Aylward and Ashton say Australia has 10 great wineries-"beacons in a bleak landscape". They wanted to write "Twelve Apostles", but only ten came up to standard. Oblivious to the "wine glut", these ten battle to keep pace with demand. Each wine tells a story, creates memorable connections between producer and consumers. Worldwide, they're ranked with the best. There are big names missing from this book, but the plain-speaking authors aren't looking for industry friends. Innovative techniques last century gave Australia the headstart in mass-producing good wines. The world caught up, Australia's lustre evaporated, and wineries face painful restructuring or extinction. Not the apostles. This book reveals how they ignored the celebrity winemakers; carried on family traditions and resisted the laboratory approach; listened to the TERROIR of their vineyards, seeing themselves as custodians of the grape, not manipulators.
Aylward and Ashton say Australia has 10 great wineries-"beacons in a bleak landscape". They wanted to write "Twelve Apostles", but only ten came up to standard. Oblivious to the "wine glut", these ten battle to keep pace with demand. Each wine tells a story, creates memorable connections between producer and consumers. Worldwide, they're ranked with the best. There are big names missing from this book, but the plain-speaking authors aren't looking for industry friends. Innovative techniques last century gave Australia the headstart in mass-producing good wines. The world caught up, Australia's lustre evaporated, and wineries face painful restructuring or extinction. Not the apostles. This book reveals how they ignored the celebrity winemakers; carried on family traditions and resisted the laboratory approach; listened to the TERROIR of their vineyards, seeing themselves as custodians of the grape, not manipulators.
Like a fine wine, this book has been the work of years. DAVID AYLWARD and PAUL ASHTON, taking time with the people involved (and appreciating wines), drew out the secrets and unique insights of those who have most to offer makers and lovers of Australian wine. The authors are historians, who deliberately turned their backs on the outmoded 80s and 90s thinking of typical wine books, and on dusty academic libraries. They tracked the wine industry from convict times, tracing its rise, and decline and rise, and decline, to present readers and drinkers with the principles that ensure the best wineries are immune to those vicissitudes. DR DAVID AYLWARD is a wine specialist at UTS with 17 years' experience studying wines and the wine industry, and the author of many specialist industry and academic publications. PROF PAUL ASHTON, former Director of the Australian Centre for Public History, is one of Australia's most experienced historians, well known as author of successfully books for the general public, schools and academics.
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