Amanda Barnes, Author at Circle of Wine Writers

Ken Gargett’s top wine picks from Down Under

Posted on October 7, 2020October 9, 2020 by Ken Gargett

In our Australia special this month, Ken Gargett shares what he's been drinking recently and couple of recommendations on new releases to try. As with the rest of the world, the pandemic has meant many changes in the way critics Down Under are evaluating wines. Interstate visits to wineries and regions for tastings and new releases have been almost non-existent. Zoom meetings for local and offsho...

How Pouilly-Fuissé finally got Premier Cru recognition

Posted on October 7, 2020 by L.M. Archer

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James Halliday’s overview of Australian wine moments in the last 30 years

Posted on October 6, 2020October 6, 2020 by James Halliday

Australia’s eminent wine critic James Halliday is featured in our Meet the Member interview, and he also shares with us his greatest moments and milestones in Australian wine. In the last 50 years there have been monumental changes in styles, varieties and regions of Australia. Over this timeframe, there has been no consistency per se. A rough chronology of change goes thus: 1955 The ferm...

Meet the Member: James Halliday

Posted on October 6, 2020October 9, 2020 by James Halliday

James Halliday needs no introduction to anyone in the wine industry, as one of the world's most renowned wine critics, who has been at the forefront of Australian wine communication for over 30 years. Amanda Barnes interviews him on his career in wine and why, after writing over 150,000 wine tasting notes and 70 books, he is now focusing on a new business, Junovate, and looking at how AI can push ...

The wonderful old Grenache vines of Oz

Posted on October 6, 2020October 9, 2020 by Liz Sagues

Liz Sagues gets in a wonderful webinar with Yalumba, as she is catapulted off virtually, with wine in her glass, to the Barossa Valley. This is a much-expanded development of an article that originally appeared in the Ham & High series of newspapers in north and northwest London. This article was inspired by one of the many fascinating webinars that have so much increased wine communicators' ...

Meet the Friend: Emma Baumann

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Amanda Barnes

Emma Baumann is the PR and Communications Manager at Wine Australia, where she looks after communications, keeps stakeholders informed about Wine Australia and their activities, and finds ways to promote Australian wine and share producers’ stories. Amanda Barnes interviews her to get to know a bit more about why she enjoys working with the Australian wine industry, how she got her first wine brea...

New member: Michelle Williams

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Amanda Barnes

Michelle Williams is an award-winning freelance wine, food, and travel writer. Her work appears in numerous digital and print publications, including Forbes, Wine-Searcher, Wine Enthusiast, Snooth, USA Today, and more. She passionately explores the globe through the lens of a wine glass—preferably full—celebrating the communal experience of wine and food and illuminating the stories beyond the bot...

Finding a way through phylloxera

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams discovers how Yarra Valley growers are actually embracing the challenge posed by the dreaded vine root-devouring louse as an opportunity to prepare for another epic cultivation challenge – climate change, as well as using other innovative methods to temper the tiny aphid’s terrible threat. “Phylloxera is having a significant impact in the Yarra Valley,” laments Sandra de Pury o...

A whirlwind tour of Chile’s varying valleys and trailblazing tendencies

Posted on September 9, 2020September 9, 2020 by Amanda Barnes

Meet the Member: Sarah Jane Evans

Posted on September 7, 2020September 9, 2020 by Amanda Barnes

Sarah Jane Evans wine writer, Circle of Wine Writers interview

Sarah Jane Evans MW is an award-winning wine writer, critic and editor who is renowned for her astute tasting ability and thirst for knowledge. Amanda Barnes interviews her to find out more about her journey into wine, and specifically why she likes to champion the still and fortified wines of Spain, as well as discovering why white chocolate and White Zinfandel might not be as bad a pairing as it...