazine Winestate compile a list of their …
Sydney Wine Show Results catalogue. Many wines in here Sydney Wine Show 2011: The Notes Very slack. Very. I should have written these notes up ages ago, but they simply got added to the (ever growing) pile. Let's …
The tasting note cleanout continues: Tri Nations Wine Challenge 2010 No vacuuming for me.... The following wines were sampled at the 2010 Tri Nations Wine Challenge, another alternate styled wine show with a slightly different slant. In …
Cleaning out the tasting book: 2010 Boutique Wine Awards I'm attempting a bit of spring cleaning this weekend, and I figure that the best place to begin is the small mountain of tasting notes that are …
Sydney Wine Show 2011 results + tasting the winners Say what you want about wine shows (and everyone has an opinion, often negative ones at that) the results of them are nothing if not interesting. In the …
More good news for Aussies at Decanter Wine Awards I first reported about the good results for Australian wines at the 2010 Decanter World Wine Awards back in May, but since then we've had an update, …
Decanter World Wine Awards - The Australian Results Another day, another wine show. Peculiar that the results for this get released the day after those of the International Wine Challenge (though it's all tied in with …
2010 International Wine Challenge - The Australian Winners In a big year for Australian wine at the 2010 International Wine Challenge, with Aussie wines picking up 65 gold medals (of a total Australian award haul of …
Typically, I'm a little tardy in getting these notes up, though I can bring in a note if anyone asks (just don't tell Mum). The snippets below document my second day of tasting through some of …
As per usual, (this year and last year - which now qualifies as 'usual') I have spent the last two days tasting (and drinking) the wines that were submitted to the 2010 Macquarie Group Sydney …
At 18 I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, doing a degree that I didn't really like, and a liquor shop seemed like fun. Needless to say I discovered wine, my uni degree morphed into something completely different and wine/beer took over my life.
Almost twenty years later and I currently spend my days wearing many (wine) hats, mostly as a writer, presenter and marketer.
While wearing my writer cap I write features for the likes of National Liquor News, Gourmet Traveller WINE and the RAS plus I'm a Lifestyle FOOD channel wine expert. Read more about me here or get in touch to book your next wine event with me here.