Why Australian Wine Might Surprise You: Inside Elderton Wines & Barossa’s Iconic Reds

Check out all the great events Laurie has on the calendar in 2026 on her website at TheWineCoach.com/events including a few spaces still left in her Tuscany tour this October!

In this episode Laurie Forster sits down with Allister Ashmead of Elderton Wines for a conversation that may just change how you think about Australian wine. Allister shares the remarkable family history behind Elderton, from historic Barossa vineyards to a modern, sustainability-focused winery, while unpacking some of the biggest misconceptions that still surround Australian wines today. The discussion dives into what truly sets Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon apart, why old-vine vineyards matter, and the story behind Elderton’s iconic Command Shiraz. Along the way, Laurie and Allister talk candidly about family dynamics in a multi-generational wine business, personal wine preferences, and the result is an eye-opening, approachable look at the depth, diversity, and undeniable quality of Australian wine.

Wines Tasted

Elderton Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 $33

Elderton Command Shiraz 2018 $90

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:27)
This week on The Sipping Point, we're going down under with Alastair Ashmead from Elderton Wines in South Australia, specifically the Barossa Valley. And when I was first getting into wine, these were some of the wines that most impressed me. His Command Shiraz is unbelievable. And we're going to talk and taste that as well as some other wines.

I'll introduce you to him in just a minute, but I just want to remind you, I have a lot of upcoming events. This month, it's February now and that darn groundhog says we've got six more weeks of winter. I don't care what he says. We can sip wine till it becomes spring. And I have a number of events on the 12th of February, Art Uncorked in Ocean City, Maryland, a great night of Italian wine, food and artwork. It's just the

perfect way to celebrate Galentine's, Valentine's or whatever you like. And then ladies on the 26th of February, I have an event called Sip and Style, where we're gonna have some of the fashion previews of what's coming for spring with Beth Hashen of Levany and Witt Boutique. And I'm gonna pair those with great wine pairings for a night of fun with your BFF, your mom, your sister.

Whomever and then newly added my wine comedy show in Bridgeville, Delaware on Friday, February 27th We can sip our way till March go to the wine coach comm slash events You can see all the information on the events and now it's time to talk Australian wine

Elderton wines was born from a remarkable promise. If you buy the house, I'll give you the surrounding vineyard for free. Could you imagine? Lorraine and Neil Ashmead took the leap, restoring the homestead and the phenomenal vineyard, releasing their first Elderton wine in 1982. Today, their second generation winemaker, Alastair, his friends call him Al, oversees marketing and production alongside his brother Cameron, and they both work with their wives, Rebecca and Jules.

Returning to the family business, Al did in 2000 after an international vintage stint and time in the wine wholesale trade. He's a Baron of the Barossa inducted and a Wine Australia Future Leaders graduate. He's driven by deep passion for family, the Barossa Valley and great wine. So let's go ahead and bring him into the show.

Laurie Forster (02:49)
Welcome to The Sipping Point.

Allister Ashmead (02:50)
Thank you for having me. I'm excited.

Laurie Forster (02:53)
Me too. mean, you're, I guess I would say halfway around the world in there from South Australia. And years ago, 25 years ago, I visited your winery just around this time because I had to be in place in Sydney for Australia Day. It's like your 4th of July.

Allister Ashmead (03:09)
Absolutely, it's always a great day. The sun's shining in our pilot world right now. And it's all about barbecues and friends and sunshine basically.

Laurie Forster (03:15)
jealous.

that sounds really good. But I love the rich history you have there at Elderton Wines. And actually the vineyards, some of the vineyards that you use have been planted back in the 1800s. And so tell me a little bit about how did your family come to get involved with the vineyards and make it what it is today?

Allister Ashmead (03:41)
Yeah, it's a pretty remarkable story. And the short answer is it completely happened by accident. So if our family have been making wine here in the Barossa for about 46 years, something like that.

But 50 years ago, my parents weren't wine makers. My parents weren't grape growers. My parents weren't even South Australians. My father was a civil engineer and worked for Caterpillar and my mom was a midwife. we lived in Gippsland, Victoria, so about 600 miles east of where we call home today. My mom and dad wanted to get ahead.

Dad took an opportunity to work abroad and we moved as a family to one of the world's other great winemaking centers, a country called Saudi Arabia, maybe albeit many millennia before we were there. And that was the beginning of winemaking for mum and dad because that's the only way they could get a drink in a country where alcohol is completely banned.

Laurie Forster (04:24)
He

Allister Ashmead (04:33)
⁓ After a year and a half, mum turned to dad and said, we're going home. She didn't really like the condition. She lived in and we had an opportunity to choose between Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide and through my grandfather who had great mates.

Laurie Forster (04:33)
Wow.

Allister Ashmead (04:47)
at a winery called Yolumba, which is Australia's oldest family winery. They found and fell in love with this amazing house that has a lawn tennis court, a 22 metre long swimming pool, lots of bedrooms and bathrooms, and we've actually converted it to be our tasting room today. And these were tough times in the Barossa at that stage. The Barossa was in the mid 1970s through to the mid 1980s. They were exceedingly tough times where the Barossa

had to rapidly transition away from making mostly fortified wines. the transition, it all happened internationally faster than it did in the Barossa because people had so much fortified wine in bottle and tanks. And that's whatever I'm sort of expected the Barossa to be. So cutting a long story short, the vineyard had been abandoned by the Tully family who were the second family to own this vineyard.

Laurie Forster (05:24)
Mm-hmm.

Allister Ashmead (05:35)
been picked or pruned or shown any love. The house wasn't lived in for three years. The real estate agent looked at us and said, you're the first people to show any interest. And he said, basically, if you buy the house, I'll give you the surrounding 72 acres of somewhat derelict old vines for absolutely nothing. And again, we're coming up to about 50 years since that conversation has come. And whilst the wine industry is again in a bit of strife,

We firmly believe that if we were for sale and we're not, you'd probably get the house for free if you bought the vineyard today. So it's a pretty amazing story.

Laurie Forster (06:07)
What a happy accident to get all those vineyards for the price of the house, for sure. And so we're talking back in the almost mid 80s, correct, when you started.

Allister Ashmead (06:19)
Yeah,

so, so mum and dad negotiated to buy the property in between 1979 and 1980. They thought using us kids as cheap labor to bring the vineyards back to its original glory that they could then sell the grapes to the wealthy.

winemakers of the Barossa and after knocking on doors of all the winemakers to sell those grapes, they quickly discovered that there were no wealthy winemakers in the Barossa. so mum and dad were very entrepreneurial and thought, how hard can this winemaking caper be? And again, it's 47 or 48 years down the track and it's still pretty difficult, but we love it and we live it. And it is hopefully soon to be a third generation wine company as well.

Laurie Forster (07:04)
Love that. And to me, you're one of the world-class wineries in Australia, certainly in South Australia, which is the majority of the winemaking, although there are other great regions outside of that as well. But tell us a little bit about what are the misconceptions that you think people have about Australian wine? And then we're going to dig into one of the wines you sent for us to try together.

I have some ideas and I talked with Mark Davidson from Wine Australia last year and we discussed a few, but let me know what you think are some of the misconceptions.

Allister Ashmead (07:40)
I mean, I'd say that Australia is a category, and as a wine producing country, is probably one of the hardest to get your mind around.

There are 83 Appalachians in this country. And I think most Americans don't understand that Australia effectively is the same size as continental USA. Only we've got a lot of land in the middle where nothing grows and there is no water. ⁓

Laurie Forster (08:04)
Mm-hmm.

Allister Ashmead (08:06)
And there is climatically such a difference between East and West and altitude and whatnot. And I think as a rule, think Australia probably historically.

made technically good cheap wines that were great for the marketplace and that's what we've sort of been pigeonholed in in the United States as doing and I probably shouldn't say this but brands like Yellowtail and 19 Crimes don't do any justice to the real Australian.

wine sector. There's about two and a half, three thousand wineries in this country, all doing different things, doing exciting things. And it's just, it's really hard for a wine lover to get their head around.

what Australia is really about. I mean, I guess the Barossa and where we come from is lucky because we've done a lot of work over 20, 30 years to get people to know what the Barossa is about, but there's certainly still a lot of work to do in the United States.

Laurie Forster (09:02)
Absolutely. And I think one of the things in my mind is that we are going to taste a Shiraz or as you say over there Shiraz, I think is the way I heard it pronounced more in Australia, but it's not just that. That's not the only red made. And what I was really excited about one of the wines you sent me was your 2022 estate Cabernet Sauvignon, which probably if you look at, you know, red grapes in the U.S., the two

most popular are probably going to be Pinot Noir and Cabernet. And I know you're getting yours ready over there. So cab is a red yes, thank you. And I have have mine right back here as well. That people love they know the grape, they're comfortable with it. But they may not always think of Australia for Cabernet. And so you know, in the wine business, we talk a lot about how

Wine expresses itself differently depending on where it's grown. And so tell me a little bit about what you think Barossa Cabernet reflects and tends to bring to the table versus maybe a Napa Cab if you drink those.

Allister Ashmead (10:11)
Yep,

I love Napa Cabernet. Obviously you don't get a whole lot of exposure to them here in Australia, but I worked in Napa in the late 90s and absolutely loved it. Changed my perspective on wine massively and I look up to a lot of the things that the producers in Napa do.

Most people who probably listening to this podcast will be completely surprised to hear this, but the world's oldest surviving Cabernet vineyard is about 10 miles away from me right now. It's a vineyard owned by Penfolds. It was planted in 1886, I believe. And that is just absolutely remarkable. And not only do we own the oldest as a region, the oldest Cabernet, but we've got the oldest Shiraz and Grenache and Mourvedre

semi on plantings of anywhere in the world. So we're certainly not a newcomer to this game as a region, but Borossa Cabernet.

Laurie Forster (10:54)
Yes.

Allister Ashmead (10:57)
In a comparison to Napa is typically a lot more genteel. It doesn't have that big sort of punch in the mouth character that Napa, big Napa cabs can often have. I sort of think sometimes it behaves a little bit more Cabernet Francish in taste in comparison to Napa Cabernet, just because it's bright. It's not all black fruits.

and you start to see that Cabernet character on the back of the pallet when the tannins start to just roll through basically. ⁓

Laurie Forster (11:19)
Yeah.

Yeah, and the fruit

is so bright, like you said, and really pure. I mean, you do get that hit of some cedar-y kind of note on the nose, but I feel like on the palate, the fruit is really lovely. And you get enough tannin to make it interesting with food, but like you said, it's not smacking me in the face like, God, I need a bite of steak or else I'm not gonna make it.

Allister Ashmead (11:41)
Yep.

Laurie Forster (11:48)
So this is really lovely. And I know that when I was over there, I was so impressed by those older gnarly vines as we walked through some of the vineyards and our visits and people telling us, you know, they had vines over hundreds of years old, which doesn't happen in a lot of places because of some diseases that like phylloxera that happened around the world. And I don't think people realize that. So I'm glad that you brought that up.

Allister Ashmead (12:15)
Yeah, no. And the Barossa has an immense amount of 100 plus year old vineyards. So our oldest vineyard is our Comanche Arles vineyard planted in 1894. As a company, we own three vineyards now. All of them have significant amounts of old vines. And if you look at Elderton as a business, we're still very small. We're less than 1 % of the vineyard area of the Barossa.

But if you look at old vines, specifically over 120 years old, we own about 8 % of the Barossas super old vine fruit, which is just a great resource to use in these wines. And we have Cabernet vineyards as well, talking of Cabernet, that are in their early 80s, which again, they don't produce a lot of fruit, but what they produce is pretty spectacular. And I think,

Laurie Forster (12:53)
Absolutely.

It really is.

Allister Ashmead (13:06)
I've been to America a lot in my life. love the country. I've worked there, I've holidayed there, I've sold wine there. I've been to about 40 states.

showcasing these estate wines that we're looking at today on this podcast. I think they provide so much value for money. And I was in a steakhouse in Denver once, really good one. The Somm was just absolutely blown away by the Cabernet and the Charazenis. He looked at me and he went, winemakers in Napa wish they could make wine as good as this this price. And I actually, I was being a little bit cheeky. I turned and looked at him and I said, I think he couldn't be more wrong. And he said, what do you mean? And I said,

Laurie Forster (13:34)
Right?

Allister Ashmead (13:41)
Well, I probably wish I was getting the prices that they were getting for these wines, but the Barossas are much simpler, slower. The vineyards aren't as expensive as Napa to buy. We just love this community and making wine here basically.

Laurie Forster (13:56)
Yeah, and I did look this up. This would retail in the US around $33 to $35 depending, which for a Cabernet of this quality, I agree with you. Definitely there are people spending far more for brands that maybe don't deliver what you have here. And I do like the fact that it tastes a little lighter than other regions and other versions of Cabernet.

because I think that really fits the modern palette at the way a lot of people are drinking these days. And so I appreciate that very much. Now, I know it's a family business, obviously started by your parents, but now you and your brother and your wives are all part of this. So how does the business break down as far as responsibilities and just high level? And then what's it like to work with family? I mean, do you guys get along all the time or?

Allister Ashmead (14:25)
Hmm.

Laurie Forster (14:49)
Is there a healthy back and forth?

Allister Ashmead (14:49)
Yeah, it's very good. Two very good questions.

We have an amazing team and it's not just the Ashmead family. We have some amazing winemakers and viticulturalists and team in the cellar door that obviously complement everything that the Ashmeads want to do. But yes, it's very much a family concern. So my brother and I are both co-managing directors of the business. I look up.

and marketing. My brother looks after more general management and finance. Cam's wife, Jules, is a superstar. She's also fifth generation Campbell's of Rutherglen where they make some of the world's greatest fortifieds as well as some pretty tasty table wines and she and her sister own that but she lives here in the Barossa and is our head of production so she is head winemaker and also overseas.

viticulture and then my wife who's actually worked longer at Elderton than what I have and I always tell the story that my mum hired my wife but not to be my wife but that's another story for another day.

is

very good at dotting I's and crossing T's and she looks after all the logistics of packaging and export and she's probably the person that just looks after everyone in the company as well. He's a good motherly figure. ⁓ As to always getting a look... Yes, there's six kids in the next generation.

Laurie Forster (16:05)
That's great. And you mentioned another generation.

Allister Ashmead (16:12)
It's scary because everything I read says that in family businesses, the first generation creates it, the second builds it, and the third destroys it, which means Beck and Jules and Cam and I are working for these kids to have all the fun.

But no, there's some very talented kids in the next generation. They're a long way off from really coming back. Two of them are in university and four of them are still in high school. So there's a lot of things they need to do before we want them back or would have them back. Family businesses are sometimes tricky, but my brother and I have worked together for about 24 years.

Laurie Forster (16:41)
Yeah.

Allister Ashmead (16:49)
We've had an immense amount of success, which makes it easier to get along. But we have a pretty good board structure that also keeps us both in check and ensures that any grievances are dealt with early, And yeah, I couldn't be happier in this business.

Laurie Forster (16:53)
Nice.

I love it. And I know a big focus, certainly here in the States, winemaking, but all over the world is, you know, this idea of moving towards, you know, organic sustainability, biodynamic, there's so many different terms, but the idea is to make, you know, it a healthier way of dealing with the soil and farming so that the end product is healthier for us to consume. what

What's your take on that? Because there's a lot of different ways you can go and how does that take form at Elderton?

Allister Ashmead (17:35)
We're very committed to handing this, our vineyards and this business in a very healthy manner down to the next generation and if you want to do that you just simply have to look after the place. So the main check of approval here in Australia is called Sustainable Wine-Growing Australia and we have the tick of approval for both or for all of our vineyards and also our winery.

We've run certainly the original homestead block organically for quite a lot of time. We don't think we need certification, but yeah, there's been no glyphosate used on this property for three or four or five years or something like that. Yeah, we're trying.

Laurie Forster (18:09)
Nice.

Allister Ashmead (18:12)
to ensure that the vineyards are in great condition and the business likewise is great condition for the next generation to build upon again.

Laurie Forster (18:20)
That's great. I know the other wine you sent me is your Command Shiraz. this, yeah, this is the legendary wine for sure that I don't know if this put you on the map, but it certainly keeps you on the map. But I was, and I know you all are the pioneers of using screw caps, you know, even for the big guns. So I, but I was a little surprised with this one that it was under,

Allister Ashmead (18:26)
we've got the big one.

Laurie Forster (18:47)
screw cap as well because this is certainly very, very age worthy in my mind for a while. Tell me about that, the whole idea of using screw caps, even for something you might age for 20 years, because sometimes people see the screw cap and they just assume, that's just an everyday fun wine, which this could be fun for every day if you can afford it.

Allister Ashmead (19:09)
Exactly.

But

funnily enough, this is one thing that my brother and I argue about. I much prefer screw caps. He likes the idea of corks better. And what people don't understand is we Australians are technically really remarkable winemakers. We as a country make about three or 4 % of the world's wine. We release about 25 % of the world's scientific papers on wine. So technically speaking, we know when something's not right.

And we...

mean, we've got a wine industry that's almost 200 years old, but when you look at the relationships that the Europeans and even the Americans have with the cork producers in Portugal, Australia have always been given the worst corks. And it's just, it's really not acceptable as a concept to be paying twice or three times as much and getting a cork that's half as good. And so it was an easy decision to move to screw caps from a quality perspective.

Laurie Forster (19:58)
Mm.

Allister Ashmead (20:03)
But I think it has damaged Australia's reputation in fine wine. these wines still do age. So we've been doing command in screw caps since 2001 and doing bits and pieces of both cork and screw cap across multiple vintages. We look at these wines all the time.

Laurie Forster (20:16)
Mm-hmm.

Allister Ashmead (20:17)
I mean the easiest way to tell which one's which in a blind tasting is if the cork has failed. But generally speaking I always talk to people about...

Wine ages in a reductive atmosphere. oxidization, the concept of the cork allowing oxygen through and corks will do it all at their own different rate does not mean it's the right type of maturation either. So I am standing up trying to do the good thing to promote why we do this and

And as I said, these vines will age beautifully and screw cap may be a little bit slower. And that's not a bad thing either.

Laurie Forster (20:49)
That's not

a bad thing. Yeah, I love that. And if you do invest in one of these and want to put it away for a period of time and then drink it later with a screw cap, is there anything you do differently when you open it up after it's been laying down for 10 years, 15 years? Same, same deal.

Allister Ashmead (21:08)
And that's the other thing, you don't even have to lie down. Yeah, no. From a winemaking perspective, you need to treat what goes into the bottle a little bit differently from using corks and screw caps, but from a drinker's perspective.

Laurie Forster (21:12)
Yeah, that's true. That's true. You're right. Yep.

Allister Ashmead (21:25)
it's the same as what it was for cork. The other reason I like screw caps is having traveled the world continuously for the last 26 years, I'm sick of giving my cork screws to airport security guards.

Laurie Forster (21:35)
You

Me too. Thank you. I finally

found one that has a foil cutter on it versus a knife and that I can get on the plane. But I still have lost many, many, because if I'm traveling domestically just by car, I forget that they're all over my bags. So love that. All right. So we invoked the name of the command, Shiraz. So we should probably taste and talk about it. And tell me a little bit. know, you

This is a special vineyard, single vineyard. Tell me a little bit about where this falls in your lineup of wines and how you see people enjoying this.

Allister Ashmead (22:11)
Yeah,

yeah. This is absolutely the peak for us. So this is from a 132 year old.

that again was basically derelict when mum and dad found it. This was the wine that put Elderton on the map. This was one of the wines that put Australia on the map, certainly in the US through the late 90s and 2000s, especially when Robert Parker first discovered it.

1992 vintage and wrote it up as one of the top 80 wines of the world. He said he'd never visit Australia because there wasn't enough good wine here, but this was one of the wines that convinced him to come and check out what's happening down here basically. These wines are amazing. They've had...

three different family ownership, six different generations. When you consider how much the world has changed in 130 years, it's pretty remarkable that one, not only are they still alive, but secondly, they're thriving and across all our vineyards and all the blocks on those vineyards. This is one of the easiest blocks to farm just simply because it's effectively dry grown. It's probably been watered three or four times in the last 10 or 15 years. It has roots

that goes so far down to the earth, it naturally controls its own yield basically and ensures that whilst the yields aren't high, the quality is always great.

Yeah, it's a delicious Shiraz. And again, it's not that blow your head off concept. mean, alcohols are always in the broth relatively high. That's sort of 14 and half or thereabouts. But a wine that's still got great fruit, beautiful oak, and nice, again, soft tannins and wine that...

Again, I think what started the Australian boom in the late 90s, early 2000s, that first boom was just how approachable these wines are upon release, which makes people think, they should take them home and drink them. And I have no problem if that's what people want to do. ⁓ But also, I think people miss great opportunities to put these things in their cellars and have a look at them at five, 10, 15, 20 years down the track, basically, because they'd certainly have them.

Laurie Forster (24:11)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

This is the 2018 vintage before, before the world went crazy vintage. And, there you go. Perfect. you planned it that way, right? And what I love is exactly what you're saying. The fruit, the tannin, all of it comes together and the acidity that's there as well. Everything comes together.

Allister Ashmead (24:28)
Yep. I think that's the Maitreya.

Laurie Forster (24:45)
really well balanced and it tastes great now for sure. But you can tell with the tannin that's there and the structure of the wine that this could age and be really lovely. And I think that's a great way for anybody to learn about how a wine evolves is, and I've done this before with another one of my favorite houses, the Rockford. ⁓ Are they still going strong?

Allister Ashmead (25:05)
Yep, nice.

They will go strong forever. They're a remarkable little wine company.

Laurie Forster (25:10)
Yeah, their basket press Shiraz

used to be one of my faves. Yeah. But I bought a case at one point and then we would taste one every year and just notice the difference. And it's amazing because it is very personal. Like some people love the boldness of the very youngness, but then there becomes like a sweet spot where you're like, this is the perfect year to drink this.

Allister Ashmead (25:15)
I don't think it goes into the States anymore though, which is a shame.

Laurie Forster (25:37)
and it gets softer over time. And then sometimes people like it, you know, even softer. So it's a fun way to really experience a wine and see how they age over time. And sorry to hear they're not coming into the U.S., but I'm glad you guys are, because both these wines are delicious. This I looked up would retail somewhere between 90 and 100, depending on where you get it and find it, U.S. dollars for sure.

And all of these are brought in through Broadbent selections. So you have pretty nice distribution across the US. Yeah, for sure. So I'm so excited that we got to talk about that. All right, we tasted the two wines you sent me, but I love to ask people, if you're not drinking your own wine, what can I find you drinking?

Allister Ashmead (26:11)
available.

that's a really hard question. I still consider myself as a student and a lover of wine before sort of a wine industry person. I think the only one of the great reasons of getting into wine industry is getting cheaper access to buying great wines sometimes. But I

Follow my beautiful wife who loves champagne. So we drink a little bit of champagne. We're huge lovers of Riesling as a category. And in white wine, also a lot of Chardonnay. And I think Australia is making for the price, just...

Laurie Forster (26:47)
Yes.

Allister Ashmead (26:56)
hands down, remarkable Chardonnays right across this continent basically and something for people to really try and take note of and look at. In my cellar it's about half Australian, it's about half from around the rest of the world. Obviously love the Rhone ⁓

Did a great trip to Spain a few years ago and fell in love with lot of the temperanillos and certainly some old vines and things and that sort of concept. But you name it, it's probably in my cellar.

I think like if there's probably the question I dislike the most is what's your favorite wine? Because that's not what wine's about. The great thing about wine is you can drink.

Laurie Forster (27:30)
Yes, I know not to ask that because it's

too hard to answer. Yeah, it's like, what's your favorite child? Yeah, I love that. And for sure, I'm a huge Rhone fan as well. think that region is undervalued as well. If you look across French wines, there's so much great wine coming out of that region. And I don't know if you have gotten into any of the wines from Jumea down in the southern.

Allister Ashmead (27:36)
Yeah.

Laurie Forster (27:57)
eastern part of Spain, but Monastrell or Morvedra is the grape. And those, some of those are great values right now. If you're looking for some other fun stuff.

Allister Ashmead (28:01)
Yeah.

Yep.

totally. mean, how

the Spanish can make those wines at some of those prices is unbelievable. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (28:12)
It really is.

my gosh, Al, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much for sharing the history of Elderton with all of us. And of course, these two delicious wines. And you've succeeded in one thing with me for sure that I want to come back to Australia and tour again. one quick question. Is it still free to do a tasting?

Allister Ashmead (28:33)
It is not free anymore, but if you know someone there's a good chance it will be.

Laurie Forster (28:36)
Okay.

There you go. know we were shocked when we went over, but that was 2001 that people didn't charge just because, you know, in California, it's been charged for a long time.

Allister Ashmead (28:45)
It's.

Yeah, no, it's minimal in most places around Australia.

Laurie Forster (28:53)
Yeah, that's fun. Well, thank you so much. appreciate you sharing these wines with me. And I know my listeners are going to love hearing about them. And I just say thank you so much for joining me for breakfast tasting.

Allister Ashmead (28:59)
Thank you, Laurie.

No, it's an absolute pleasure. I love talking about the wines and if anyone is getting a hunger to come to visit Australia, look us up. So thank you.

Laurie Forster (29:12)
Love it. Cheers.

Laurie Forster (29:14)
I'm gonna post a link to the Elderton wines website and the two wines we tasted, the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Command Shiraz, which is a truly, truly special wine. They're both delicious, but the Command Shiraz is one for a special occasion. So definitely check those out and maybe rethink the way you look at Australian wine. All right, don't forget about the great events coming up this month. Just go to thewinecoach.com slash events.

Get all the details. am hoping to sip with you somewhere, anywhere we can get through this month of February and work our way towards spring.

Laurie Forster (29:50)
As always, I'm so thankful for you tuning in. If you do enjoy this show, please pass it along to another wine lover that you know. And until next week, cheers.