Archive of Articles Written By Martin Moran

19 years ago now whilst bored stiff working as a computer operator I used to fantasize about making a living doing what I really liked doing, eating and drinking. I didn’t really know what I’d end up as, but I quit and got a job in a wine bar. Skip forward several years and eventually, after much hard work and many mundane jobs I finally passed the master of wine exam and got myself a job that involved buying wine, sometimes in exotic locations around the world. I was thrilled, as I’d finally achieved my dream.

But it isn’t all fun. No really, there are times when you’re presented with a dozen wines and half a dozen courses sat next to the world’s dullest winemaker when all you really want is a beer and a bag of chips. Believe me eating and drinking for a living can be damned hard work. 

I recently traveled to Australia with a group of 20 or so other masters of wine. It was a chance to see at first hand the places and the people from the country that is rapidly becoming the world’s key wine exporter. But it promised to be grueling. There’d be hundreds of wines with hours on buses and planes. Would milk thistle really protect my liver from the abuse I was about to heap on it? Would my teeth ever be the same again? Would the Aussie winemakers be as unbearably smug as their all-conquering cricketers or rugby players, who so rarely win with good grace.  I decided to keep a diary to share the ups and downs and hopefully a few insights on Australia and its all conquering wine industry. 

April 17/18 2001
2.00pm.  Decide not to tell the kids I’m going away until the last minute for fear of upsetting them. We explain patiently to Joseph, aged 5, who rushes to tell his two year old sister Sorcha, who instantly starts to wave bye-bye.

7.00pm. Wine tasting starts on board the Aer Lingus flight to London with a dreadful South African Chenin Blanc. Things can only get better as the song says. Heathrow heaving with people, like an up market mall. Remarkably I find the rest of the group easily, where else, but in a bar near the departure gate.

10.00pm. Sadly, we all turn right rather than left on entering the Qantas jumbo. Only a few empty seats dotted around the aircraft. Oaf in front of me keeps his seat fully reclined for the entire flight. Sleep all but impossible in the cramped conditions. Qantas serves its wines from full size screw cap bottles. Quality is better than quarter bottles but quantities served are less. Manage to try whole range, all in the interests of research.  

Wines Tasted:6 , Hours in transit 22

19^th April
7.30am After a plane change at Melbourne we finally circle Adelaide for our final approach. Below us, miles of sprawling bungalows make it look as if the 1950s lasted a very long time in Adelaide. Impression confirmed by the almost non-existent morning rush hour traffic during the transfer to our hotel. Surreal for those of us living in big cities.

8.30am. Absolutely shattered by journey and instantly flop on to bed armed with ear plugs and eye-patches but confused body clock refuses to allow sleep.  Maybe a walk will help. Adelaide central market next door to hotel - what a gem!  Row after row of fantastic delis, greengrocers and fish shops with all manner of the recognizable and the exotic. Nothing as good as this in Dublin. Australia’s national dish, the meat pie is still sold but now comes in 57 different gourmet versions.

5.00pm. On parade for reception at the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. It’s held at the new national wine centre being constructed in the botanic gardens. Even unfinished it looks amazing, Vinopolis in London will seem like a couple of bottles in an old air raid shelter by comparison. (www.nationalwinecentre.com.au gives the details.) We’d expected a few bubbles, nibbles and mutual greetings. But 38 wines are lined up for tasting. Just the thing when you’ve had two hours sleep in the last 48 and your body thinks it 8.00am. Interesting bunch turn out to look at us including Robin Day, Pernod Ricard’s director of international winemaking, who turns out to be funny and fascinating. Besides overseeing monster brands like Jabob’s Creek and Long Mountain he’s setting up his own little place in the Adelaide Hills with all sorts of weird and wonderful Italian grapes. 

Wines Tasted:30 , Hours in transit: 9

20^th April
6.00am. Can’t sleep despite drinking gin and tonics until 1.30am. Still it means I’ll be first on the bus for McLaren Vale.

7.15am. Room-mate Dermot Nolan does interview with local radio station and forecasts Aussies cricketers will retain ashes. (Got to sweet talk the natives.)

9.00am. McLaren Vale visitor’s centre and a mere 75 Shiraz (all over 13.5%)to taste, that’s 3 different vintages of 25 different producers plus if we’re interested another 120 wines from the region. Wines are thrilling. This is surely the essence of Australian red wine! Chocolate, cherry and spicy liquorice flavours abound. Fox Creek, D’Arenberg and Rosemount’s Balmoral all v.v. good.

3.00pm. Three fascinating but different visits to high tech Haselgrove, unusual mix of high tech and low tech at D’Arenberg and garagiste Drew Noon.

7.00pm. Dinner at pizza place with a difference, Russell's, where there’s no menu, no plates or cutlery, just lots of amazing food and another clutch of great winemakers to meet with even more wines.

Wines Tasted:110 , Barrels shown: 2500,  Hours on bus: 3  

21^th  April

10.00am. A day in Clare. No I haven’t gone home. Riesling is the theme. Flight of wines from 2000 followed by selection of older wines back to 1982. Died and went to heaven. They’re all fabulous, all citrus, mineral and tinglingly fresh and dry with Grosset deserving of its reputation as the best. We reciprocate with a selection of international Rieslings. Pretty good too but I may never drink any whites other than Clare Riesling again. Real star though is the Stelvin screw-cap that they have all decided to use in place of corks since several of the older bottles and our imports are in fact corked. Bizarrely they view ‘kerosene’ as a tasting note as pejorative.

12.30pm. Lunch of sandwiches and divine chocolate brownies casually washed done with stunning reds including Jim Barry’s Armagh. Seems odd that one place makes fabulous Riesling and Shiraz.

2.00pm. Visits to vineyards and wineries with the amusing Andrew Hardy of Knappstein. View whole valley from top of appropriately named ‘Windy Hill’. First sighting of kangaroo bounding along edge of vineyard. Kerry the Leasingham winemaker is far too young, talented and good-looking. Why didn’t winemakers look like her when I was a cellar rat?

7.30pm. Sit down on bed for a minute and pass out fully dressed.

10.30pm. Wake up starving and race across town to Universal wine bar owned by local MW, Michael Hill-Smith, for late snack and couple of glasses of Australian ‘amontillado’ and Tasmanian boutique Pinot Noir.

Wines Tasted:55 , Barrels shown: 6,200,  Hours on bus: 4

21^st April
6.30am. Pouring rain. Clearly the visiting Irish have broken the drought.

9.30am. Adelaide Hills or ‘The Hills’ as they call it is a pretty mix of hills, forests, orchards and vineyards. Air filled with beguiling scent of eucalyptus, money and diesel from Mercedes 4x4 s.

11.15am. Slightly delayed after the bus sticks in a muddy rut at the Henschke vineyard, we finally arrive at the stunningly modern and stylish Shaw and Smith winery - so clean it surely doubles as an operating theatre between harvests.

11.30am. Once again the winemaking gods have come down from Olympus to share their efforts with us. Croser, Weaver, Knappstein, Louisa Rose, Martin Shaw and more display several flights of different varieties at a sit down tasting. Wines are good but not as good as they think they are. American MW has the nerve to suggest to Brian Croser that one of his wines may be slightly faulty. He pops a blood vessel whilst denying it. The same man bravely comments less than glowingly on another wine. BC’s had enough. ‘Doesn’t the group have another spokesperson’ he demands of us? Foolishly I pipe up and am instantly swatted down again by the great man. My neighbour takes out a compact to see if he has a reflection but it’s hard to say at a distance. There’s nothing like an open debate about wine and this was nothing like an open debate.

2.30pm Apparently Jancis Robinson almost walked through a plate glass window here recently. I almost emulate the feat in my haste to find a loo. Lunch is a rather excellent gourmet pie.

7.00pm. Dinner with BRL Hardy in one of Adelaide's best restaurants. Kick off with their premium fizz Arras (A Ripper Regional Australian Sparkler?). Next asked to indicate which states we think five different and excellent sparkling wines served blind come from. Amazingly I get them all correct! Winemaker Ed Carr is a star in the making and a charmingly modest man too. V. V  good dinner and too many wines ends with a 1956 Hardy’s ‘Port’.  Wow! 

Wines Tasted:60 , Barrels shown: ,200,  Hours on bus: 2½. 

22^nd April
7.00am Weather still wet.

9.00am Oddly positioned scarecrows throughout Barossa valley at roadsides seemingly picnicking and drinking beer turn out to be leftovers from festival finished day before.

10.00am. 50 – 60 wines in a ‘Decade of Barossa Shiraz’ tasting includes Grange, Hill of Grace and many more. Despite daylight stars are out in force including John Duval, Stephen Henschke and Rocky O’ Callaghan. Standards are remorselessly high with Lehmann’s 1996 Stonewall just taking the laurels for me. Another table has a kind of best of the rest line up of other varieties but hard to concentrate after stunning Shirazes. Locals foolishly think that maybe blockbuster wines are passé and that they should be searching for cool elegance in the Eden Hills like Henschke. There’s plenty of room for both.

1.00pm We present a line up of international  Syrah/Shiraz, - taking coals to Newcastle. Locals polite in response but must wonder why we’d bothered.

3.00pm Graveyard shift. A fascinating (I’m told) talk from Penfolds on viticulture is missed by several of us as we nod off post lunch. Fortunately one of our number has a PhD in botany and asks lots of intelligent questions.

5.00pm. Penfolds tasting room and we have to grade eight wines from the 2001 vintage. Can we tell a Grange candidate from a Koonunga Hill? Just it seems. I score a miserable 2 out of 8.  

Wines Tasted:100 , Barrels shown:10 old large ones,  Hours on bus: 3. 

24^th  April
5.30am. Still wet.

7.05am Bus departs almost on time for Coonawarra, which surely translates from native aboriginal as ‘four or five hours drive south of Adelaide’.

11.30am. Rained here too. Tasting organized at Returned Servicemen’s Club. It must be serious, as they’ve covered over the snooker table. More movers and shakers in attendance and more requests for radio and now TV interviews. Dozen different producers and their wines are ranged around the room. Foolishly decide to taste whites first and am scrabbling to finish the reds as we are herded onto the bus again. Clearly this is Cabernet’s spiritual home with Parker Estate getting its nose in front of a top quality pack.

2.00pm Winery visits include the oil refinery that is Beringer Blass where winemaker looks knackered. No wonder, since he processes 10,000 tons of grapes around the clock with one other temporary winemaker and a handful of cellar rats. Penley Estate and Rymill a more manageable size but they’re knackered too.

5.30pm. Sunset from 15 metres up on top of tanks at Katnook whilst sipping sparkling Shiraz. Every single tasting has featured one. Why? They taste like upmarket Lambrusco.

7.30pm. Dinner at Wynns kicks off with a wine from each of the last six decades. Thank you God.  

Wines Tasted:90 , Barrels shown:17,500  Hours on bus: 5½.

25^th April
6.30am. ANZAC day and TV news shows dawn parades of old soldiers in cities and towns all over the country to commemorate Gallipoli landings in WW1.

9.30am. As we cross the border into Victoria, bizarrely the clocks go forward 30 minutes.

10.30am. Tasting at Best’s, a family estate founded in the 1860s.Remarkably still has some of its original vineyards.  Some of the storage areas seem Victorian too - complete contrast to Shaw and Smith. Small regional tasting of the wines of Great Western and South West Victoria is staged out of doors in blustery conditions. Crawford Riesling is my star wine.

1.00pm. Lunch down in the cellars is lightened by somebody proclaiming the smoked lamb to be the best corned beef they’ve ever had. We MWs are famed for our razor sharp palates. Best’s Shiraz from the original vineyard is wonderful.

3.00pm. Head off for a range of hills known as the Grampians but there’s not a deep-fried Mars bar in sight, only more excellent wines. Trevor Mast of Mt. Langhi Ghiran hosts tasting of regional wineries in his cellars. As ever standard is shockingly high with Shiraz the star, although Trevor’s Pinot Gris shows well. Does nobody in this country make bad wine?

5.30pm. Three hours to Melbourne. Think my backside is developing calluses.

8.30pm City kid in me gets excited as we sight sky scrappers, skateboarders and winos. Frustratingly most of Melbourne is closed for ANZAC day.  

Wines Tasted:?40 , Barrels shown:3000  Hours on bus: 6½.

26^th April
7.00am Sunny at last!

9.30am. Yarra Valley sparkling wine tasting in a marquee on top of a 500m hill at Hoddles Creek vineyard. Local hero James Halliday introduces his excellent Coldstrean Hills sparkler. Cobwebs well and truly blown away.

11.00am. Back at ground level there are twenty whites from ‘The Valley’, as the locals call it, to sample including what proves to be the most impressive set of Chardonnays on the trip. Yering Station Reserve and Green Point Estate nudge ahead of the pack.

1.00pm. On to Moet’s sparkling operation, Green Point, to be greeted by MD and wine guru Tony Jordan. Sixteen Pinot Noirs to try with Yering Station once again stealing the honours. Before we can eat they let us smash golf balls into the distance (40 – 50 yards in my case). Only one person keeps it on the fairway, as the gap between two blocks of vines has been re-christened. Lunch includes a tasty kangaroo kebab. Are Australians and Welsh the only people to eat their national emblem?

3.30pm. Whisked away again to De Bortoli for another tasting of other red varieties. I’m not as impressed as some but maybe I’m flagging. Perhaps I’d have been more positive if we’d had all today’s tastings in one building instead of jumping on and off coaches. After what the locals endearing call a cleansing ale or two it’s on to dinner at the spectacular state of the art/artistic Yering Station winery complex. No wonder their wines were good. Just the thirteen ‘museum’ wines with dinner, which is surprise, surprise, a gourmet pie. 

Wines Tasted:70 , Barrels shown:3,500  Hours on bus: 3. 

27^th April

7.30am. A swim at last to clear head in hotel’s outdoor pool with a hot air balloon drifting overhead. No wonder they call it the lucky country.

9.15am. Chartered tram takes us to Melbourne’s spectacular new museum for a tasting of wines from regions of Victoria that we won’t visit like Geelong and the Mornington Peninsula. Fascinating tasting with great Italian varietals from Pizzini, several good Pinot Noirs and a brilliant blend of Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier from Mitchelton.

1.00pm. We host an international Pinot Noir tasting and it soon becomes clear that a room full of MWs and Pinot Noir winemakers all have different opinions on what constitutes good Pinot Noir. No Pinot envy here as we all have our own favourite. 3.00pm. Dash through rain to catch the bus to Rutherglen.

8.00pm. Tasting and dinner with the locals. Heart sinks at the sight of twenty-five wines and their winemakers after a four hour bus trip. All I want is a snack and a sleep. Some wines are breathtakingly good so adrenalin surges again to keep us going. Chambers Rare Muscat simply the wine of the trip and also the millennium so far for me. 

Wines Tasted:100 , Barrels shown:0,  Hours on buses and trams: 4½. 

28^th April
5.45am. Can’t sleep. Obviously not drinking enough to kill the jet lag. Too much spitting and not enough swallowing.

8.30am. Breakfast on bridge over Sunny Creek next to Pfeiffer winery achingly beautiful. Huge carp pop to the surface for bread. Creek also home to platypus and terrapins. Obligatory sparkling red on offer with the orange juice. I decline, but buy my first wine of the trip at cellar door, a late harvest Riesling.

10.30am. Campbells’ winery and the chance once again to prove our incompetence as tasters and blenders. We have three samples, which we have to blend to match the Rutherglen ‘classic style’.  My third attempt is pronounced ‘close enough’ by Colin Campbell. He and Chris Killeen give enthralling masterclass on the production process of this nectar of the gods.

1.00pm. Lunch is across the road at Stanton and Killeen. This time there are two types of gourmet pie. (I’m not making this up!) Before we leave there is a rush of awe struck MWs to the sales counter to capture some of these rare wines. Chris’s dad Norm tells me the Killeens came originally from Mullingar.

3.00pm Bill Chambers shows us around the tin shed he calls a winery and hosts a small but fascinating tasting of young and old wines. Can this shed really be the home of such a stunning wine? Should be declared a UN world heritage site immediately.

8pm Dinner with a would-be wine supplier at a smart bistro pub back in Melbourne. There’s no respite as we try about ten different wines and no spitting.

Wines Tasted:35 , Barrels shown:550,  Hours on buses: 4½. 

29^th April
7.45am.  Late night still doesn’t mean I can sleep more than about 5 hours. No visits today as we’re headed for the Hunter Valley.

12.00pm. A chance to shop quickly for souvenirs for the family at Melbourne’s brilliant Queen Victoria market. Inevitably a chance to taste wine at a kind of farmer’s market. Taste a ‘liqueur Chardonnay’ and then find an amazing wine shop called Swords that sells wine in re-usable swing top bottles. They have an Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc for bottom dollar better than anything we tried when there!

6.00pm. End of term air on the bus as we head north from Sydney airport to the Hunter Valley. The beers and the jokes flow freely.

8.00pm. Dinner at Peppers restaurant. Chance to sample some of the kind of glorious old Hunter Semillons that we’ll be shown tomorrow and a Brokenwood ‘Graveyard’ 1991 Shiraz, brought by Nick Bullied also wonderful. 

Wines Tasted:10 , Barrels shown:0,  Hours on buses and planes: 7. 

30^th April
8.00am First hangover. Red wine does it to some people, beer kills me.

9.30am Hunter Semillon, Chardonnay and  Shiraz masterclasses with a stack of winemakers in the Rothbury cask hall plus legendary Len Evans himself in attendance.

1.00pm Tasting of wines from other varieties in the Hunter before dashing through the rain to our bus for the trip to the Upper Hunter Valley.

8.00pm. Barbecue at Rosemount and chance to get more gossip on the merger with Southcorp. Southcorp have bought Rosemount but Rosemount now appear to be running the show as a clutch of former Southcorp winemakers and backroom people have already departed. They promise to consider my suggestion to call the merged company SARCASM (Southcorp And Rosemount Confirm A Surprise Merger). 

Wines Tasted:65 , Barrels shown:40,  Hours on buses:1½.

1^st May 2001

7.00am. McDonald’s next to the motel for breakfast before boarding the bus for a visit to Roxburgh, the vineyard that produces Rosemount’s top white wine and Giant’s Creek that produces more top whites. Can’t say either look terribly impressive but by now I’ve seen so many vines and slept so little that my eyes are glazing over.

11.00am. Vertical tastings of several vintages of Rosemount wines. They make us sit at long tables and read out tasting notes out like diploma students. Seems strange as I’m usually the interrogator! Sadly they ask for my note on an oak aged Semillon, which I don’t rate. It does improve though and the young vintages of Roxborough, Balmoral and Mountain Blue were all excellent. 

2.00pm. No more spitting! It’s over. Four hours to Sydney and freedom.

7.30pm. Bumpy water taxi across Sydney harbour to Doyle’s for our goodbye dinner, at which we are hosting local luminaries. Catch sight of self in mirror and realize it’s not so much black tie as black teeth! Bollinger tastes remarkably thin after two weeks of Australian bruisers, but somehow manage a couple of glasses. Superb fish and chips washed down with small but perfectly formed selection of wines including Pike’s Polish Hill Riesling and Brokenwood Semillon.

3.00am. Night ends in a night club near the hotel, details of which must remain private to protect those involved.  

Wines Tasted:40 , Barrels shown:0,  Hours on buses: 5½. 

2^nd / 3^rd May

12.00pm Just time for lunch at ‘Port’ a smart restaurant with a balcony overlooking the revamped Darling Harbour. Yering Station rosé Pinot Noir goes well with the kangaroo won ton! Are the Welsh and the Australians the only countries to eat their national symbol?

2.00pm Bus to the airport for the long haul home. Sadly Qantas serve the same wines as on the flight out.

7.00am. Delays at Bangkok mean I miss connection at Heathrow for Dublin. Fortunately there’s space on a flight an hour later for me but not, it turns out, for my bags.

10.am Home!

5.00pm Bags finally turn up.

Wines Tasted:5  Hours on buses and planes: 30. 

So there you have it; 816 wines, 33,500 barrels and 111 & 1/2 hours in transit with an average of about 5 hours per night sleep over 16 days. I’m shattered but I’ve discovered lots of excellent new wines and wineries, made new friends and met old acquaintances. My biggest impression is of just how uncomplacent they all are; everyone is working flat out in their mission to rule the vinous world.  It’s been hard work. I probably need to see a dentist and a liver specialist, but I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

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