Seriously...people want my job. 

People want my job

Seriously...People want my job. It’s not something I ever readily want to give up...not without a fight!  Drinking for a living really should be considered an art form.  A fine line of liver training and toppling over the edge into the abyss of a being classed a drunkard. Wine tasting is an affair shared, when you drink alone, that's the eyebrow raising problem.

Sharing the passion is the key, you can tell a story about a great time you had over a bottle (or a few) of chilled reds in the summer heat and skinny dipping with a few platypus, then getting a job offer..or sitting on the streets of Kings Cross eating slabs of well deserved pizza, with great mates sharing a laugh over a bottle of wine...Y'know?? Running into the Leeuwin Estate winemaker & his family whilst on holiday and sharing his private holiday stash...

I can share an experience with anyone and make them fall in love with chardonnay all over again. Passion makes this happen, not necessarily what you do or don't know.

I just don’t get that people do jobs that they don’t love…yes, some just don’t fit in but you have to find your ‘groove’ and make it your own.  It’s the perpetual excitement of seeing budburst in the vineyard, the buzz of vintage and long 18hr days, the feeling of success watching it bloom into the next cellar door highlight…year after year. The ultimate heartbreak of rain, hail or frost or losing the entire crop to birds or disease that my dear reader is what you call ‘farming’.

You do have to have the gift of the gab to do this, no wall flower can do this sort of job or you might as well drink in the corner facing the wall…and have a better conversation, ultimately you must be able to hold your own when it comes to what you believe you smell and taste. Don’t conform when it comes to wine.

Once…at a massive Australian wine event (which lasted a week), that held over 6000 wines for tasting….I participated in a Pinot Noir Master class with James Halliday…and a few other wine gods…winemakers and fellow industry peers….needless to say, I just didn’t agree with James..Or the winemaker in the judgment of a 20yr old Tasmanian Pinot…well…..the eyes peering over the glasses to focus on just who in their right mind said such a thing was horrendous.  The air in the room went ridged & thick as everyone held their breath to what would come out of Mr Halliday’s much learned vocabulary…just because I wore a Qld wine industry shirt doesn’t mean I don’t know about cool climate wines…after all, I am born and bred Taswegian, and was brought up on the sweet success of Pinot noir before it got all trendy. 

Sitting at the front of the room, right in front of the panel was quite…um…interesting. Let me say I did get just a little sweaty.  All done and dusted in retrospect I might have said it differently…but none the less the same content. The moral of the story is to ‘hold your own in times of great debate’.

Ahh I was so young then….but outrageously passionate…still…

However now I’m about half way pregnant with my second child…let me say it’s a bad look for professional wine tasters to be consuming alcohol while resting a wine glass on your stomach. I had to give out on a fantastic industry job recently, and living in between great wine growing regions is not helping the craving, but all will come good in good time. 

Boundaries are crossed, broken and healed with a glass of wine, enjoy with good company and remember that a glass gives clarity, a bottle gives a headache.

Cheers