How to Drink Australian: An Essential Modern Wine Book

The landscape of Australian wine is cracking with new energy and historic traditions that make it one of the most exciting wine-producing countries in the world right now. But the scholarship on Australian wine hasn’t always matched the output.

How to Drink Australian corrects that. It takes readers on a journey around the country, state by state, region by region. Each state has an introduction. And the most significant regions have their own separate chapters within each state.

And within that the authors consider:

• The evolution of wine in that region
• The lay of the land
• Wine styles
• The inside scoop, pressing concerns and current events in the region
• Key producer profiles - both up and comers and industry stalwarts.

Each regional chapter is accompanied by its own detailed map created by renowned cartographer Martin von Wyss. The maps locate important vineyards and producers as well as showcasing what makes the region tick.

A glossary and directory of the most important producers, including icons that further explain their significance to their region, is also included.

Jane Lopes is a sommelier, author, and importer, having worked at New York’s Eleven Madison Park, Nashville’s The Catbird Seat, Chicago’s The Violet Hour, and most recently as the wine director at Melbourne’s Attica, before passing the prestigious master sommelier exam in 2018. Lopes published her first book, Vignette: Stories of Life and Wine in 100 Bottles, in 2019. In 2020, Lopes co-founded Legend, an Australian wine imports company, with husband Jonathan Ross, to help bring the great wines they’d experienced in Australia to the US. She is now based in Nashville.

Jonathon Ross is a sommelier and wine importer whose career in restaurants has included posts at New York’s Eleven Madison Park, Oceana and Anthos, and as the beverage director for Australia’s Rockpool Dining Group. Ross passed the prestigious master sommelier exam in 2017, has curated wine offerings for Qantas Airlines, and founded the boutique wine label Micro Wines. In 2020, Ross returned to the US, eager to spread the word of the world-class wine he’d worked with in Australia, and co-founded Legend Imports in 2020 with his wife Jane Lopes.

When Mike Bennie isn’t wandering vineyards on the four corners of the globe, he is a widely published Sydney-based wine and drinks writer, journalist and presenter. Mike is one of the most internationally known commentators in this space. He is also a co-founder and partner in the landmark P&V Wine + Liquor Merchants, a shop and education space devoted to artisan fermented, brewed and distilled products, and co-director of the landmark Rootstock Sydney wine and food festival.

After 10 years abroad developing wine programs for some of the world’s most revered resorts and heading up the wine program for Hong Kong’s Press Room Group, Kavita Faiella has returned to Sydney to oversee marketing for Shaw+Smith, Tolpuddle Vineyard, MMAD Vineyard and The Other Wine Co. She is a Len Evans scholar and a graduate of the of the Wine Australia Future Leaders program.

Hannah Day worked front of house at a number of standout Melbourne restaurants including Attica, Cumulus and Rosetta, before opening her own place: the now widely acclaimed neighbourhood eatery Etta. Wine is her passion, she is an excellent communicator, and her list is an always evolving selection of mostly small producers.

Obsessed with the geography of wine, Martin von Wyss is a cartographer and publisher of award-winning maps for National Geographic, academic and trade publishers, and his own vW Maps. Martin’s web-based World Wine Regions atlas reveals the world’s 2500 wine appellations, from Albania to Venezuela, and his Melbourne bottle shop and wine bar, Cardwell Cellars, stocks wines from regions near and far.