My guest for Episode Fifteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is winegrower, Bill Downie. Some say, Bill is the O.G. of site specific pinot noir in Australia, who commands a cult following of fervent wine disciples that consider him the grand daddy of the natural wine movement... I dunno, to be honest. Bill's a nice guy, a great winemaker, and especially good to sit down and have a yarn about all things fermentative coming from a place. Bill grows wine on a farm called Guendulain, set...

James Millton is a pioneering New Zealand winegrower, an inadvertent philosopher, and staunch advocate for biodynamic ways of farming - especially at the Millton Vineyards, which lie close to the coast in Gisborne, on the eastern side of the North Island of Aotearoa. James possesses a unique knack of providing incredible insight into the infinitely fascinating world of winegrowing, and the universe we live within. In Episode Fourteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast], James and I...

My guest for Episode Thirteen of the Fermenting Place [podcast] is an unwitting Australian natural wine OG, and all-round good dude, Tom Belford from BOBAR Wines, in the Yarra Valley (Victoria, Australia)... with a brief cameo, towards the end, from his gorgeous wife and fellow winemaker, Sally. Tom and Sally fell into the natural wine rabbit hole while on a working tour of France with the fam. They were exposed to the elemental ways of winegrowing and winemaking; rocking out, and getting...

Angus Vinden is a young winemaker in an old wine region. Thoughtful, mindful, and hard working, Angus has been busy building his wine brand off the back of his family's legacy for the last five years, or so. He puts a firm focus on farming first, viticulture then winemaking - hence the term, winegrower... rather than winemaker. He's a Hunter boy, too - same as me - so, what's not to love?! And, he makes deliciously good wines with an eye on the past, and a mind for the future... In Episode...

My guests for Episode Eleven of the Fermenting Place [podcast] are Hans and Therese Herzog from Hans Herzog wine from Marlborough, New Zealand. Hans and Therese are the dynamic duo behind one of New Zealand's most revered wine labels. - - In Episode Eleven, Hans, Therese, and I discuss... - Making Wine in Austria - Finding a New Home in the New World - Vineyard Dedication - The Craft of Winemaking - Marlborough Wine Beyond Sauvignon - Pizza and Windsurfing - - Connect: - Hans...

Jay Drysdale is the owner and winegrower at Bella Wines, in the Okanagan Valley wine region of British Columbia, Canada.  Jay is a lover of chardonnay and gamay, and the bubbles they can make. He makes gorgeous sparkling wines using the ancestral method - aka Pet-Nat. Delicate, pure, refined, pet-nats that are a far cry from your typical, smashable park wine. These are pet-nat wines for the Saturday evening dining table.  In addition to wine, Jay is also a fan of good food, organic farming,...

Topher Boehm is a native Texan, honorary Sydneysider, and the brewer, blender, and co-founder of Wildflower; a producer of fascinating beers, which often feature native Australian ingredients - particularly yeast captured from native Australia flora - alongside other requisite European elements, such as grains and hops, methods and techniques. In Episode Nine of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Topher and I discuss: - Unlocked Doors - Time Spent in Spain - 500 Million Years of...

Adam Rogers is the author of the New York Times Bestselling Book, ‘Proof: The Science of Booze’… Adam works as the Deputy Editor at WIRED magazine, where he writes about science and various other miscellaneous geekery. Adam was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, and a reporter for Newsweek. He's also a thoroughly lovely human being to discuss the wonderful world of fermentative and distilled beverages, like wine, beer, whisky, and other drinks... - - In Episode Eight of the...

Steve Lubiana from Stefano Lubiana Wines farms wine grapes on his property, down by the Derwent River, in Granton Tasmania. He's an advocate of biodynamic farming and utilising native yeast cultures for all his ferments, which includes some of the best sparkling wine and most expressive examples of pinot noir in Australia. In this episode, Steve and I discuss: - Smoke signals, and the importance of quiet observation - Identifying and defining terroir - Inconsequential winemaking - Italian...

Alex Hunt MW is a scholar and philosopher of wine. Thoughtful and lucid in his notions around wine quality and assessment; a hazardous line of thinking, to be sure. Alex attempts to divorce the elusiveness of objectivity from the prevalence of subjectivity by attempting to define the aesthetic fundamentals that all great wine's - or any drinks, for that matter - ought to aspire to acquire, if they are, indeed, to be termed great.

Chris Moore is an inimitable and thoughtful brewer of time and place, who thinks about beer the way a chef might think about food, achieving deliciousness in his drinks via curious combinations of aroma and flavour, texture and nuance. How he is able to combine all manner of irregular and esoteric ingredients to encapsulate the unique sense of place he and his family live within rural Victoria is a remarkable thing to behold, and to be able to drink.

Dr. William Skinner is an anthropologist, and adjunct fellow at the University of Adelaide. He earned his PhD researching wine production and terroir in relation to the McLaren Vale wine region, South Australia. The title of his thesis is... Fermenting Place, which is where the title of this podcast gets its name from (thank you, Billi!). His research entails ways of making sense of place, and the relationships people have to landscape, nature, and culture. Please listen, like, share,...

Andrew Thomas is one of the Hunter Valley's most accomplished winemakers. He makes wine with precision, energy, and a seemingly innate understanding of how to exact grace from place, particularly when it comes to Hunter Valley Semillon. His wines are carefully constructed to maximise the best expression of site. Listen, like, subscribe, comment, share, and enjoy episode three of the Fermenting Place [podcast].

Ashley Huntington of Two Metre Tall brewery in the Derwent Valley, Tasmania, is an agricultural raconteur. A brewer, a stirrer, contrarian, and true disciple of the microbial kingdom. Fascinated by fermentation, he is a perpetual pupil of enigmatic action, a keen observer, a beholder of nature and time, broad-minded, poignant, and patient. And he is my guest for Episode Two of the Fermenting Place [podcast].

Andrew Jefford is an English wine journalist, who's commentary on wine always moves me to think more on it, and drink more of it. His articles in Decanter and the World of Fine Wine are always worth the price of admission, as are his books and broadcasts about wine, including this one... obviously. In Episode One of the Fermenting Place [podcast], Andrew and I discuss the astonishment of wine as it relates to the nature and expression of place in wine (only the highest of brows to begin),...

Some additional info about the intentions and format of the Fermenting Place [podcast], as well as ways to support the show and how to get in touch. Thanks for listening!

'An intro to a podcast concerning the co-ferment of people and place; about wine (and other drinks); a direct way to connect and conduct fascinating conversations with interesting people about intriguing things...'