The Wined Up

The Wined Up
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Society & Culture
  • Weekly

Podcast | Editorial | Storytelling𝗪𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗸. 𝗪𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻. 𝗪𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁Stories behind the people, food and wine.

  1. 3d ago

    Why Peter Valeri Is Betting on the Riverina

    Send us Fan Mail The Riverina is the biggest wine region in New South Wales by volume, and for decades its reputation has been built on bulk Chardonnay and Shiraz sold by the tonne. Peter Valeri wants people to see it differently.  On this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Peter, the winemaker behind Via Pola in Griffith. He grew up following his dad around the family vineyard, studied wine science and viticulture, then crammed ten vintages into five years, bouncing between the Riverina and the northern hemisphere. A first overseas vintage in Canada's Okanagan Valley taught him the lesson that still drives everything: wine is made in the vineyard. And despite every other region on offer, he kept coming home to Griffith.  In 2024, the same year he became a dad, Peter made the first Via Pola wines. He and his father carved off part of the family vineyard and planted Italian varieties suited to the warm climate: Pecorino, Fiano, Vermentino and Nero d'Avola, alongside Montepulciano vines dating back to 2008. It's a nod to his Italian heritage, but also a practical bet that these grapes can thrive in the Riverina. The vineyard has been farmed without synthetic inputs since day one, and has just been granted organic certification, with the vines certified organic from 2027.  We taste two wines that tell the story. The 2026 Pecorino, the only one grown in the Riverina, comes with a great origin story about sheep raiding vineyards, while the 2024 Montepulciano uses carbonic maceration to make a juicy, lighter style that's built for pizza and pasta night. Peter also explains why the winery is named after the street in Abruzzo where his grandfather grew up, what his dad thought of the idea, and why Durif, fortifieds and Noble One deserve more credit than the region usually gets.  To finish, we look ahead to NSW Wine Month, a Via Pola collaboration with a local Griffith restaurant, a Prosecco in the works, and where Peter hopes the brand will be in ten years.  It's an honest, warm conversation about family, place and backing yourself, and a good reason to give the Riverina another look.  👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:  What would it take for you to give the Riverina another go? Drop it in the comments 👇  Go check out Via Pola: https://www.viapolawines.com.au/ and NSW Wine Month: https://www.nswwine.com.au/nsw-wine-month  🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast  📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.  Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up and @viapolawines  🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au  📩 info@thewinedup.com.au  We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷  YouTube Chapters  00:00 More Than Just Bulk Wine  00:56 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions  04:15 Growing Up on a Griffith Vineyard  06:50 Ten Vintages in Five Years  08:27 What the Riverina Was, and What It's Becoming  11:17 Starting Via Pola From Scratch  14:39 The Street in Abruzzo Behind the Name  17:52 Pecorino, Sheep and a Salty Finish  21:13 A Lighter Monty Built for Pizza Night  24:40 Going Organic the Hard Way  26:48 Why the Riverina Deserves a Second Look  28:55 Where Via Pola Is Heading by 2036  Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    Why Peter Valeri Is Betting on the Riverina

  2. Oct 17

    How Do You Follow 38 Vintages at Brokenwood?

    Send us Fan Mail Iain Riggs made 38 vintages as Brokenwood's chief winemaker. In 2024, Stuart Hordern became only the second person to take on the role. So how do you honour more than half a century of legacy while still making it your own? Stuart grew up on a mixed farm in the Upper Hunter, hosing out grape bins over the school holidays while his dad built the Horseshoe Vineyard from nothing. From there it was ag college in Orange, winemaking in Adelaide under the generous eye of Dean Hewitson, vintages in south west France and Sonoma, and a stint at Tyrrell's before a game of rugby led him to Brokenwood in 2009. Seventeen years later, he's running the place. And 2026 has been some year. A third Hunter Valley Winemaker of the Year, on the same night his father was named a living legend of the Hunter wine industry, and Brokenwood crowned Halliday Winery of the Year. Stuart is quick to share the credit with everyone from the vineyard crew to the finance team. Along the way we taste four wines that tell the Brokenwood story. A zippy 2025 Hunter Valley Semillon that's pretty much a breakfast wine, the 2019 ILR Reserve Semillon named after Riggsy and showing exactly what patience does to Hunter Semillon, the 2023 Hunter Valley Shiraz, and the 2024 Graveyard Shiraz, one of only three Shiraz in the country to score 99 points from Halliday this year. You'll also hear how the Graveyard vineyard got its name (no bodies, just grapes), how three Sydney wine lovers started Brokenwood as a weekend hobby in 1970, and why the team went chasing cooler climate Chardonnay in Beechworth. The biggest lesson running through it all comes from Riggsy: you can't make great wine if you only ever taste your own, and you never settle for OK. Stuart also makes the case for New South Wales as one of Australia's most underrated wine states, ahead of NSW Wine Month and Sydney Cellar Door this November. It's a warm, honest chat about legacy, family and the Hunter Valley, and why the best way to honour what came before is to keep making it a little bit better every year. 👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below: What's the Hunter Valley wine that won you over? Drop it in the comments 👇 Go check out Brokenwood: https://www.brokenwood.com.au/ and Sydney Cellar Door tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/sydney-cellar-door See what's on at NSW Wine Month: https://thewinedup.com.au/events-nsw-wine-month 🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up and @brokenwoodwines 🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au 📩 info@thewinedup.com.au #brokenwood #stuarthordern #huntervalley #huntersemillon #nswwinemonth #drinkaustralian #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwetrywelearnweconnect We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷 YouTube Chapters 00:00 Taking the Reins of a Hunter Valley Legacy 00:30 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions 07:41 A Young Semillon Made for Breakfast 10:22 From an Upper Hunter Farm to Brokenwood 15:13 Riggsy, the ILR and the Art of Ageing 25:53 One Big Night for Father and Son 28:18 The 2023 Shiraz and How Graveyard Got Its Name 33:04 Three Sydney Wine Lovers and a Weekend Hobby 36:49 Why Brokenwood Went Looking for Cooler Chardonnay 40:39 Tasting the 99 Point Graveyard Shiraz 43:28 Is New South Wales Wine Underrated? 47:13 The Legacy He Wants to Leave Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    How Do You Follow 38 Vintages at Brokenwood?

  3. Oct 3

    How good is Australian Pinot Noir?

    Send us Fan Mail Ten glasses, one blind tasting, and a question that's been quietly dividing Australian wine for years: are we still trying to make Burgundy, or have we finally found our own voice with Pinot Noir? On this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with returning guest Marc Malouf of iHeartWine for a genuine celebration of Pinot Noir, not a ranking exercise. They kick off with a round of Pinot specific icebreakers, including the 2012 Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny that Marc calls the most gorgeous Pinot of his life, and a dinner with United Cellars that ran through nine vintages of Mascarello Monprivato Barolo. From there the conversation gets into the real substance. Marc is honest that Australian Pinot doesn't quite reach the heights of Shiraz or Chardonnay yet, but argues that isn't really the point. Where Burgundy has had centuries to map its soils down to the individual row, Australia is still working it out, and Marc makes the case that chasing a Burgundian blueprint might be the wrong goal altogether. Sites like the Yarra Valley grow half a dozen varieties side by side, which makes the kind of granular classification Burgundy is famous for a genuinely different challenge here. Then comes the main event: ten Pinot Noirs poured blind, head to head across two glasses at a time, with the loser pushed out and replaced until only a favourite remains. Whole bunch versus destemmed, carbonic maceration, oak tannin versus stem tannin, and the way colour gives away a wine's story all come up as Trent and Marc work through bracket after bracket, laughing at how genuinely hard it is to choose between wines that are all, in their words, unfairly good. The reveal at the end is the twist. The wine that very nearly won the whole tasting turns out to cost around $60, a reminder that some of the best Pinot in the country doesn't need to cost a bomb. Marc also hands over a genuine gateway recommendation for anyone new to the variety: an independent Geelong producer punching well above its price point. It's an honest, occasionally chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable look at where Australian Pinot Noir actually stands right now, and why that might be something worth celebrating rather than comparing. 👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below: Which Australian Pinot region do you think deserves more attention? Drop it in the comments 👇 Go check out Marc's site: https://iheartwine.com.au/  🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up, @iheartwineaustralia and @wineworthwritingabout 🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au   📩 info@thewinedup.com.au   #pinotnoir #australianwine #marcmalouf #bromleywines #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwetrywelearnweconnect   We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷 YouTube Chapters 00:00  How Good Is Australian Pinot, Really? 01:04  The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions 04:49  Fun Facts Even Wine Lovers Miss About Pinot 07:12  Marc's Favourite Australian Producers 08:39  Chasing Burgundy Without the Centuries of History 13:29  Ten Wines, One Blind Tasting Begins 20:37  A New Bracket and a Total Change of Personality 39:10  The Reveal and a Surprise Under $60 41:17  Final Reflections and Advice for New Pinot Drinkers Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    How good is Australian Pinot Noir?

  4. Sep 19

    Stepping Out of One of Australia's Greatest Wine Cellars

    Send us Fan Mail Mark Dietz grew up with over 30,000 bottles of wine around him. The question this conversation keeps circling back to is a simple one: how do you step out of a cellar like that and go build something entirely your own?  Dietz is the co-owner of Small Island Wines, a boutique, cool-climate Tasmanian producer he runs with his business partner James Broinowski, focused on Riesling, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. But his path there wasn't a straight line. He started out chasing marine biology, half-convinced he'd become a reconstructive surgeon for shark attack victims, until the size of an actual great white changed his mind. What put him on the wine path instead was a blind tasting at Stellenbosch's Chocolate Block, where he called the varietal, the vintage and the hemisphere without really trying, and someone told him he had a knack for it.  He talks candidly about growing up inside the wine world his father Rudi built at Stuyvesant's House, the family's Sydney institution with cases stacked at home, suitcases coming back from holidays loaded with Domaine Romanée-Conti, and a cellar that runs into the tens of thousands of bottles. It shaped his palate long before he ever touched a barrel, and he's honest about what he took from it and what he deliberately chose to do differently.  The Small Island story itself starts almost by accident: one dinner at Golden Century, one taste of James's riesling and pinot, and a phone call that same night. What followed was a partnership built on cleaning things up — dropping the varieties that didn't fit, backing a handful of vineyard sites they trust completely, and letting Tasmania's cool climate do the talking.  Along the way there's a blind chardonnay flight where Mark misreads his own wine as European (against a 2015 Bernard Huber Germanic chardonnay and a 99-point Tolpuddle), a shared birth-vintage 1981 Wolf Blass with a genuinely strange origin story, and two properly good anecdotes of a magnum of Rockford's Home Block that turned a room full of non-wine-drinkers into collectors, and a $14 guess on a wine worth considerably more than that.  It's a conversation about legacy, about building your own name next to a very large one, and about why the story behind a bottle can matter as much as what's in the glass.  👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:  If you inherited a cellar like this, what would you open first? Drop it in the comments 👇  Go check out Small Island Wines: https://smallislandwines.com/  🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast  📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.  Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up, @smallislandwines and @markdietz  🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au and https://smallislandwines.com/  📩 info@thewinedup.com.au  #markdietz #smallislandwines #tasmanianwine #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwetrywelearnweconnect  We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷  YouTube Chapters  00:00 Growing Up Inside a Legendary Wine Cellar  01:37 Rapid-Fire Confessions and a $20K Mistake  07:39 Pouring a Hot-Off-the-Press Riesling  10:19 From Marine Biology to a Life in Wine  15:54 What Stuyvesant's House Taught Him About Moderation  16:59 How a Golden Century Dinner Led to Small Island  20:19 A Blind Chardonnay Tasting With a Twist  26:36 Streamlining the Range and Backing the Right Vineyards  36:10 Saltwater vs Cold River: Comparing the Pinots  41:45 Why Winemaking Isn't All Sunshine and Roses  55:39 A Birth-Vintage Time Capsule and Decades of History  1:04:03 The Magnum Story, a $14 Gaja, and What's Next  Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    Stepping Out of One of Australia's Greatest Wine Cellars

  5. Sep 5

    Mark Best – To Infinity and beyond!

    Send us Fan Mail Mark Best doesn't care what people say about him. He never really has. And oddly, that's the throughline of one of the most layered conversations we've recorded for The Wined Up Podcast.  Best built his reputation the hard way at Marque, seventeen years of three-hat, top-50 cooking that, by his own account, took more than it gave back. He talks candidly about closing those doors in 2016 by the skin of his teeth, about losing a hat and losing financial viability in the same breath, and about how long it actually took to work out who he was as a chef once the accolades stopped defining him.  Ten years on, he's running Infinity, high above Sydney in the Tower, and he's made a call most restaurateurs wouldn't touch: an entirely Australian wine list. No safety net of international labels, no champagne carve-out. Sommeliers pushed back. One told him the concept was weak. Mark Best leaned into the friction anyway, and the diners backed him.  Along the way there's a tasting of the Chalou “Quixotic” Pinot Noir, made by Nadia Wallington and her husband Steve in a genuinely symbiotic vineyard-and-winery partnership, paired with Infinity's dry-aged, chargrilled coral trout. There's a proper conversation about mentoring the generation of chefs who came through Mark's tiny kitchen, Dan Hong and Victor Liong among them, and what he actually looks for in people. And there's an unfiltered take on where Sydney's dining scene is heading, on cultural cringe, on old vines and new heads, and on why he'd rather do good work quietly than chase anyone's approval.  It's honest, occasionally profane, and full of the kind of hard-won perspective you only get from someone who's actually lived through the highs and the wreckage of hospitality. If you care about Australian wine, Australian food, or what it actually takes to build and rebuild a career in this industry.  👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:  What would it take for you to walk away from something you'd built? Drop it in the comments 👇  Go check out Infinity: https://infinitysydneytower.com.au/ and Chalou: https://www.chalouwines.com.au/  🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast  📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.  Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up, @infinitysydneytower, @chalouwines and @markbest  🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au  📩 info@thewinedup.com.au  #markbest #infinitysydney #chalouwines #drinkaustralian #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwetrywelearnweconnect  We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷  YouTube Chapters  00:00 Three Hats, One Restless Chef  01:00 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions  07:05 Portraits, Truth and a Craftsman, Not an Artist  09:34 Wheat Country, No Chefs, No Celebrity  11:37 The Night the Lightning Struck  13:10 What Mark Best Cuisine Actually Means  16:09 Chasing the Hats and the Weight of Getting There  19:32 Closing the Doors on Marque  20:57 Stepping Into Infinity and the All-Australian Bet  28:55 The Chalou, the Coral Trout and Why Customers Bought In  39:51 Passing It Down: Mentoring the Next Generation  45:47 Why Mark Best Doesn't Chase Approval  Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    Mark Best – To Infinity and beyond!

  6. Aug 22

    Five Way Cellars – One of Sydney’s Wine Institutions

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Ches Cook from Five Way Cellars, the independent Paddington wine store his parents Ian and Prue opened in 1987 after Ian came home from a year in Europe wanting to bring that world of wine back to Sydney. Ches has now worked there for half his life, and he takes us through what's changed, and what hasn't, across nearly forty years of European-focused wine retail.  The chat moves from a standout cellar visit in the Mosel and an unopened birthday bottle of Côte-Rôtie, through to the philosophy that actually keeps a small shop full of loyal customers: knowing people, being straight with them, and never pretending to love a bottle you don't. Ches breaks down why a higher price tag doesn't mean better wine, what a genuine beginner should actually look for on a label, and the seven types of wine drinker he sees walk through the door, tosser included.  There's a proper detour into a mega-steep, volcanic Grand Cru in Alsace that almost nobody wants to farm, a case for Beechworth as Australia's best-kept Nebbiolo secret, and an honest read on where Burgundy's pricing might be heading. As Ian approaches 70 and the next generation starts taking the reins, Ches reflects on what he's learned from watching his dad build trust with an entire city, one recommendation at a time.  It all circles back to that Grange. Wine, Ches argues, isn't something to hoard for bragging rights, it's something to open with the people who matter. Whether you're just starting out or you've already got a cellar full of Shiraz and only want Pinot, there's something here for you.  👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:  What's sitting in your cellar that you're waiting too long to open? Drop it in the comments 👇  Go check out fivewaycellars.com.au  YouTube Chapters  00:00 Intro  01:18 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions  11:01 What Actually Is Five Way Cellars  17:28 The Real Difference Is Connection  20:37 The Grand Cru Almost No One Wants to Farm  24:01 Building Trust One Bottle at a Time  30:43 The Biggest Mistake Wine Buyers Make  33:04 A Beginner's Guide to Buying Better Wine  37:31 The Seven Types of Wine Drinker  46:01 Beechworth: Australia's Nebbiolo Secret  48:04 Rapid-Fire This or That  50:58 What Excites (and Worries) Ches  53:57 Why You Never Sell the Grange  🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast  📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.  Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up  🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au  📩 info@thewinedup.com.au  #fivewaycellars #paddington #sydneywine #independentbottleshop #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwelearnweconnect  We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We Connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷  Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    Five Way Cellars – One of Sydney’s Wine Institutions

  7. Aug 8

    The Winemaker Trying to Prove Wine Doesn't Need the Alcohol

    Send us Fan Mail What happens when you take a winemaker who never planned to work in alcohol-free wine, and hand him the job of making it actually taste like wine? Aaron Milne fell into it almost by accident. A winery job during his studies happened to be run by the same people leading Australia's zero-alcohol scene, and a "one year, just to learn it" detour turned into a career. In this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Aaron, winemaker for Eden Vale, to pull apart what actually happens when you strip the alcohol out of wine, and why it's so much harder than it sounds. Aaron walks through the process, from the early days of simply boiling off the alcohol, to vacuum distillation, spinning cone columns, and now single-pass equipment that separates the essence, removes the alcohol and returns the flavour. But the technical side is only half the story. Alcohol carries weight, sweetness and length on the palate, and once it's gone, a wine can turn "fossil dry" almost overnight. Reds are the real test: strip the alcohol from a Cabernet and the tannins and colour compounds that depended on it start to fall apart, which is why Eden Vale's Coonawarra Cabernet is described as the Everest of the whole project. The conversation also gets into the culture around no and low alcohol wine: why traditional wine drinkers have been resistant, the idea of "vinosity" as the actual goal, and the rise of the "zebra drinker" -- people who move between full-strength and zero wine in the same session rather than choosing one camp for good. Aaron also touches on where the category is heading, including the mid-strength range he thinks holds the most promise over the next five to ten years. It's an honest, occasionally very funny look at one of the more overlooked corners of the Australian wine industry, and what it actually takes to make something that isn't wine taste like it belongs at the table with food anyway. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, SBS and Cabernet all make an appearance, alongside a story about a 98 Grange, a fire drum, and Snoop Dogg. 👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below: What's your take -- is alcohol-free wine a genuine alternative, or does wine need the alcohol to be wine? Drop it in the comments 👇 Go check out edenvalle.com.au 🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up 🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au 📩 info@thewinedup.com.au We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷 ## YouTube Chapters 00:00 Can Wine Still Be Wine Without the Alcohol? 0:56 Grange, Snoop Dogg and the Icebreaker Questions 5:59 How Aaron Fell Into Winemaking by Accident 8:03 Ending Up at the Frontier of Alcohol-Free Wine 10:33 Why Eden Vale Exists in the First Place 12:58 From Boiling It Out to Vacuum Distillation 16:12 The Real Fight Is Replacing What Alcohol Does 24:09 The Expensive Mistakes Along the Way 25:48 Why Whites Are Easy and Reds Are Brutal 32:53 Chasing Something Called "Vinosity" 36:14 The Rise of the Zebra Drinker 44:03 Taking On the Everest of Zero-Alcohol Wine 50:35 Where Low and No Alcohol Wine Is Headed Next Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    The Winemaker Trying to Prove Wine Doesn't Need the Alcohol

  8. Jul 25

    Is Ashton Hills Making Australia's Best Pinot Noir?

    Send us Fan Mail A three hectare Brussels sprout farm on a hill in the Adelaide Hills doesn't sound like the start of one of Australia's most respected Pinot Noir stories. But that's exactly where Ashton Hills began.   In this episode of **The Wined Up Podcast**, Trent sits down with Liam Van Pelt, the winemaker now carrying on the legacy Stephen George built over more than 40 years in the Piccadilly Valley. Liam's own path to Ashton Hills was anything but planned. A Glenelg kid with no wine background, he worked his way through hospitality, wine school, a vintage in Italy, Jeff Grosset's cellar in the Clare Valley, Chapel Hill in McLaren Vale, and a wild stint with Andrew Thomas in the Hunter Valley, before a casual vintage role and a bit of serendipity landed him alongside Stephen. What followed was a letter from Stephen to the CEO of Wirra Wirra that Liam still describes as one of the most emotional moments of his career, handing him a role, and a legacy, that didn't exist yet.   The conversation moves through the story of how Ashton Hills got its name, why Stephen trialled 27 different clones of Pinot Noir on one tiny patch of dirt over four decades, and what it's like to inherit that kind of obsession. Liam and Trent taste through the range together, from the 2025 Piccadilly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir through to the two single vineyard wines, Woods Hill and Bow House, sourced two kilometres apart and showing almost nothing in common, right up to the flagship 2025 Estate Pinot Noir grown on Stephen's original site.   Along the way, Liam talks candidly about the pressure of protecting someone else's life's work, the balance between honouring Stephen's philosophy and finding his own voice, the backing that's let Ashton Hills invest in better fruit and new vineyards for the future, and where he sees the winery heading over the next decade.   It's a conversation about legacy, trust, patience, and what it really takes to keep a 40 year old vision alive without losing it.   If you love Pinot Noir, cool climate wine, or stories about people stepping into someone else's shoes, this one's worth your time.   👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:   What's your favourite Ashton Hills wine? Drop it in the comments 👇   Go check out https://www.ashtonhills.com.au/   🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast 📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up 🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au   📩 info@thewinedup.com.au   We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷   ## YouTube Chapters   00:00 Intro 0:55 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions 5:15 Wine of the Day: The 2025 Chardonnay 6:26 From a Glenelg Kid to Chasing Vintage 8:32 The Letter That Changed Everything 14:35 Carrying Steven's Piccadilly Pinot Forward 20:11 A Brussels Sprout Farm Called Ashton Hills 27:33 Woods Hill vs Bow House 31:50 What Makes the Piccadilly Valley Different 44:00 The Flagship: 2025 Estate Pinot Noir 47:18 Gamay, Lighter Styles and a New Generation 51:13 Rapid Fire: This or That 52:08 What's Next for Ashton Hills 54:16 Closing Thoughts     Follow Us on YouTube (@TheWinedUp), Instagram (The.Wined.Up), Tik Tok (@TheWinedUp), Spotify (The Wined Up), Amazon Music ( TheWinedUp), and Apple Podcasts (The Wined Up).  Visit our website https://www.thewinedup.com.au or email us at info@thewinedup.com.au.    Drink More, Try More, Learn More.

    Is Ashton Hills Making Australia's Best Pinot Noir?
See All (161)

About

Podcast | Editorial | Storytelling𝗪𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗸. 𝗪𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻. 𝗪𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁Stories behind the people, food and wine.

Information

  • Creator
    The Wined Up
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    161
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Wined Up
  • Show Website
    The Wined Up

You Might Also Like