When I first started collecting wine 30 years ago, creating ideal storage conditions in the harsh Australian climate became something of an obsession! I visited all the greatest cellars across Australia and France to discover exactly what made for perfect conditions to store and enjoy wine. This proved to be the inspiration that launched my […]

Are you a champagne house aspiring to grow your presence in Australia or to find an importing partner? Or are you an Australian agency seeking a new champagne brand or an opportunity to grow your existing brands? It’s my great pleasure to announce my exciting new collaboration with Skale Australia! Skale is a new luxury […]

I am very proud and humbled to announce that The Champagne Tour has just been named Tour Operator of the Year in The Global Awards 2025 and I have also been awarded winner of Wine Presenter of the Year in The Prestige Awards 2025. Special thanks to my Global Events Manager Sharron Turgeon, to Annelies Pieters […]

Penfolds Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling 2025 $45 10.5% A particularly dry season of warm conditions and small yields, which Kym Schroeter describes as a bit too warm for riesling, though perfect for chardonnay. In its youthful state at just a few months of age, it carries the power and ripeness of the season in […]

Last month in Paris, Penfolds released its most contentious wine since the very creation of Grange itself: Penfolds Grange La Chapelle Shiraz Syrah 2021. On paper it could not be more bewildering. Grange is an official Heritage Icon of South Australia. It’s definitively and idiosyncratically Australian – the Uluru of shiraz. La Chapelle is the […]

Australian wine is in a very exciting place in 2024, for reasons completely missed by the headline news. This is a year in which reporting has been dominated by dramatic oversupply, diminishing consumption, waning exports, drought, frost and economic calamity. Many wineries find themselves at a particularly challenging moment in the cycle. But there’s a […]

Together with Australia’s premier wine auction house Langtons, it’s my great pleasure to invite you to join me as a participant in the largest fine and rare champagne auction ever held in Australia, as announced in The Australian Financial Review last month. Champagne: Auctioning the World’s Finest will be an annual champagne platform hosted online for the […]

This year’s best buys from Penfolds are Bin 600 Cabernet Shiraz 2021 ($90), Bin 704 Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 ($125), Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 ($130), St Henri Shiraz 2021 ($135), Bin 169 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 ($300) and – if you happen to win the lotto – Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021 (at a […]

It’s my immense pleasure to announce my biggest and most anticipated book launch yet – The Champagne Guide Edition VII! The Champagne Guide Edition VII is in a new magnum-sized format! It’s more than 50 percent bigger than the previous edition and more than three times the size of the first five editions, featuring a record […]

I met Charles Heidsieck’s new Chef de Cave Elise Losfelt on an intense morning at a particularly pivotal moment of her career and asked her how a newcomer can carry on the legacy of one of the greatest lineages of chef de caves in champagne history. Charles Heidsieck was one of the very first houses […]