Former wine columnist for The Sunday Examiner,
Mark Smith, joined our team just before Easter. Mark has been a long-term supporter of the Tasmanian industry,
and began writing with The Advocate in 1994. Some
1500-published articles later, he’s now on board as our marketing and sales wiz. It’s a sign of the times. With four times as many wine companies in Australia as there were in 1990, it’s a crowded market out there!

Vintage once again brought us the pleasure of working alongside some young, up-and-coming winemakers.
Two travelled from the other side of the world. Elsa Tichauer and Louis Wicke have been putting French theory into Aussie practice after studying oenology at university level in France.

Louis hails from the Champagne capital of Reims. He worked at Louis Roederer in 2007. He says making bottle-fermented wine is difficult technologically, “but it is good see a Tasmanian vineyard producing very good quality products from its own vines. Roederer relies on using more than 100 base wines from many different vineyards.”

Chris Coffey, alias Booze_Boy on Twitter but better known as the 2008 SA Wine Press Club Wine Media Cadet, also joined us for an eight-week stint. Remember the name. You’ll hear more of Chris in the future.

You don’t get to judge at London’s International Wine Challenge or write for Wine Business Magazine without knowing a thing or two about wine.

For all of us at Stefano Lubiana Wines, vintage is such a refreshing experience. Our visiting winemakers always get very excited about the quality of wines now being produced in Tasmania.