Fagan ritual: Far beyond the bread and butter
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Fagan ritual: Far beyond the bread and butter

Chances are you’ve drunk Sarah Fagan’s wines. Chances are you’ve been impressed. Chances are you’ve never heard of her. Chances are she wouldn’t care. After all, if you liked what you tasted and felt it was money well spent, why waste time thinking about who made it? That would be inefficient—and Sarah Fagan can’t abide inefficiency.

If it’s taken a while for Fagan to come to your attention, she was quick as a flash in gaining trust and respect from those in the know. Beginning with a three-month stint in her final year of university, she kicked off a 20-year stretch at De Bortoli in the Yarra Valley. In 2023, she finally left to join TarraWarra, a 40-year-old, 26-hectare estate in Yarra Glen. And now you’re going to notice her, whether she likes it or not.

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AAVWS: An alternative take on provenance, progression & hope
Education Ed Merrison Education Ed Merrison

AAVWS: An alternative take on provenance, progression & hope

Provenance. It derives from the Latin “venire” (to come) prefixed with “pro” (forth). We tend to think of it more as “coming from”—a celebration of origin. Wine shows often have a provenance trophy, where an exhibitor enters three vintages of the same wine over a period of 10-plus years. The idea is to prove the pedigree of the source through a track record of excellence. A worthy undertaking.

But the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show prompts you to look at things differently. An alternative take, it turns out, can be beautifully refreshing.

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Vaughn Again: Sowing & regrowing love at Sinapius
Ed Merrison Ed Merrison

Vaughn Again: Sowing & regrowing love at Sinapius

Vaughn Dell’s heart stopped on a northern Tasmanian vineyard in May 2020. We all knew isolation then, or thought we did. Feelings felt remote, but tears were never far away, and stasis was the status quo. The layers of weirdness might have muffled the seismic shock for Vaughn’s wife, Linda Morice; certainly, what happened next was a blur.

For 15 years, they had been growing a future here, everything constantly beginning or becoming—the vines, the wines, their daughters; Vaughn's curious, can-do singlemindedness the perfect foil for Linda's pragmatic support and quiet resolve. With Vaughn suddenly gone, she kept on. Perhaps there wasn’t a choice. But maybe some things just become a part of you, especially when it’s your love that made them.

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Stephen Pannell’s Many-Splendoured Grenache
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Stephen Pannell’s Many-Splendoured Grenache

“The perfume is alluring. The wine is not about weight. There’s a lightness of touch on the palate that makes you think and engage with the wine. Making those wines that are contradictory, that’s the hardest thing to do.”
Stephen Pannell is talking about Nebbiolo—except we’re really talking about Grenache. And, as he’s wont to do, he’s hit the nail on the head on the latter’s perceived limitations. Love, after all, is a many-splendored thing. Is Grenache?
On tasting Steve's three single-site releases from 2022, I took the opportunity to speak to this guru of Grenache about how to convince others of the tension, texture and complexity this grape can achieve.

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Mark of Purity: Grenache The Bulman Way
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Mark of Purity: Grenache The Bulman Way

Forthright, articulate and relatively young, Mark Bulman is an Australian winemaker with an outsize reputation for Grenache. He created one of Australia's best-loved rosés from the variety, was the first to win the prestigious Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for a Grenache and made an acclaimed wine from it in the Southern Rhône cru of Gigondas. Now he's released the first Australian reds under his own name, and they're distinctive, riveting wines. It's not surprising, given his love of Grenache and his conviction in crafting wines that show its potential to convey a sense of place, pleasure and surprise.

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Australian Grenache: No more mister nice guy?
Education Ed Merrison Education Ed Merrison

Australian Grenache: No more mister nice guy?

Grenache once covered more of the world’s surface than any other red-wine grape, and certainly had its day in the sun down under. It was never exactly an out-of-work actor, with its juicy, sweet-fruited affability scoring it roles in rosé, everyday blends, chillable varietal reds and even muscular Châteauneuf-du-Pape body doubles.

But a host of hot talents are sharpening up scripts giving this grape a plum role in A-list, single-vineyard wines. So, what’s it going to take to prove that Grenache has the range, depth and gravitas to be a box-office lead—and will the masses line the red carpet to check out its best work?

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Hither & Yon: The path of Leask persistence
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Hither & Yon: The path of Leask persistence

The most impressive thing about Richard Leask might well be his ordinariness. The wine world loves its myths. We glorify rarity and romanticise the Sisyphean image: nature the rock, perfection the pinnacle and Sisyphus the aloof, maybe cranky, grower. But this story doesn’t centre on a mythical figure; it gathers around the kind of Aussie everyman whose example—by dint of being unexceptional—is eminently followable. What’s more, the Hither & Yon co-founder’s affection for McLaren Vale and wine itself is as plain and contagious as the common cold.

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Dream Weaver: An Adelaide Hills pioneer
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Dream Weaver: An Adelaide Hills pioneer

“It’s just so grand to be there,” says Geoff Weaver of his slice of Adelaide Hills heaven. “It’s beautiful to be engaged in what’s essentially an agricultural, horticultural and artistic pursuit in this glorious countryside,” he says

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To be dexeterous & deft
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To be dexeterous & deft

“The ups and downs were extraordinary,” says Tod Dexter of the Mornington Peninsula’s learning curve. In fact, his journey is full of twists and turns of all sorts, beginning with a US ski season that turned into a life in wine. Ed Merrison of Vininspo! has the story.

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Don Quijote de la Yarra
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Don Quijote de la Yarra

“I’ve always enjoyed a sense of adventure, and as you get older you realise that pretty much everyone is on a journey in some respect,” says Andrew Marks. The self-styled Wanderer’s peregrinations between the Yarra Valley and Spain’s Costa Brava make him obvious fodder for Vininspo!

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Imagination and wine
Education Ed Merrison Education Ed Merrison

Imagination and wine

In Imagination & Time, British philosopher Mary Warnock says imagination’s the key if we’re to go beyond witnessing beauty to actually feel it. “The difference is this: in feeling the beauty of objects, we enjoy not only the common, shared pleasures of the senses, but also the private pleasures of the imagination, peculiar to ourselves, and such that we have to struggle to articulate them.” Vininspo! ponders what this means for wine.

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