Tasmanian Showcase USA

After a week of intensive conversations and visits with more than 160 sommeliers, wine buyers and media in San Francisco and New York, I am more optimistic than ever about the opportunities for Australian wine in one of the world’s most important markets. The US is currently at a crucial juncture at which the reputation […]

Tasmanian Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sparkling Showcase USA 2018

I am flying to the US in early October 2018 and it’s my great pleasure to invite sommeliers, wine buyers and media to join me for very special, intimate trade tastings in San Francisco and New York City. Tasmanian wines have become a specialty of mine as an Australian wine communicator, and in recent years […]

Why is champagne so cheap?

Did you know that Champagne pays its growers the highest grape price in the world, an average €6.20 per kilogram, more than 60% up on 15 years ago? It takes 1.2 kilograms of grapes to make a bottle of champagne, not to mention a production process more complex, more labour-intensive and more time-consuming than any […]

Tyson Stelzer’s Top 10 Sparklings under $25

Readers of my Australian Sparkling Report 2018 will appreciate that it’s at the affordable end of the market that it pays to be most discerning in your sparkling choices. Sparkling wines are among the most complex, labour-intensive, time-consuming and hence expensive of all wine styles to produce, and it takes an outfit of considerable expertise to […]

Cork strikes back

I am alarmed and dismayed to report that the positive trend that I observed last year in the effects of natural corks proved to be short lived, and my tastings for my Australian Sparkling Report this year have seen a stark and dramatic return to abominable levels of detrimental influence of corks on wine bottles. […]