Uncorking Australia: Mark Davidson on the Myths, Makers & Modern Wines

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Summary

Laurie Forster sits down with Mark Davidson, one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine, to bust common myths and dive into the country’s rich and evolving wine scene. Its not all Shiraz these days and Laurie introduces you to 2 of her favorite wines from down under. Mark reveals the diversity and complexity of Australia’s vineyards and the role of Wine Australia in shaping global perception. He shares his personal journey into the wine world, insights from his acclaimed book The Wines of Australia, and highlights the new generation of winemakers who are redefining what Australian wine means today. 

Takeaways

• Mark Davidson’s love affair with wine started with one unforgettable sip: a 1971 Chambolle-Musigny.
 • Forget the stereotypes: Australian wine is not just “cheap and cheerful” or “big and bold.”
 • Aussie Riesling? Crisp, dry, and complex—not the sugar bomb people assume.
 • Chardonnay in Australia has leveled up, now delivering elegance, balance, and world-class complexity.
 • Southern Mediterranean grapes like Fiano and Vermentino are thriving down under and reshaping Australia’s wine identity.
 • Producers like Unico Zelo are breaking the mold with innovative wines crafted from Italian varietals.
  • Want to go deeper? Resources like Mark’s book The Wines of Australia & Australian Wine Discovered make learning about Australian wine accessible and exciting.

Wines Tasted

Pewsey Vale Estate Riesling 2024

Unico Zelo Truffle Hound Red 2022

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:29)
We're headed down under with wine professional and sommelier Mark Davidson. I'm going to introduce him in a minute from Wine Australia, but I just wanted to do a couple of reminders. Just remember on September 24th, my virtual tasting, Fall in Love with the Rhone Valley is going to be an exciting night where we're going to explore three of my favorite wines, learn more about the region and just have a really great Wine Wednesday.

Go to thewinecoach.com slash events. You can register for the tasting. You'll get a link to a wine pack I put together that you can drink along with me Also, if you're interested in my trip to Tuscany next year, 2026, October, I'm doing an information session on September 28th at noon. You can go to the same page on my website, the events page.

register for the Zoom and learn all about this amazing week of luxury, wine, food, and just really immersing yourself in Tuscan wines. I'd love to have you join me. All right, I'm gonna be joined in a second here with wine professional, author and sommelier, Mark Davidson. He was born in London, but raised in Sydney, Australia with over 40 years of experience in the hotel restaurant and wine business. 15 of those years as a sommelier.

In 2001, he was the sommelier of the year in Vancouver at the Wine Festival. He won the Spirited Industry Professional Award in 2014, and he's an annual judge at the Texom International Wine Awards. He's the author of a book called Wines of Australia. We're going to learn a little more about that. It's part of the Classic Wine Library series, and he's currently the head of education at Wine Australia for North America. Let's go ahead and welcome him into the show.

Laurie Forster (02:14)
Mark, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Mark Davidson (02:16)
Thank you, thrilled to be here. I've been excited about this podcast for the last few weeks.

Laurie Forster (02:20)
Me too. And just when I was starting to get into wine, I was absolutely obsessed and I still am and love Australian wines. And so I got to take a trip in the beginning of 2000 and I got to travel around Australia for a couple of weeks, visiting the Hunter and the Barossa, Maclaren, a few different places. So I'm excited here. Twenty five years later.

to speak with you as an expert of Australian wine and really dig into it. Because I feel like I'm sort one of your ambassadors trying to change people's minds. They think Australian wine is one thing, but we know it's maybe something else. So let's bust all those misconceptions. But before we get to that, I would really love it if you would tell us a little bit about how you even came to get into the wine business.

Mark Davidson (02:53)
Thank you.

Yeah, it's good, mate. So I grew up in Australia. I'm a bit of a complicated one because I was born in England. My parents moved to Australia when I was a kid. So I grew up in Australia. Went through a hotel school in Australia. So was surrounded by wine. My dad worked in wine sales for a bit. But, you know, as a teenager, what your dad drunk, was like, whatever, dad, I'm not interested in that. Although we did sneak a few bottles from under the house from time to time. So, but wine was always like part of like, was, I was around it, but didn't get really interested in.

in it until a little bit later, but through my, I did a hotel management diploma, hotel management and catering diploma. So restaurant background was my whole thing. Started in kitchens, went front of the house, and then one day just took a wine course that was over and above what I had at school, and it's just that, the door started to open a little bit. I was tasting this Pouilly Fuisse, which I thought, wow, that's made from Chardonnay. And that time, that was in the 80s, and it was like Pouilly Fuisse was the hot thing in Canada at the time when I was working.

That's Chardonnay? Hmm, why is it so different from this other Chardonnay here? And that sort of opened the door and then there was one day my bartender friend and I were interested in wine and so I started doing this course and $5 a shift we put in and the owner of the restaurant this time, a very good restaurant in Toronto, let us buy wines at cost and that was back in 85, 86.

And we were getting some good wines, remember some good Bordeaux, things like Château Paplément. And then one month we had this bottle of 1971 Chambord Moussigny from Burgundy and everything changed for me, 100 % changed. I'd never had a wine that maybe, wasn't just tasty, it made me feel something and it was like, I won't use the exact language, it's polite. But it was like, that is something different.

Laurie Forster (04:43)
Wow.

Yes. ⁓

Mark Davidson (04:47)
And that

was like, I am now really pursuing this and sort of became a sommelier, did my sommelier studies back in the day where people didn't even know what that word was. I thought it was a lady saying, you don't look like you're from Somalia. I said, no, no, it's not. I'm not from Africa. But it, and that was it. That's when it started. And then I went full sort of pretty much started, you know, making that my primary focus. And that's how got into wine. And so I was working as a sommelier for the better part of almost close to 20 years, but always in restaurants, 30 plus years in restaurants.

Laurie Forster (05:01)
Love that.

Wow.

Mark Davidson (05:15)
Started a

wine school in Vancouver, British Columbia, where I lived for a long time. then, yeah, and then that's, well, that's kind of how I got into it. But yeah, it's been a life of food and wine, to be brutally honest. It's just been always, you know, I had a dad that cooked and was in the wine business. So I was always surrounded by it. So I came by it sort of a little bit by osmosis, but.

Laurie Forster (05:34)
Love that. And on your Instagram bio, says lapsed sommelier. What does that mean?

Mark Davidson (05:40)
It means I was a sommelier for most of my career but I guess I mean I don't consider myself a sommelier anymore. I do one guest appearance at this fishing lodge up in up near Alaska and sort of off the coast of Canada with some fancy chefs and stuff but it's the only time I sort of dabble in it but I mean I guess once a sommelier always a sommelier but I'm not working on the floor so to my mind it's like well yeah I guess I'm a sommelier I've done the studies I've certainly earned the title but I'm not really working as a sommelier anymore.

Laurie Forster (06:06)
Yes, since that kind of reference is working in a restaurant and suggesting bottles, but bring us to where we are now. You're working with Wine Australia. I'd love to know a little bit more about what Wine Australia does and how you fit into that.

Mark Davidson (06:06)
sublapsed or recovering.

Correct.

Right?

Great, okay, well Wine Australia is the statutory body, so we're technically a wing of the Australian government, although it of doesn't feel like that sometimes, well some days it does. But we're a wing of the Australian government that is part of the statutes of the Australian government, and so we are the body that does promotion and marketing and education about Australian wine globally, and also domestically, but it's always been a bit more of an outward-facing organisation.

But that's part of it, but also the big piece of the Wine Australia puzzle is actually research and development. And that's not quite the wing we're in, we're in the marketing and education. And I'm in charge of education for North America for Wine Australia. I was doing the job globally for a period of time, that was the carrot they dangled for me when I first got this job. But now, mercifully, I'm just doing North America, so I'm not traveling all around the world. So yeah, that's what I do, it's kind of a unique role. I'm in charge of education, which is...

Laurie Forster (07:07)
Yeah.

Mark Davidson (07:14)
heavily focused on the trade, getting people engaged and doing what you just said earlier, is like getting people to think differently and ultimately buy differently, even though we're not a sales organisation, but I people thinking differently and those misconceptions about Australia, we're gonna bust a few today, but I mean, I've been doing this for 15 years now and I feel like it's that same thing that a lot of people talk about. You tell them once, you tell them again, and then you just keep telling them again and again again, and that's how you get there. So, and I think, yeah, I mean, it's a...

Laurie Forster (07:28)
Yes.

Mark Davidson (07:42)
Yeah, anyway, it's a wonderful role. It's been, mean, how can I possibly have asked for a better job? I go through customs sometimes coming around, they'll be, what do you do? And explain, like, that doesn't sound like a job. I'm like, it hasn't really felt like a job for many years. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (07:43)
Yeah.

That's perfect. It shouldn't feel

like a job. And you mentioned the misconceptions. I've got a couple of my favorite Australian wines that might surprise people. We'll get to those in a minute. But what do you feel? I have a lots in mind. But what do you feel is the top misconception about Australian?

Mark Davidson (08:04)
Love it.

Well, I think, you in general, I often talk about some of my lectures that I do is like, you know, think people say, I think people say stupid things about wine in general, but they say a lot of stupid things about Australia, which I sometimes blame Australia in terms of how we've exported and the image we've tried to project and times even with good intention, it probably hasn't. But I think to my mind, it's a monochromatic view. And it's one of two things or a combination. It's either, hey, cheap and cheerful fun, which is not necessarily negative in some people's minds, but takes away from the genuine sort of

you know complex tapestry of Australian wine. It's like it's simple, cheap and cheerful or depending on how long you've been around in the wine business, big and bold or both. And that's about it. And usually revolves around red wine that's fairly considered to be, it's quite big and rich and alcohol is hot all the time in Australia, isn't it? ⁓ Or it's that simple. so, you know, it's one of either of those generally speaking. And that I think puts a bit of pressure on being able to sell.

Laurie Forster (08:49)
Mmm.

Right.

Mark Davidson (09:06)
better quality wines because people are not looking at, like, oh, I'm not gonna spend that much money on an Australian wine. And I think it's changing, I think there's a generational shift, but I would say that's it. But what do you know, I'd be curious to get your take on it, because you've been involved for such a long time, but.

Laurie Forster (09:19)
Yeah, I would say when I got into Australian wine, it was through the fine wines. At my wedding, I had Rockford Basket Press, Shiraz, which is amazing. Henschke, yes, Henschke wines. I I got into some of the really, I think, know, top wines. And of course, there's great mid-tier as well. But I would say the critter wines, as we call them, the ones with the kangaroos on them and some other animals.

Mark Davidson (09:28)
That was when it was coming to the US. It isn't anymore.

that's...

Laurie Forster (09:44)
great party wines, great affordable prices, but I think that captured so much of the attention and commercials and people buying. And then people forgot that, you know what, there's like a whole other side to Australian wine. And it's not just Shiraz. There are Shiraz, I guess, as they say. There's many more varietals and many more things being made that are so interesting.

Mark Davidson (10:01)
No... Draft... Yeah.

Yeah, that's pretty spot on. think it's interesting because I the yellowtail, I get this all the time, people say, yellowtail ruined the image of Australia. I'm like, wow, I think that's a fairly simplistic sort of summation of a more complex problem. think that's like saying, know, Sutter home white Zinfandel ruined the image of California. It's like, no, it didn't. It was sitting out there. There was a category over there. It's just that that became what everyone was trying to emulate for a period of time in terms of exports. Let's get a slice of the...

Yellowtail pie and that's fill the shelves with these critter brands they seem to be working. It's like, that's a, so you know, all those copycats have gone away and guess who's still there, still making innovative fun wines as Yellowtail's still there. And so I think those wines don't take away from the better wines. That's like saying cheap and cheerful wines from any country will ruin the image. I like, well no, it's about how the shelves are filled and what's around them.

Laurie Forster (10:41)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Davidson (10:55)
And that's the depressing piece of the puzzle is that, you know, it's not really yellow tail. It's more about, you know, people don't want to go beyond something cheap and cheerful. And some markets and certainly supermarkets are guilty of that. But you can get great Aussie wines in the quirkiest of places nowadays.

Laurie Forster (11:07)
See ya.

Amazing. And, you

know, speaking of US wines, the number one brand of wine in the US is Barefoot, which comes out of California. And certainly everybody knows there are amazing, you know, mid-tier fine wines and everything coming out of the US, Oregon, California, Washington, all over New York. And so, yeah, let's change people's minds. That's what we're here to do. So I brought a white since it's summer. And this is one of my favorite whites.

Mark Davidson (11:16)
Yep. Yep.

correct.

Laurie Forster (11:36)
Well, well, the Henschke Riesling is one of my favorites as well, but hard to find, hard to find. But the Pewsey Vale Riesling is one of my favorites. Eden Valley is so well suited because of the cool climate. And I find that a lot of people are shocked when I tell them to drink a Riesling from Australia. You sent me a great picture of the valley and I'm going to post that on our show page. But

Mark Davidson (11:39)
Also good, yeah.

I know, but...

Awesome. Yeah, it's

a bit, I love that you picked this, because this was not really just for everyone that's listening. I didn't tell you to pick this, but I would have told you to pick this. But I would have, because when I started back, because I've to remember, I have a European wine background before I came back to Australia, Back to Australian wine, that is. So I've got a fairly strong European wine background. So coming back to it, I looking around going, I was always, you know, had my finger in the pie with Australian wine. But when I started back doing this job, I thought, my God, that...

Laurie Forster (12:07)
You did not.

Mark Davidson (12:24)
wine needs to go on by the glass in places all around the place because the price point works and if you think about the style it's 12 % alcohol 12, 12.5 % alcohol is fruity it's lively and it's dry but the problem is people number one don't think it's dry and what's the what's the first thing people say when you want reasoning say and it's too sweet and they say it with that stupid voice as well

Laurie Forster (12:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yes, it's too sweet.

Mark Davidson (12:48)
But it's not, and the whole reality is that Riesling is one of the great, great varieties. And you look at the successive Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, for example, which is remarkable, even though we're supposed to not like New Zealanders, Australians. mean, that's a wonderful story. But to get a confirmed Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc drinker to drink that is not a stretch. The problem is that it says Riesling on the label, and that's the barrier for people. the style, what more do you want from a crisp, dry white wine that's full of flavor?

Laurie Forster (13:00)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Davidson (13:14)
It's got history, it's got heritage. That vineyard was first planted in 1847. And it went into disuse, but it's been since 1961, it's been planted to Riesling. And if they dabble a little more the edges, it's now, it's a Riesling vineyard. And when you show, you post a picture and it sits at about 550 metres. See now, I'm American citizen now and I promised I wouldn't make fun of the lack of metric system, but so I won't, but I've just done it.

Laurie Forster (13:20)
I was gonna say 175 years, it's just insane. Yep.

Mark Davidson (13:40)
So about 16, 1700 feet above sea level and it's rocky and it's windy and it's cool up there and it is a great site for Riesling. The picture kind of shows that a little bit when you post it but it's a brilliant area for Riesling and category and it's a 20 something dollar wine.

Laurie Forster (13:50)
Yes.

Yes, and Louisa, it's a female winemaker. She is amazing. I absolutely think she's brilliant. And this is sort of, I would say, the entry level, like you said. But one of the things they do, and people always think it's sweet, they have this lovely guide on the back that some Riesling makers will use that shows dry to sweet, where it falls. This is bone dry. So it's at the beginning of the scale. But I wish.

Mark Davidson (13:58)
Amazing. Yeah. She's a gem.

Correct.

Correct. Yeah, man.

Yeah, love it.

Laurie Forster (14:20)
everybody that made Riesling would put that on the bottle because then we could really go after that. Anytime you see a Riesling, turn it around, look for that. And that way somebody doesn't make a mistake and pick out a sweet Riesling and then never go back to this amazing style, which I think is so brilliant. So that was my first pick and yeah.

Mark Davidson (14:30)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm so thrilled. It's just, it's like

a mouth of a lime zest and so fresh, so lively. it's, yeah, what else do you, whatever. That's such a lovely wine. And it's funny, I don't do a lot of consumer shows, but certainly I pour at various events. And there was many times I'll have that on the table and people want to try it. Oh, I don't want to try this. I well, you're not getting anything else on the table until you try this. And they go, oh, fine. And then they come back three or four times saying, want, give me more of that.

Laurie Forster (15:04)
what other white varietals would, you know, people tend to sort of think red when they think of Australia, of course, and we'll get to a red, but what other whites?

Mark Davidson (15:09)
They do, we'll talk about

Chardonnay for sure. Now the irony is if you date back, mean, this obviously Australia had some award winning wines of 1800s, early 1900s, but a wine that put Australia on the map in terms of the press was in the 1980s. 1981 I think it was, a white wine from the Hunter Valley, Rosemount, Roxburgh, Chardonnay won this big trophy in London. So it was a Chardonnay that actually made the British press, at that time the wine press was pretty much centered.

that the serious wine press have said in London with a few smatterings elsewhere in the world. Now that's certainly not the case, but that put Australia on the map, right? It was a chardonnay, not a chard. Now in those days, it was mirrored in California. Structural complexity and nuance was not a consideration. Pineappley fruit, oak, the bigger the better. That changed a little bit and I think the...

Laurie Forster (15:53)
No.

Mark Davidson (15:59)
there's an evolution in that. So in terms of classic varieties, think Chardonnay has never been in a better place in Australia than it is right now. Planted in the right areas in the cooler zones and the cooler sites within those zones, managing that sort of ripeness and it's better use of oak, less new oak, less time in oak, less manipulation in the winery, but just understanding the top Chardonnay does like a certain amount of time in wood, but just managing that a little bit better on it, it's never been better. There's so much good.

Laurie Forster (16:15)
Yes, thank you.

Mark Davidson (16:26)
So it's a classic variety, knock yourself out and go and try a bunch of different Chardonnays from around the country. And as a contemporary variety, what I really like, and you've hit on it with the red, a lot of Southern Mediterranean varieties have really taken to the fore over the last 15 to 20 years that were sort of being planted somewhere a little bit earlier, but certainly around the last 20 years or so. Not because Australians thought, it should be really easy to sell some of these varieties. It's more about

a changing environment and what wines, what varieties, red and white are gonna take us into the future, hold their acidity in a better fashion, make fresher wines, make a style of wine that's more suited. And so I put Fiano in that discussion point right now, Fianos and Vermintinos. And when you're down in Australia, you haven't been for a while, ⁓ is that you're in McLaren Vale and you're having some this local squid or this beautiful white fish called a King George White and you're probably drinking Fiano or Vermintino.

Laurie Forster (17:02)
⁓

Yeah.

Mark Davidson (17:17)
And it's great, also these vines use less water in the vineyards. They're so better suited and they make lovely styles. I'd say those two, I mean, there's a lot that I could get into, but certainly classic variety chardonnay without a doubt, never been in a better place. And go out and experiment with some Fiannas when you see them.

Laurie Forster (17:20)
Mmm.

Yes, absolutely. All right. I'm searching that out now. Okay. So I know you wrote a book called The Wines of Australia, which I, yes, you happen to have right there. And one of the things I love that you did in there, other, you know, the obviously giving us the background and the history, which is so rich there is lay out the six, the six regions. Now, both of the wines I chose are from South Australia, which is the big gorilla of winemaking, of course.

Mark Davidson (17:40)
Did I? ⁓ look, there it is.

Hard to get it into the... yeah.

Laurie Forster (18:01)
But there's so many other great ones. Tell me a little bit about the book. If people want to really dig in more about Australia Wine and pick it up, I found it on Amazon. It's all over. What is the book? Why'd you write it and what's the book gonna give us?

Mark Davidson (18:09)
Yeah!

Well, I got approached to

write it actually. was doing some, a boy's been sort of involved in TexSomm We always go down to beer and I've gotten to know the guy who runs TexSomm. He became part of the Classic Wine Library, he's one of the editors. He called me up one day said, we've been discussing it, you should write the book on Australia. We need an Australian book in this series. And I was like, I've never written a book. He said, yeah, but you can. I'm like, wow, that remains to be seen.

And it was pre-COVID and it took a while for me to get to it and then suddenly post-COVID I needed to get down there and do it. And even though I'd been going down every year, I needed to go and do what I needed to do, not based on my job, just go down and spend six weeks and travel around and get sort of, you know, so I've been going back and forth there for the last 16 years anyway. So, and then the challenge, probably the challenge was more that the series is this, this is it. Anything that they put, it's 90 to 100,000 words, that's the size, right?

Piedmont just came out with a book, Piedmont at the same ink space as Australia, which in the beginning that sort of stuff annoyed me, not because the guy that wrote the book is awesome, I love the book, I actually picked it up because I love the at Piedmont, secretly. Oh, me too, how can you not? But initially, so that made me go, I've got 65 regions, wines of New Zealand, the wines of New Zealand book is 12, 13, whatever they got, they have the same size, that annoyed me at first, but then I was like, actually this is cool, it makes it nice and compact.

Laurie Forster (19:12)
Me too. Barolo. I'm a huge Barolo fan.

Mark Davidson (19:29)
I like the fact that this is a book you can take with you. It's not a coffee table book, not that I have a criticism of coffee table style books, but you know, this is a really easy read. And so it made me sort of trim out a bunch of things and go, okay, let's get to the meat of the matter. What do you need to better understand this region and what are the wines that are going to then support that understanding? So I kept it tight and tidy. I mean, certainly looking back, there was a couple of wineries I wish I could add and I wish I'd approached certain subjects in a different way, but during the reprint I'll do that. But overall, honestly, I was extremely proud of.

the book even though it's a struggle to get started. I will be honest.

Laurie Forster (20:01)
Yeah, and you said,

I know you lay out the background, the history, the six regions, the varieties of grapes that are grown, but in the book also you mentioned to me when we were chatting before the interview that you have a list, is it of 100 wines that everybody should try?

Mark Davidson (20:15)
Yeah, well

it addresses the subject you and I were talking about earlier, which is this diversity. And as I'm doing the book and also in my job, I'm like, my gosh, people don't understand the complexity and diversity that exists in Australia. Marketing people in general, not us, but don't want to hear diversity. That's too complicated. They want one single, what's the USP, the unique selling products. Uh-uh, not gonna happen. Nobody asks that about France. Nobody says, what's the one thing about French wine? I won't do it about Australia, because we have 65 different regions.

Laurie Forster (20:34)
Yeah.

Mark Davidson (20:44)
Never mind the complexities of over 100 commercial, valuable commercial varieties, more planted for sure. So I just, as I was going along, okay, what do I, I'm gonna write a list of wines that you might not get to get them here, you might have to be in Australia for it, but if you had all of these wines, you will understand Australia, the diversity and complexity, and then there's almost tastings within it. So I got to the end of the book and there was 100 wines, I was like, okay, it could've been 64, it could've been 91, it could've been anything.

So I added one to make it 101 wine so it worked. But there's sort of tastings within tastings. you know, talking about Shiraz, there's 12 different Shiraz to make you understand that there is categorically no better place on the planet to experiment with that variety. Yes, I love Cote Rotie As a young sommelier going there, it just blew me away. But that's a style. You have all of them. Every single face that you could possibly...

Laurie Forster (21:29)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Davidson (21:33)
imagine any expression you can imagine from Australia, we can find it in Australia, not anywhere else on the planet can do that whole thing. So there's that and there's nine different Rieslings in there. There's a bunch of Chardonnay and then there's a bunch of different wine styles including fortified sweet wines and so. So the idea is that if you manage to get through that, there's no hope in hell you'd not understand Australia. You would understand Australia better even just halfway through the list but certainly if you got through that list your life would be richer.

Laurie Forster (21:57)
Yeah. So just

buy the book and get the list of 100. I mean, even if you don't want to read it, you just get that list if you drink your way through that list.

Mark Davidson (22:01)
Just...

And

most of them are here. There's a couple of sort of quirky esoteric wines like Wendouree which you might be able to find here, and a few others in there that haven't exported a of riesling producers. But the vast majority of the wines on there, I could do a tasting of many, like I'd pull them out of the back of that, and okay, this is on my list. So yeah, that's cool. It's fun.

Laurie Forster (22:22)
Well, speaking of esoteric, I wasn't going to bring for our red Shiraz because I feel like everyone, you know, seems to know that Australia does that well. So I wanted to bring something different. And recently I discovered this producer, Unico Zelo. And yes, and it's called Truffle Hound. And you're going to be, you're going to want to go out and get this right away, Mark, because it is a blend of Barbera.

Mark Davidson (22:38)
So good, I was so excited, well done.

I know the wine. It's

awesome. I've had it. Yeah, it's it's magic. Exactly.

Laurie Forster (22:49)
yeah, Barbera and Nebbiolo are grape of Barolo. And

I've had some other wines. They're always grape varieties that I never thought of for Australia. And Laura and Brendan Carter just seemed to be the coolest, like fun hip face that you could put on Australian wine. If you, you know, dreamt it up, it just happens. So that's what I brought to the table for the red Adelaide.

Mark Davidson (22:58)
Right. So good.

Love it. that speaks,

yeah, Adelaide Hills. I think there's some fruit from Clare Valley in that, but certainly Adelaide Hills. And so what I love about it, it speaks to this sort of modern approach and this idea of not really a lot of wine making artifice in there. I mean, these are probably in big, large barrels, but it's all about fruit and that accessibility and sort of lightness. I mean, I haven't, don't know, is it the 21 or the 20 that you got there? Which one do you have? 2021?

Laurie Forster (23:15)
Yes, also Claire.

What I love about it though is really have this great like plummy fruit, but also earthy meaty notes, which are fabulous. This is actually a 22. Yeah.

Mark Davidson (23:46)
Okay, good. I'm

not quite sure it's in that blend, it's predominantly, there's sometimes some other varieties, it's predominantly Nebbiolo and Barbera, and I love that because I love the ones at Piedmont. And they're not, it's not, and that's always one of those challenges. mean, the problem with Nebbiolo, anywhere outside of Barolo, we have one reference point, Barolo-Barbaresco. But what I do like about that wine is, and I think that meaty, earthy thing that they're capturing there, but also just that it's medium weight, right? And it's capturing that juiciness and freshness that I think speaks so much more to, well, a couple of things it speaks to.

Laurie Forster (23:52)
Yes.

Mark Davidson (24:14)
how we eat and how we live in Australia, with the temperatures in general. We don't want big, rich, heavy reds all the time. Maybe there's a few months of the year. It also speaks to a little bit to what's happening in this sort of generational shift and what people are wanting to drink. My daughter's, my eldest is pushing 30 now, which is a frightening proposition in and of itself. I had her when I was 11. But she's my little canary in the millennial mind. I'll just like, here, drink this.

Laurie Forster (24:38)
Okay.

Mark Davidson (24:39)
try that and that's the kind of wine

Laurie Forster (24:40)
Nice.

Mark Davidson (24:41)
she'll go absolutely I want that. If I give her maybe a classic wine and other wines that I love some those bigger more classic sort of Barossa reds, she'll like, nah, nah, that's old man wine, which I think is really quite rude. But her whole approach is that's the sort of stuff she wants to be drinking, that's what her friends are drinking. And it suits a lot of things and it's, you know, we have this term in Australia about smashable reds, that one's sort of in there. Crushable, it's like, Porch Pounders, yeah, you, you

Laurie Forster (25:01)
Yes, porch, we call them porch pounders.

Mark Davidson (25:06)
put them in a glass like this, right? Yeah, but no, and it's a really, really smart operation. Brendan and Laura are very, very

Laurie Forster (25:08)
Right. And it's got like.

It's vegan friendly, which a lot of people care about. I happen to have my canary in the coal mine, but she's a Gen Z. So we can trade notes and share research. But vegan friendly, I know they're B Corp certified. A lot of the younger consumers and people our age as well, really do care how the wine is made. That is made with love. It's not a big commercial, throw everything in there and...

Mark Davidson (25:23)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah, this is a shift.

without a doubt.

Laurie Forster (25:39)
and pump out a million bottles. I just really admire what they're doing. This also has some like licorice and herbal notes to it. And they call it the quintessential pizza wine. Okay, yeah, I could see that too, but other things, other things as well.

Mark Davidson (25:48)
lovely stuff.

100%.

Have

you had the, there's another one they make which is predominantly Nero d'avola. That's another variety from the red varieties that I think people should look at. The Italian, the Sicilian variety, Nero d'avola, but that's doing really well in Australia. It's one of the Italian varieties in Australia that I love. There's good Tempani, a good San Giovese, but that's one I think is just capturing that middle ground. I spent some time in Sicily in that middle ground of medium bodied but fragrant, a slightly fragrant quality.

Laurie Forster (26:16)
Yes.

Mark Davidson (26:19)
Well, they do one that they co-ferment with a little bit of Zabivo or Muscat and it's called Fresh AF. I'll leave the AF to, we could say Fresh and Friends. Fresh and fruity. But, and you just, the first time, it's a bit of a room splitter in the sense that it's quite aromatic and I love that because I love this certain Italian varieties that have a floral aromatic like Rookay and Lacrimet de Mordalba.

Laurie Forster (26:27)
We know what that means. And fruity. Sure.

Mark Davidson (26:44)
I love those wines too, but that kind of comes across a little bit like that, this other wine that they do, and it's just like, wow, this is exactly, it speaks to a different thing. And it's the kind of stuff that adores, in fact, in my role, there's certain wine styles that open the door to certain customers to sort of rediscover and come back to Australia. And they've been very, very important wines for me, things like Ocoto Barrels, Fugazi, Grenache, those wines, to put them in front of people and they're like, I had no idea this was happening, this is great, I'm gonna lean in and.

Laurie Forster (26:51)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Davidson (27:11)
So it's important for me to show wines like that as well as, and also revisiting the classics, because let's face it, Pewsey Vale is hardly what you would consider a contemporary wine in the sense that it's very classic variety, classic vineyard. However, that style of wine is 100 % appropriate and contemporary now, even though it's never changed for decades.

Laurie Forster (27:29)
Absolutely.

So I know you're focusing a lot on the trade and for people that listen like, what is the trade? It's restaurants, it's retail, it's people that are working in the wine business. But if people are listening to this and they are inspired, which I know they will be to go out and try more Australian wines, but they want to learn about the six states and the 65 regions that you mentioned. Is there a resource online or what's the, mean, obviously your book, but in addition, what's the

Mark Davidson (27:36)
Correct, yeah.

There is,

Laurie Forster (27:55)
best place.

Mark Davidson (27:55)
there's actually a few right now. It's a really interesting time because three books came out at the same time. We haven't had the decent Aussie wine book in a while. But we'll get back to the books in a moment. We have a website called, we have an education website called Australian Wine Discovered. www.australianwinediscovered.com You might be able to access it through the Wine Australia site. Australian Wine Discovered. You can go in there that was designed for the trade but anyone can go in and access it. And lovely thing about it is that it's free. It's a free website. You do need to sign up for it.

look at all the modules based on, we've got some modules on there based on regions, varieties and their topical subject matter. so that's a great resource and there's lots of great information in there.

Another book by Jane and Jonathan, couple of American sommeliers that lived and worked in Australia, they've got How to Drink Australia and that's another book. It's a little bigger tome. And if you're a real geek, Andrew Kaya, it's a master of wine, has a three volume set on the history of Australian wine.

Laurie Forster (28:38)
Okay.

Mark Davidson (28:45)
But the point is, three books on Australian wine within a 12-month span, it's kind of cool, there's lots of good information out there. Yeah, so it's not about time, it's just a question, mean, we're inundated with information about everything from anywhere nowadays, but I'd say, you know, those three books, the online resource that we've got, and maybe a couple of other authors and what have you, but yeah, there's a decent amount of info out there.

Laurie Forster (28:52)
That's great.

Yeah, and if you're listening and you only drink wines from France or Italy or California, you know, just stop by the Australian section and look for these unusual suspects that we've been talking about. You know, get Mark's book, get that list of 100, you know, make it your bucket list, bucket wine list, if you will. And I think your mind is going to be blown and you really kind of see all of the depth and exciting things that are out there.

Mark Davidson (29:17)
I love it, yeah, totally.

Yeah.

Laurie Forster (29:33)
for any generation, boomers, Gen X, millennial, Gen Z, and all different price points, which is perfect because not everybody wants to spend 100. Some people want 20, some people want 10, and you can find all of those things in Australian wine.

up to, yeah, $25, $30 if you can find. And there's a lot of great things in that range, but that's what people are looking for.

Mark Davidson (29:57)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (29:58)
Well, Mark, I have loved talking to you about the the name of your book. People go search it out. You're just a wealth of knowledge. And we get to talk Australian wine again. Thank you for coming on The Sipping Point.

Laurie Forster (30:11)
So if you thought Australian wine was all magnums and critter wines, I hope we changed your mind and inspired you to get out there and try some of the excellent wines coming out of that country. I will provide links to the wines that I chose, Wine Australia for that great education, and of course, Mark's book, Wines of Australia. Don't forget to check out my events page at thewinecoach.com for my virtual tasting September 24th, the wine tour to Tuscany.

and so much more. As always, I am so grateful that you're tuning in this week. If you love this podcast, please pass it on to another wine lover in your circle. Just share that with them.

Click follow and subscribe wherever you listen to the podcast so you don't miss an episode. next week, we're gonna be learning about some beverages. They're a little less wine and a little more weed. So tune in next week when we're gonna talk to the inventor and founder of Wink Drinks here in the US. All right, until next week, cheers.