It’s hard to imagine life without wine.
Living in South Australia and having “grown up” working in the media, wine was and has always been part of life. And there have been many, many good ones.
While Talking Adelaide is openly un-parochial about wine – with a winemaker in the family (David Lloyd of Eldridge Estate Red Hill) on the Mornington Peninsula and a slight obsession with Champagne, and Chablis, and Burgundy….- there are lots of local wines that are truly wonderful.
Of course there is one wine from South Australia that has an international reputation above all others, Grange, bien sur. Although winemakers around Beaune must live in a bubble because none of the ones we met in May this year had heard of it.
Anyway, the point of this post is to congratulate our dear friend, the brilliant photographer Milton Wordley, whose book A Year in the Life of Grange is up for an international book award. It has won the International Gourmand Wine Books 2013 Award in Australia and now is up for the international category.
As Milton has said: “The story of Grange has fascinated me for years. From a rather rocky start, this South Australian wine has become the most famous Australian wine. People all over Australia, wine lovers or not, know of Grange. Serious wine collectors all over the world collect it. It is a wine of the world.”
Milton spent 18 months documenting the story. The result is a book totally produced in South Australia. Concept and images by Milton; words by Philip White; design by John Nowland, printed by Finsbury Green.
The book was launched on October 18, where else but at Penfold’s Magill Estate. It was a picturesque Adelaide morning – fancy drinking Grange 2004 for morning tea! With smoked oyster pasties and Grange pies by Anne Oliver.
Don’t just believe me how beautiful this book is, here’s what some others think.
James Halliday: “one of the most amazing books to ever appear on the Australian vinous landscape.’’
Huon Hooke: “an extraordinary book.”
Max Allen: “This is the biggie: one for the obsessed wine collector who already has a cellar full of great bottles. Yes, it is a lot of cash to spend on a book, but this exceptionally well-told tale of Australia’s most famous wine is also an incredibly limited, absolutely gorgeous work of art, beautiful to hold, to read, to pore over.”
Here comes the call to action: if you know someone who loves and appreciates wine and a great story, then why not consider A Year in the Life of Grange ? Perhaps as a group present, a mega-Kris Kringle? There are three editions, starting at $785.
You can find out all you need to know here at the book's website.