The Cellar Door Podcast

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There are wine regions that the world knows by name, and there are wine regions that deserve to be known a whole lot better.

Frankland River, tucked away in Western Australia’s Great Southern, is one of the latter.

It’s a region with a rich agricultural history, a distinctive climate, some seriously exciting wines, and a community of producers working hard to put their corner of the world on the map.

For years, Frankland River has supplied fruit that has found its way into wines carrying broa...

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The wine industry is cyclical.

Booms become busts. Shortages become oversupply. Prices rise, vineyards get planted, markets change, and suddenly everyone is asking: how did we get here?

But perhaps the more important question is: did we see it coming?

In this conversation, Toby Langley and I unpack the Turrentine Wine Business Wheel of Fortune, and what it tells us about supply, demand, inventory, timing and the decisions businesses make when the market turns.

Because in wine, by the time the signal becomes obvious, it...

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I’ve spoken to Giles Cooke before on the Cellar Door Podcast, usually about his successful Thistledown.

But this conversation is a little different.

I must warn listeners that some of the themes in this conversation are heavy, including loss, mental health and suicide. 

Behind Giles’s Our Fathers label is a story that I found genuinely moving. It’s a wine project that came out of an extraordinarily difficult period in Giles’ life, the loss of his father and mother, and then his own brush with mortality...

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What makes a wine business worth buying?

You might think it's the vineyard. Or the winery. Maybe it's the brand, the wine sitting in the cellar, or the customers who have been buying it for generations.

But what if one of the biggest things affecting the value of a wine business is actually the person who owns it?

To answer these questions I reached out to Toby Langley of Langley and Co. Toby has spent decades working with buyers and sellers of wine businesses, and he has...

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For Mac Forbes, wine has never been just about what’s in the glass.

It’s about identity. Place. Curiosity. And the willingness to choose the harder path in pursuit of something meaningful.

Over the past two decades, Mac has built one of Australia’s most respected wine businesses by questioning convention—from dry farming and single vineyards to a philosophy centred on understanding the Yarra Valley on its own terms.

In this conversation, we explore the challenges facing Australian wine today, the lessons Mac has drawn from fam...

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Most conversations about wine start with a simple assumption: that there is such a thing as the wine market.

Joe Fattorini argues that's completely wrong.

In this episode, we unpack why treating wine as a single market leads to poor marketing, poor positioning, and missed opportunities. Drawing on examples from around the world, Joe explains why the most successful wine businesses don't try to sell to everyone—they understand exactly who they're selling to, why those people buy, and what problem they're really solving.

Whether you're a wi...

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For most wine drinkers, a wine show is something that happens in the background.

A medal on a bottle. A trophy announced at an awards dinner. A score that helps guide a purchasing decision.

But behind those medals sits one of the most important institutions in Australian wine.

This year, the Sydney Royal Wine Show celebrates an extraordinary milestone: 200 years since wine was first included in the competitions of what would become the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales. Over those two centuries, the show has...

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This episode welcomes back Ed Cavanagh — wine writer, historian, policy researcher, and author of the forthcoming book Crushed: The Hand of Government on the Australian Wine Industry.

Ed has spent the last several years digging into the policies, regulations, and market forces that have shaped Australian wine, and his latest paper examines the controversial topic of : ghost labels.

Ghost labels are wine brands created and owned by major retailers rather than independent wineries. On their own, they're not necessarily a problem. The wine may be well made and fairly pr...

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For many wineries, making great wine is only half the challenge. The other half is getting that wine into the hands of consumers.

Behind every bottle that finds its way onto a restaurant wine list, an independent retailer's shelf, or a national distribution network sits a commercial relationship that most wine drinkers never see. And when those relationships work well, they can help build brands, grow businesses, and create long-term success. When they don't, the consequences can be costly.

My guest today is Will Taylor, Senior Partner at Finlaysons...

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For centuries, France has occupied a unique place in the world of wine. Its vineyards, classifications, language, and traditions have shaped how we think about fine wine, from Bordeaux and Burgundy to concepts like terroir and appellation. But how did French wine come to dominate the global imagination? And was that dominance really built on superior wine, or on something else entirely?

My guest today is historian Kathy Burk. Kathy is Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London, an acclaimed author, broadcaster, and one of the world's...

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For more than four decades, Charles Melton has been one of the defining voices of the Barossa Valley. His journey stretches from the wine glut of the 1980s, through the rise of modern Australian wine, to the creation of one of the country's most recognisable labels.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down at the Charles Melton winery on Krondorf Road with Charles Melton and his daughter Sophie Melton, the next generation helping to shape the future of the family business.

We discuss brand, authenticity, family, and the...

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Wine is full of simple stories.

Old vines are better than young vines. Great vineyards are all about terroir. Climate determines quality. Pick the right variety, put it in the right place, and the rest takes care of itself.

They're neat stories. They're marketable stories.

According to this week's guest, they're also dangerously incomplete.

Dylan Grigg is one of the most respected viticulturists in Australia. He's a consultant, researcher, vineyard owner, international speaker, former Australian Viticulturist of the Year, and a man whose work takes...

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In Part 1 of my conversation with wine industry commentator, producer, and recovering wine critic Robert Joseph, we explored a deceptively simple question: where do wineries actually make their money?

But that conversation quickly led to a much bigger one.

What happens when the traditional wine business model comes under pressure?

In this second part, we move beyond profitability and into the forces reshaping the global wine industry. We discuss ageing vineyard owners, succession challenges, private equity, direct-to-consumer sales, wine tourism, changing consumer behaviour, and why adaptation may...

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For a long time, the wine industry has sold itself on romance.

The rolling vineyard. The family story. The passionate winemaker chasing perfection in a bottle.

But behind every bottle of wine is something far more complicated: a business model. And right now, many of those models are under enormous pressure.

In this conversation, Robert Joseph returns to The Cellar Door Podcast to unpack one of the most important, and least understood, questions in wine:

How does the wine industry actually make money?

...

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Over the last year, while speaking with people across the Australian wine industry, one name kept unexpectedly coming up in conversation in connection with the Queensland market, not a winemaker, not a sommelier, but a lawyer.

Today’s guest is Travis Schultz, founder of Travis Schultz & Partners, philanthropist, wine writer, and someone who has quietly built some of Queensland’s most respected wine events.

Through events supporting charities including SunnyKids and LifeFlight, Travis has used wine not simply as a product, but as a powerful tool for connection, bringing toge...

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Late last year I had the pleasure of speaking with Pipa Nielson who gave an exciting and colourful introduction to the Western Australian region of Geographe wine region. Following that first course in Geographe education, Pipa arranged a second: a conversation with wine rockstar, Kim Horton, of Willow Bridge Estate.

After growing up in the Swan Valley, Kim has made wine across multiple regions in WA, and in this conversation I get to ask him what makes Geographe, and the broader WA wine scene, so very special. Kim’s story is al...

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To borrow from Monty Python: now for something completely different.

This episode steps away from the usual B2B conversations and industry stories, and into something I don’t usually focus on… wine tasting.

When a mystery box of wine appeared on my doorstep, filled with a collection of genuinely exotic and intriguing bottles, I did what anyone would do: I tracked down the sender. That trail led me to none other than the talented, guitar-shredding, wine-slinging Marc Malouf of iHeart Wine, and a very generous supporter and benefactor.

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The Hunter Valley occupies a special place in the story of Australian wine. It is, in many ways, the spiritual birthplace of the industry - a region where generations of families have wrestled with the climate, the soil, and the vagaries of the market to produce wines of remarkable character.

My guest today, Garth Eather, represents one of those families.

Garth is the co-founder of Meerea Park Wines, a winery he established with his brother Reese in 1991. But the Eather family story in Australia goes back much further than...

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Australian wine once rode a remarkable wave of success in the United States — built on strong personalities, passionate importers, and wines that connected with everyday drinkers. Today, the picture is more complicated.

In this episode, I sit down with Chuuuuck Hayward, a 40-year veteran of the American wine trade to unpack what’s really happening on the ground in the US. We revisit, the rise of Australian wine in the US, the role boutique importers played in building the category, and why the loss of ambassadors, changing distribution networks, and shifting mark...

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Phil Conway embraced adventure and the unknown when he moved from Ireland to Melbourne in Australia. Phil describes a love of food from an early age, a love and passion that placed him on an inevitable collision course with wine. These passions took him across the globe while also launching him onto the set of Australia’s masterchef. Phil describes his passion for food and wine as extensions of himself rather than descriptions of what he does or his occupation. Food and wine are central to his entire life. In this conversation, we di...

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Will Taylor is one of the most insightful voices in Australian Wine - and its not hard to see why. His perspective is as unique as it is dialed in. As the managing partner of the wine group at Finlayson’s law, he spends his days analysing the aspects of the wine trade and industry that get the least attention - the least sexy aspects of the trade, that are the most important when it comes to building a viable trade and industry. In this chat I get to ask Will about his ke...

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Cyndal Petty has spunk. She describes her drive and oodles of energy from an early age, her parents placing her in the gymnastics arena and her early success in it until injury caused her to pivot. But the foundations of drive and dedication had set hard, and when Cyndal found herself as an apprentice chef at age 15 years old, it was only a matter of time before she set her eyes on a new goal and shot out in pursuit. Her goal: to learn and absorb everything she could about wine. Fast forward...

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Daniel Sangermani has embraced the challenge of bringing the prized wines of Switzerland to the sun kissed shores of Australia. Switzerland exports less than 2% of its total production but consumes the 4th most wine per person of any country in the world. Many, if not most people, particularly in Australia, have little familiarity with Switzerland's deep and historic wine culture, its six wine regions, and its approximately  320 grape varieties that they use to craft some of the prettiest and most elegant wines I have tasted in recent memory. Building awareness of a product a...

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I was lucky enough to spend the New Year in South Australia, dividing my time between the Adelaide Hills and the Barossa Valley. while I was in the Barossa, I took the opportunity to call into Nuriootpa High School to record a third - and final - chapter on a school project that is as innovative as it is interesting.

I’m joined once again by Milly Hoffmann, and this time by a special guest: her wine mentor, Richard Mattner - who also happens to be Head Winemaker at Pepperjack Wines, pa...

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I last spoke to Gordon Little of Little Peacock Wine imports as the final episode to the 2024 season. When asked how the 2024 year had been, I distinctly remember him describing it as “weird”. Gordon and I have stayed in touch, with occasional correspondence, and we thought it might be both fun and interesting to reconvene at the start of 2026 to get his hot takes on the 2025 season and projections (if at all possible) for 2026. As expected, his comments on the US market are interesting, forensic and steeped in experience. Gordon has been surfing the...

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In this first episode of the New Year, I chat with Brendan Carter on his recent documentary covering the plight of the Riverland and his thoughts on navigating the way forward.

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Today on The Cellar Door Podcast, I’m joined by Liam Van Pelt, winemaker at the legendary Ashton Hills. I first met Liam at the cellar door, where he, his sister, and the world’s coolest dog poured a lineup that completely reset my expectations: sparkling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Gamay, and a tour through one of the highest, coldest, wettest pockets of the Hills.

In this episode, we dig into what makes that site so distinctive, why Piccadilly Valley fruit carries such a signature, and how Liam works in a region wher...

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Today on The Cellar Door Podcast, I’m joined by someone whose work shapes how Australia understands its own wine: Katrina Butler, Head of Tasting at the Halliday Wine Companion.

Katrina arrives at a busy moment, preparing the next edition of the Companion, fresh off the latest awards season, and deep in the yearly cycle of tasting thousands of wines from across the country. In this episode, she lifts the lid on how the Companion is actually put together: blind tastings, regional specialists, the shortlisting process, and how major awards are de...

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It’s been a while between drinks - but David LeMire MW has been busy flying the flag for Australian wine around the world and returns to The Cellar Door Podcast after a whirlwind year that’s seen him travelling through Portugal’s Douro and Dão regions, opening a new award-winning tasting room at Tolpuddle Vineyard, and collecting yet another round of trophies for Shaw + Smith and Tolpuddle Chardonnay.

In this episode, we dig into David’s recent article inspired by marketing guru Mark Ritson - unpacking what it really means to...

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We are about to head to Western Australia - but not to Margaret River. We’re going a little further north to discover one of the state’s best-kept secrets: the Geographe wine region.

My guest is Pippa Nielsen, co-owner of Vineyard 28, a producer that’s made its mark by championing Italian varieties like Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, and Fiano. Pippa shares how this coastal-meets-hillside region is carving out its own identity - balancing tradition, innovation, and a deep sense of community.

We talk about Geographe’s rich history, its bold alternat...

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We are going deep into the heart of Coonawarra, but through a lens few could have imagined: blockchain, NFTs, and quality Coonawarra wine. My guest is Jack Burston: former Goldman Sachs banker turned unlikely vineyard owner and innovator who’s shaking up the Australian wine scene with a project that fuses old-world craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology.

Jack’s journey began on what locals teasingly call the “wrong side of the railway line,” where his label *Over the Line* was born. But it’s not just a great name,  it’s a story about c...

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Ed Cavanagh’s wine writing stands apart. He somehow fuses the flair of a journalist with the depth and precision of a scholar — a rare combination, but then again, few writers in the wine world have a background quite like his.

Many of you will know Ed from his work across the Limestone Coast wine industry, or from his time in cellar doors throughout South and Western Australia. But his story stretches much further — from the world of law and academia, including a Cambridge Fellowship, to the vineyards and communities that now sh...

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This weekend I got a text from John Hesketh, letting me know that Keeda Zilm had done it again. Keeda, and her Vickery Riesling, struck again at the Adelaide Wine Show, walking away with a back of accolades. Everyone seems to be in agreement that Keeda Zilm is the capable custodian of something very special. 

Named in honour of the late, great John Vickery, often described as the Max Schubert of Australian white wine, the Vickery label has become synonymous with exceptional dry, flavour-driven Riesling and a legacy that helped shape t...