What is your favorite drink?

I have written more than once about my growing interest in wine. These days it’s somewhere between a passion and obsession.

As a young adult, I had friends who were wine lovers. One of my friends got his first job as a winemaker when visiting my home. My relationship with him has opened up many opportunities to sample some great wines as well as chat about wine more generally. Then through business living in South Australia, Australia’s largest wine producer, I had a number of clients in the wine industry. All of these contributed to an interest, but it really was my PhD that investigated the non-financial characteristics of family wine businesses that moved wine to the forefront.

Through my PhD, and before that my Honours project, I had the opportunity to visit a number of wineries, both in South Australia and Australia. I also took the opportunity to meet and discuss wine with families in Italy and the USA. Their stories were fascinating. Their connection to the land, a sense of place, a connection to their community, as well as an emotional connection, led to the title of my thesis – The story is in the bottle. The title was borrowed from an interview I conducted in my Honours project with the managing director of a multigenerational family business which sadly no longer exists.

My PhD gave me access to family stories as well as, the opportunity to go back stage at a number of Australia’s family wine businesses. Some of these family wine businesses are household names with generations of history, while others are early on their journey.

The result was a desire to learn more about wine itself.

All of this coincided with my favourite person developing a liking for red wine, Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir, in particular.

I’d grown up being a devotee of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. After all, I live in South Australia, the home of big reds! The world famous Grange, is sourced and made from vineyards and a winery just a few kilometres from my home. Until around 10 years ago it was these styles that had taken my fancy. That said I’d tried and enjoyed other varieties, one in particular, stood out, an Adelaide Hills Nebbiolo.

Our travels through Europe had exposed us to lighter styles, Tempranillo, and Sangiovese, and more recently Negroamaro, and Nero D’Avola. This experience and changing palates in Australia saw a proliferation of new varieties appearing on our shelves and in my wine cellar. My wine cellar consists of 3 wine fridges, cupboards, and a section of daughter’s cellar.

As well as these styles, we were also exposed to Pinot Noir, in particular Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir. It’s bright and fruity and of course it has the traditional cherry notes. It was our introduction to Pinot Noir.

As my interest in “Pinot” grew I quickly came to realise it would not be a cheap. Pinot is a challenging grape and as such time consuming with the result it’s expensive. I found you get what you pay for. Initially I bought cheaper Pinot, but quickly found it was not in the same class as the more expensive ones.

Ashton Hills, a premium producer in the Adelaide Hills became a favourite, my cellar these days has a few dozen. However, as well as these, Sailor Seeks Horse, Ben Riggs, Tolpuddle, By Farr, and others were found and enjoyed. I even ventured into some Italian and Californian Pinots.

Sure Pinot Noir is expensive, but I’ve found they have been worth it.

As they say, life is too short for bad wine.