Vininspo! podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Emma Rice was devastated to be told early on in life that she had looks and personality—not intelligence—going for her, and should therefore aim to be a secretary to a wine merchant.

A life-changing double magnum of 1979 Krug Champagne had been the catalyst to her seeking advice on how to break into wine, only to have her boss throw this sexist advice back in her face.

She immediately quit and started beating out—with no clear vision—her own path.

Eventually, she stumbled across an ad for a Wine Science degree at Plumpton College in East Sussex in the south of England—a move that would change the course of her life.

I first met Emma in 2016, by which time she had served for eight years at leading English sparkling wine estate Hattingley Valley in Hampshire, where she was twice named WineGB Winemaker of the Year.

Emma Rice hard at work in her Hattingley Valley days. Photo credit: Felicity Crawshaw

She remained at Hattingley until 2022 and now works as an independent consultant.

In recent weeks, she has released her first two sparkling wines under her own name from the 2009—wines that themselves have an extraordinary back story.

Emma speaks of the risks and rewards of winegrowing in Great Britain, from the the vicissitudes of the weather to the verve and finesse of chalk-grown grapes. She is intimately familiar with terroirs, fruit quality and technical progress across the country.

She also reflects on the challenges and triumphs at Hattingley Valley, including the shifting perceptions of English wine in the global market and refining her approach to making world-class traditional-method sparkling wine.

The saga around her own pair of Winemaker's Reserve could perhaps serve as a metaphor for the hoops English winegrowers have to jump through—but at the end of it all, Emma has learnt from mistakes and is enjoying being part of the success of her friends and clients.

The autonomous community of Galicia in northwest Spain is the Iberian Peninsula's coolest corner—but it's so hot right now.

This is where the rain in Spain mainly falls, with lush green hills, mountains and meandering canyons sprawling inland from the craggy Atlantic coast.

The city of Santiago de Compostela has drawn pious pilgrims for centuries, but Galicia has endured times of famine and hardship, where it was more famous for people fleeing than filing in.

Happily, it's in a good spot right now, enjoying fame for its unique, Celtic-esque culture, the warmth of its people, the beauty of its shoreline, the delicious bounty of its seafood and—yes—the brilliance of its wines.

Noah Chichester fell in love with this area when he went there to teach English. He ended up staying for a few years, becoming fluent in the language and knowing its wines and growers inside out.

His website, winesofgalicia.com, is an indispensable authority on Galician food, wine, tourism and culture.

Our conversation here centred on Noah’s formative years and how his passion for wine and Spain came about.

We also talk about navigating Galicia from a visitor’s point of view, looking at the character of the people and where they live.

He also takes us step-by-step through the five Galician DOs—Denominaciones de Origen, or Protected Designations of Origin—looking at the winegrowing conditions, grape varieties and styles of the wines.

The Albariño of Rías Baixas is the drop-off point for most people, but there is so much more besides, with an exciting array of grape varieties across varied, and evocative, landscapes.

We also recorded a bonus episode, where Noah offered a range of recommendations on wines to try from all of the DOs, from gateway bottles to artisanal treasures.

You’ll find additional video content on my website to give you a sense of these places we talk about, and I cannot recommend Noah’s website highly enough if you find yourself being sucked into the seductive world of Galician wine.

Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Many of us dream of a career as an idolised artist, but Patrick Walsh got so close to pop stardom he could almost taste it—only to have the dream cruelly snatched away.

(For now, at least.)

But there are no hard feelings. When it comes to passions, Patrick’s cup overfloweth; maybe that’s what keeps him grounded.

A lover of Liverpool Football Club, outback land-rovering and futurist music, Patrick and his wife, Virginia, founded CellarHand in 1999.

This Melbourne-based importer and wholesale distributor is known as a specialist in Germany and Austria, bringing in a host of household (for aromatic, high-acid wine-lovers!) names such as Dönnhoff, Dr Loosen, Gunderloch, Koehler-Ruprecht, Emmerich Knoll and F.X. Pichler.

Its portfolio also takes in Australian and New Zealand wines from the likes of Yeringberg, Stefano Lubiana, Deep Woods, Frankland Estate and Burn Cottage.

Our conversation spans decades and far-flung regions, from the first stirrings of the Melbourne fine wine and dining scene to the present-day sommelier zeitgeist; from homegrown Cabernet Sauvignon to obscure varieties in lesser-known corners of Europe.

Context around certain names and wines might be useful.

Patrick’s early career revolved around Melbourne’s restaurant scene; many of the characters involved will not be familiar to everyone—perhaps not even that of the crooning Welsh heartthrob—but their role in that milieu will be self-evident.

One of the French wine anecdotes revolves around a lady named Lalou Bize-Leroy, the formidable woman at the helm of Domaine Leroy in Vosne-Romanée in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or. This is one of the most prestigious estates on the planet, and Lalou also makes wines under her Domaine d’Auvenay label (also name-checked). The dog story revolves around the Chambertin Grand Cru—one of the world’s most revered Pinot Noir vineyards.

Ernst Loosen is one of the German winegrowers named. Many will be familiar with the Riesling wines of Dr Loosen in Bernkastel in the Mosel Valley. Philipp Wittmann and Johannes Hasselbach of Gunderloch, growers in the Rheinhessen, are also mentioned.

Austria is a fruitful topic of conversation but Patrick alludes to the darkest days in the country’s wine history—the scandal of 1985. This incident, which caused the collapse of the country’s exports, involved wineries that were found to have illegally adulterated their wines using diethylene glycol. This toxic substance is a minor ingredient in some brands of antifreeze and was used to make the wines taste sweeter and fuller-bodied. The country has worked exceptionally hard since to improve its image and impress upon the world its high standards and exceptional wines. It has been successful in this endeavour.

Staying with Austria is some talk of Federspiel and Smaragd wines. These are two classifications of wines of the Wachau Valley on the Danube River. Smaragd denotes a dry wine from the ripest, most powerful grapes. Federspiel refers to a more medium-weighted, dry wine with around 12.5% alcohol.

The Wachau growers referred to are Prager, F.X. Pichler, Franz Hirtzberger and Emmerich Knoll (what Patrick calls “the fab four”), as well as the excellent cooperative, Domäne Wachau. These are outstanding growers of dry Riesling and Grüner Veltliner. To dig deeper into the fascinating terroir of the Wachau you can watch this 10-minute video.

Under winemaker Fritz Miesbauer, Stadt Krems and Stift Göttweig ply their trade in the neighbouring Kremstal. The River Kamp flows into the Danube near here, and that’s where you’ll find Weingut Bründlmayer.

The other Austrian topic is Blaufränkisch, the superb black grape exploited by Roland Velich (of Moric) and Hannes Schuster in the Burgenland region. Hannes also makes reds from Sankt Laurent and Rotburger (aka Zweigelt) and a white from Furmint.

This latter is the key Hungarian white grape we discuss, along with Hárslevelű. These are the most important grapes in the famous Tokaji sweet wines, but we discuss dry renditions. We also briefly mention Roland Velich’s brother Heinz, who makes wines from Muscat Ottonel and Welschriesling, among others.

And finally, we have a look at Corsica and the wines of Manu Venturi of Clos Venturi and Domaine Vico (introduced to Patrick by Virginie Taupenot of Domaine Taupenot-Merme in Morey-Saint Denis). Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu and Carcaghjolu Neru are the hard-to-pronounce red grapes.

The final wine Patrick mentions is the Loosen Barry Wolta Wolta Riesling, a collaboration between the Barry family of Clare and Ernst Loosen in the Mosel—Aussie grapes vinified the German way!

And football? That’s soccer. Fernando Torres was a fine and handsome player.

You can track down many of the wines mentioned at www.cellarhand.store

I hope you enjoy the show.

Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Aesthetics and integrity matter to Erin Larkin, the Wine Advocate reviewer for Australia and New Zealand.

She grew up in Perth, a chic street urchin around the oceanside neighbourhoods of Perth who found joy in making things.

That turned into an early career in fashion and a lifelong love of style, patterns, materials, details—and dressing well.

As is often the case with creative people in underpaid jobs, she moonlighted in bottle shops and borderline hospitality, where parallels with her approach to fashion and a burgeoning curiosity in people and places plunged her deep into the world of wine.

In 2020, Erin became a critic at Halliday Wine Companion, Australia’s most prolific publisher of reviews. She balanced this with various presenting, judging and writing gigs.

A couple of years later, a fateful call from The Wine Advocate made her a full-time international critic. She’s the first Australia-based reviewer for the publication, which grew out of Robert M. Parker Jr's late-1970s direct-mail newsletter, The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate. Parker went on to become the world's most influential wine critic, and his magazine has grown into a crack international team headed by editor-in-chief William Kelley.

Erin and I were both selected as scholars for the Len Evans Tutorial in 2022. Andrea Pritzker MW was also a member of that contingent; for more on LET, as it’s known, please listen to episode 2 of the podcast.

Erin is thoughtful and thoroughly articulate about the evolution of her writing and approach to criticism. There is a large element of making your own luck in the way she has thrown herself into opportunities in wine, thriving on curiosity.

We also went into depth about the most exciting wines coming out of Margaret River, Swan Valley and Great Southern in her home state of Western Australia.

I really hope you enjoy the conversation. And I’d love to hear from you—please like, subscribe, share and comment. Your curiosity and input make the wine world go round!

Think about your first taste of a world expanding beyond your borders. When you’re small, so is your world; foreignness is a stone’s throw away. You have only a handful of experiences. Everything is new.

I grew up in Rye, East Sussex, in the southeast of England. I loved it there. From that town, we’d venture out. Places like Tenterden and Hastings were foreign, then became familiar. Less regularly, we might go to Brighton, big enough to have a football team that played on TV—but that was still in the same county.

We checked off London, too, the grand capital. We had cousins in other counties: Norfolk, Suffolk and Berkshire. Interminable car rides, but worth it to discover uncharted territory.

And there were rumours of other lands and times all around us. Julius Caesar was said to have landed nearby, and a Norman king called William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings in 1066. He came from France, so that was close.

Horizons busted left, right and centre. The world was already mindblowing.

I learned French at primary school, a special treat because a teacher had married a mademoiselle or something. We had a workbook called Salut! filled with words to learn, sentences to complete and market scenes to colour in.

Before I was 10, we went on a school trip to France—just an hour away by ferry—and stayed a few days. The ham (jambon), cheese (fromage), bread (pain), butter (beurre) and jam (confiture) were all different (and yummy). Loaves were “baguettes”, and they were long and thin. Best of all, they had things called “croissants” and bowls—not mugs, bowls—of hot chocolate for breakfast.

What was also cool was that if you said the stuff from Salut! to grown-ups in France, they understood you. They smiled at you. And they talked back.

You learned that “voyager” means “to travel”, and “Bon voyage” was “Have a nice trip”. But why even bother saying that? Of course, you were going to.

Because travelling was easy. And fun. You just made it up as you went along—listened, copied, tried stuff, and it all fell into place.

I’ll be honest: I don’t believe the wine world works like this.

But I’ll also say this: It absolutely bloody well should.

Vininspo! is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Sure, wine presents challenges, just like travel—you need a passport to travel, a smattering of local lingo, a handle on local customs and the ability to whittle down options from the seemingly infinite to the feasibly doable.

In the travel realm, you take these in your stride. Some, indeed are a titillating part of its novelty.

In wine, they can present barriers.

You might say wine is complicated, but it isn’t. It undoubtedly gets complicated, but that doesn’t have to happen until you’re good and ready. (And, when you are, that’s another part of its magic.)

But look at it this way. Paris is complicated. Yeah, yeah, I know people “do Paris”, often on the same trip as they might “do Rome” and “check out Prague”. But scoffing a pain au chocolat halfway up the Eiffel Tower is just the start of the story. How far do you want to go?

The key is, the start of the story should be fun and kindle the curiosity to dig deeper. To take the next step in your stride should take little more than the inquisitiveness and consciousness (and smidge of audacity) that got you this far.

But here’s the problem (and I’m here to solve it): When you travel, you have baggage. Literally.

When you come to wine… well, it’s wine that has the baggage. And it really shouldn’t, so let’s get rid of it.

Too much (read almost all) content in this realm starts with the premise that wine is somehow special. Of course, wine is somehow special, otherwise, why would Vininspo! exist?

But it isn’t special in the way they make you think it is.

Wine is wholly relatable. The fermented juice of fruit grown by people in nature. It’s straightforward.

If you drink wine and count it as part of your culture, you’re fortunate.

But again, you’re not fortunate in the way they’d have you believe.

You’re lucky because you have the wherewithal to avail yourself of a drink that exists for pleasure. You won’t die without it, but you have a good chance of living better with it.

But here’s the point. It’s not “special” in the sense that it’s the preserve of the initiated, the in-crowd, the elite. And you’re not “fortunate” in the sense that you’ve been granted access by the beneficence of some omniscient deity.

Everyone should feel they belong in the world of wine and feel their voice deserves to be heard. A bottle of wine contains mysteries; we’re the traveller knocking at its door. And the precious innocence the traveller brings—like that Salut!-reading schoolkid with his croissant-flaked grin— should be warmly welcomed.

I’ve been shown outrageous kindness by strangers as I’ve travelled the world. My countless stupid questions have been greeted not by scoffs and scorn but by patience and a will to have me understand. If anything, my ignorance has been accepted as a token in exchange for enlightenment.

We live in times where fleeting, second-hand impressions stand in for first-hand experience. But away from the smartphone screen, we know there’s no substitute for living in the moment.

The world around us is fascinating. Its palette of sights, sounds and tastes is so rich and varied. The layers of history and possibilities of the future. And perhaps we forget that love and friendship go far beyond what we might have now. People, for all their faults, are amazing.

What’s special about wine is that it brings together all this wonder. As with travel, there’s no one set journey, no universal itinerary, no ultimate destination. There are endless meandering, crisscrossing paths. Each is lined with sensations and surprises.

To navigate them, just pay attention. Look. Sniff. Taste. Listen. Talk. Learn. On the way you might change your mind; that’s fine. You’ll get good advice, take-or-leave tips and unwanted input.

But—and here’s the important bit—the person leading the way is you. Every single step can be more rewarding than the last. Every prior experience illuminates the next moment.

By paying attention—to sensations and the worldly detail around wine (Who made it? From what? Where? When? How?)—you’ll write your own inner travelogue.

That journal you pen in your imagination informs and enriches future experiences. And—like the traveller emboldened to speak up and become immersed—it makes the world light up and open a little wider.

Everything is new.

This is a highly relatable story that highlights what happens when an inquisitive, broad-minded go-getter happens to tug on the wine-discovery thread.

That said, there are a few references to education experiences that give useful context.

As a member of the Institute of Masters of Wine, Andrea Pritzker MW has achieved the pinnacle of achievement in wine academia. The MW started out in the 1950s as a qualification for the UK wine trade and has transformed into a hugely coveted and highly regarded qualification the world over.

As we discuss, the exam is notoriously tough, comprising a rigorous theory, tasting and research papers covering all aspects of wine production, evaluation, business and beyond. Today, there are some 425-odd MWs based in 30 countries.

Andrea's Wine inTuition business offers courses at all levels of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET).

This set of formal, UK-administered qualifications covers tasting and theory across all key wine global styles. It runs from the rudimentary one-day beginner certificate to the prestigious and demanding WSET Diploma, viewed by many as a stepping stone to the Master of Wine.

Finally, we speak of the Len Evans Tutorial, which has been described as "the greatest wine school on earth". Taking place each year in the Hunter Valley, NSW, since 2001, a dozen scholars are selected from all segments of the wine profession—winemakers, viticulturists, sommeliers, writers—to take part each year.

Over five days, scholars are put through their paces in a series of 30-wine judging sessions, with their performance scrutinised by a panel of veteran judges, category specialists and former top scholars. There are also masterclasses and dinners with a focus on reading, assessing and articulating some of the finest wines on earth—many of them old and vanishingly rare.

Andrea and I were privileged to get called up in 2022, and yes - she came out on top!

Alsace is an oft-misunderstood place. It's easy to see why; it's a highly complex character with a rich, diverse history and culture.

Who better to help us get to grips with this fascinating place and its wines than Australia-loving Alsatian, Frédéric Blanck?

Freddy's ancestors came to Alsace some 250 years ago. They farmed everything, including grapes. And in the mid-’80s, Freddy and his cousin Philippe decided to rename the domaine after their grandpa and turn it into one of the region's leading lights.

“Vins d’émotion” is the estate’s tagline—wines of emotion—I think that sums it up pretty darn well.

Freddy likes to come to Australia every summer. He loves it here, plus a couple of his children live downunder—including his son, Lucas, who is the owner and vigneron at Kerri Greens in Red Hill.

I hope you enjoy our conversation, and learn something about this beautiful place.

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.

Instagram: @vininspo.wine

Kim Chalmers wears many hats, not least in a family business that serves as vine nursery, grape supplier and wine estate with vineyards in two separate geographical indications (GIs). She’s also wife to a winemaker and mother of two daughters, as well as serving on numerous committees. “History is made by those who turn up,” she says—and she turns up every time, full of enthusiasm.

Bruce and Jenni Chalmers are the green-fingered parents who started growing all kinds of things in New South Wales before hitting upon grapes when the wine industry was booming. The nursery has since moved from Euston, NSW, to Merbein, just outside Mildura in Victoria. This rural city at the junction of Australia's two longest rivers, the Murray and the Darling, is a character we discuss in this episode.

Kim works in the business alongside her Netherlands-born winemaker husband, Bart Van Olphen. That’s one dynamic double act; another is Kim and her sister Tennille. As well as the nursery in Merbein, the family owns a large, diversely planted vineyard in Colbinabbin, in the Heathcote GI in central Victoria. We don’t talk much about the vineyard, which is an east-facing sloped site comprised of the famous red Cambrian soils of the area. The lower vineyard is deep, red clay-loam, while the higher vineyard is complex rocky terrain of ironstone, dolerite, green basalt and jasper. It is home to more than different grape varieties and supplies about 40 producers with grapes.

This vineyard is the source for most wines produced under the Chalmers label, which we do discuss. We also mention Sandro Moselle, the former winemaker at Port Phillip Estate on the Mornington Peninsula, where the family wines were made until the winery was built in Merbein in the 2010s.

On the subject of the vine selection and importation through the nursery business, Kim mentions Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo (VCR) and explains how this extraordinary cooperative operates. In a similar vein, she talks about Gruppo Matura, a collective of Italian winemakers and agronomists collaborating to further Italian wine, both at home and overseas. Hugely influential winemaking consultant Alberto Antonini is a driving force behind this group, while Kim often refers to Stefano Dini as a brother; he has spent a lot of time with the Chalmers family and has done fascinating, effective work on their behalf. Kim and I recorded a bonus segment on this side of the business, which I hope to publish soon.

Kim sits on the board of Wine Victoria and, like me, on the committee of Melbourne Royal Wine Awards. She is also a spearhead of the Alternative Varieties Wine Show (AAVWS), which takes place each November in Mildura. We talk at length about AAVWS, whose seed was planted as the Sangiovese Challenge in 1999, the brainchild of three people mentioned in the interview: Bruce Chalmers, restaurateur Stefano de Pieri and the late plant virologist Dr Rod Bonfiglioli. I have been fortunate to serve as a judge these past three years under the chair of judges, Leanne Altmann, the much-admired Melbourne sommelier that Kim mentions. Also namechecked are AAVWS president Corrina Wright, judge Kerri Thompson (KT) and regular entrant Richard Leask of Hither & Yon in McLaren Vale. For another perspective on AAVWS, please listen to Jeff Porter, 2023’s international judge, who was my guest on episode 6.