Australian Winemaking authors

David Bruer has degrees in Chemistry from The University of Adelaide and Flinders University. He taught wine chemistry at Roseworthy Agricultural College for 15 years. He is CEO of Temple Bruer Wines P/L, one of Australia’s largest organic and preservative-free wine producers — a position he has held for over 30 years.

Nick has degrees in Chemical Engineering from The University of Adelaide and in Wine Science from Charles Sturt University. He worked for 12 years as an oenologist and technical services specialist with The Australian Wine Research Institute. He joined Orlando Wine in 2001, and is currently Senior Winemaker and Operations Manager with Pernod Ricard in the Barossa Valley.

Chris is Managing Partner and Senior Winemaker of Pfeiffer Wines, a Rutherglen-based winery. Pfeiffer Wines produces a range of table wines and a full range of fortified wines.

Chris and his wife Robyn founded Pfeiffer Wines in 1984. Pfeiffer Wines commenced with no fortified wine stock and in the following 30 years have built up a sound base of maturing stock that allows the sale of all the wine styles.

Chris worked for Lindemans Wines from 1974 through to 1984 and rose to the position of Group Fortified Winemaker. Chris gained experience in fortified production at Corowa (near Rutherglen), the BarossaValley and Sunraysia district within Victoria.

Chris has been active on the wine show circuit, having judged at many regional and capital city wine shows. Chris has been chairman of the judging panel of the Royal Melbourne Wine Show, the Rutherglen Wine Show, the Riverina Wine Show, the Australian Small Winemakers Wine Show, the Inland Australia Wine Show, the Geographe Wine Show and, most pertinent, the Australian Fortified Wine Show.

Chris has been active in industry matters. Chris was Chairman of the Winemakers of Rutherglen for 20 years, twice served as Chairman of the Victorian Wine Industry Association and was a board member of the Winemakers Federation of Australia.

Chris is on the executive of the Muscat of Rutherglen group, the group that developed the classifications for use with the wood matured fortified wine styles that have been included in the Food Standards for these wines.

Chris served on the Fortified Sustainabilty Project, the group that worked to develop the new names for the wine styles that carried European place names eg Sherry and Tokay.

Chris’ and Robyn’s daughter Jennifer has joined them in the business and shares Chris’ passion for fortified wines.

Chris was awarded an OAM in 2012 for services to the wine industry.

Martin has a B.Sc. from Melbourne University, majoring in the areas of microbiology and biochemistry. He has worked as a research biochemist at Carlton & United Breweries Ltd. He has worked at a number of wineries and has over 30 years of winemaking experience. He now operates an oenology consultancy and laboratory specialising in problem solving. Martin lectures in Wine Microbiology and Biochemistry at La Trobe University.

Alison is a graduate of the University of Adelaide, (B.Sc, and PhD), majoring in the area of microbiology. Alison’s experience in the wine industry includes vintage work and five years in research and applied positions at E & J Gallo Winery in California. Alison is currently employed as the Group Microbiologist at Fosters Group Ltd - Fosters Wine Estates.

Professor Stephen Tyerman (BSc Hons, PhD, FAA) is a leading scientist in the field of plant physiology. He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2003. He has won many awards for his research, including, in 2007, the prestigious Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship. He has researched nutrition, salinity and water relations in plants for some 25 years and published in journals such as Nature, Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2001 Steve was appointed to the Wine Industry Chair of Viticulture at The University of Adelaide. Since then he has led research on vine and berry water relations and vine drought tolerance. He teaches in all levels of viticulture education in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at The University of Adelaide. Climate change impacts and adaptation in viticulture are drivers for his research, and he is currently the programme leader in Water for Primary Industries Research Network within the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.

Dr Tony Proffitt (BSc, MSc, PhD, Post-graduate Dip. in Viticulture) commenced his career in agricultural science during the 1980s. He has worked in the technical, consultancy, extension and educational sectors of the Australian wine industry since 1995. He spent five years with Southcorp Wines (now known as Treasury Wine Estates) and then joined AHA Viticulture, a vineyard management and consultancy company based in the Margaret River region, Western Australia. Tony continues to work as a consultant viticulturist. He is best known for his work using and promoting the Precision Viticulture suite of tools for vineyard management. In 2006 he co-authored the book entitled ‘Precision Viticulture – a new era in vineyard management and wine production’. Tony has a strong interest in education, having been employed as a lecturer in viticulture at Curtin University, Western Australia. He is the author of many scientific papers and industry articles which have been published in a range of peer-reviewed and popular viticultural, agricultural and soil science journals.

John has a degree in Applied Science (Wine Science) from Charles Sturt University. He has over 20 years’ experience in laboratory management. He has gained extensive expertise in quality control practices in both the cellar and laboratory during his time as a Senior Technical Officer at Roseworthy Agricultural College and The University of Adelaide.

Geoff Weaver has been making wine since 1972, firstly with Orlando, then Hardys. He was responsible for white wines at Hardys from 1976 and Chief Winemaker of the Hardy Group from 1987 to 1992. It was always his dream to be an independent winemaker and in 1982 he purchased a property at Lenswood, high in the Adelaide Hills to grow grapes for his Geoff Weaver label. Since leaving the world of the big company Geoff, as well as building his own business, has been involved with a wide range of industry and consulting activities and now largely devotes his time to the vineyard, wines and his landscape painting.

Andrew Birks is a second-generation winemaker who has worked widely in the Australian wine industry over the last 40 years. He is Chief Winemaker at Bidgeebong Wines. He was senior fortified winemaker at Lindemans Wines in the 1970s and has been Charles Sturt University Winemaker, Lecturer in Wine Science and Fortified Wine Production. He has been an active wine show judge and has trained winemakers in France, Portugal and New Zealand.

David Wollan’s winemaking career commenced in 1979 after completing a wine science degree at Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga. He spent 4 years as winemaker at Arrowfield Wines in the Hunter Valley before moving to the Yarra Valley where he established Tarrawarra Vineyard and was chief winemaker for 12 years. In the early 1990s, with Artemis Georgiades, he formed Wine File to develop and commercialise a PC-based winery management system, which was adopted by many wineries around Australia and overseas. In 1994, Wine File was merged with colleague Gary Baldwin’s consulting company to establish the Wine Network Group, a leading consulting and technical services group. After being introduced to the power of reverse osmosis-based processes, David concentrated his efforts on membrane separation technologies. He invented processes for smoke taint removal and alcohol reduction, offered to the world wine industry by Memstar.

Steve Warne received bachelor degrees in Science from Adelaide University and Viticulture and Enology from Roseworthy College. He has over twenty-five years’ winemaking experience in Australia and abroad. During this time he has held senior positions at De Bortoli, Evans & Tate and Casella Wines. His interests include systems for oak and grape flavour manipulation and winery design and management for low cost, low waste and superior wine quality.

Paul is a graduate of the University of Adelaide (B.Sc,and PhD) and Roseworthy Agricultural College (Grad. Dip Wine). Paul has 17 years experience in the wine industry in production, consulting, research and teaching. He has worked at The Australian Wine Research Institute and Charles Sturt University (Lecturer in Wine Microbiology). Paul is currently a Lecturer in Oenology at the University of Adelaide.

Peter has made and tasted wine for over three decades. He holds a Roseworthy Oenology degree and an MBA, and is part owner and manager of the Adelaide Hills’ specialist contract winemaking facility Revenir. He also consults to a range of producers in McLaren Vale, the Adelaide Hills and the Clare Valley. He has held a variety of production positions, notably with Jeffrey Grosset, Nepenthe, domaines Dujac, Alain Graillot and l’Arlot in France, and California’s E&J Gallo. Between winemaking roles, Peter spent five years as Manager of the Technical Services Group at The Australian Wine Research Institute, which included developing and leading the Advanced Wine Assessment Course.

In 2007, largely to silence all those who kept asking when he would do ‘it’, he launched his own wine label: La Linea; in partnership with marketing and distribution guru and mate David LeMire.

Mike graduated from Roseworthy Agricultural College with a degree in Winemaking in 1984.  As part of his degree, he wrote a thesis on mobile bottling and this was the inspiration behind and the genesis of Portavin, Australia’s first mobile bottling operation.

Mike held a number of winemaking positions in McLaren Vale, Mildura, Coonawarra and Margaret River before and while establishing the Portavin business in 1989 in Western Australia.

The company has since grown to operate six static bottling sites across Australia and New Zealand and maintains two mobile lines, making it Australasia's largest independent wine services provider.

Diane Hunt is a dentist and a senior lecturer at the Adelaide Dental School, the Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Adelaide. Her special research interests are the mechanism and prevention of wine erosion damage to teeth and resulting sensitivity, which are common occupational risks for many professional winemakers and tasters. She was invited to lecture to oenology students at The Australian Wine Research Institute on this topic.

Mark Gishen is the principal of Gishen Consulting, a specialist consultancy in wine analysis and process technology based in Adelaide, South Australia. His current portfolio includes a project management contract at the South Australian Wine Industry Association, and a range of private client projects. Previously, he spent more than 14 years at the Australian Wine Research Institute. He has convened workshops on laboratory management at several Australian Wine Industry Technical Conferences and co-authored more than 100 technical papers.

Richard Gibson is the principal of Scorpex Wine Services, specialising in independent oenological consultancy. Prior to establishing Scorpex, Richard held senior roles with Southcorp Wines and gained wide experience in all facets of wine production, stabilisation and packaging.

Graham Fleet is an Emeritus Professor in The Food Science group , School of Chemical Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He has been researching the microbiology and biotechnology of wine production since 1975 and has published many papers and reviews on these topics.

Stephen has a wonderful family heritage of more than 145 years of grapegrowing and winemaking spanning five generations. He completed a Science Degree at Adelaide University, majoring in Biochemistry and Botany, and studied Viticulture and Winemaking at Geisenheim in Germany.  He took over the winemaking at Henschke in 1979 and is proud that the Henschke name and reputation is inexorably linked with high quality red wine in general and his flagship single vineyard Hill of Grace in particular. He is also mindful of his European roots and is a proud supporter of the historical language, food, religion and wine culture of his Silesian forebears still alive in pockets in the Barossa. His accolades include; 2006 Gourmet Traveller WINE Magazine Winemaker of the Year; Advance Australia Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Wine Industry in 1995 and International Red Winemaker of the Year 1994/95.

Nick forsook a 14-year career in biological oceanography with CSIRO to join the wine industry in 1984. He has been a full-time wine journalist writing for national newspapers and magazines, winning the Charles Heidsieck Award for Excellence in Wine Writing in 1985. He was also Wine Manager for Cellarmaster Wines Pty Ltd and for nine years worked in the head office of Southcorp Wines Pty Ltd, primarily to assist the flow of information between wine production and the marketing and sales departments. He has also been a visiting Associate Professor at Charles Sturt University lecturing on sensory evaluation for 13 years.

Nick became the third Master of Wine in Australia, passing the examination at first attempt in 1992.

Nick is currently an independent consultant, providing assistance with winemaking, blending, quality assessment, valuation and marketing, both in Australia and New Zealand. He is frequently engaged as expert witness in disputes and legal cases involving wine quality and technical issues. He writes occasional articles for consumers and a regular column From the tasting bench in WBM, Australia’s Wine Business Magazine. He has judged at most capital city and major regional wine shows in Australia and New Zealand and several others overseas.

He has been a shareholder and Director of Brokenwood Wines Pty Ltd since 1978.

Nick manages his own Hatherleigh vineyard at 910 metres in the chilly Southern Tablelands of NSW where he tries to coax Pinot Noir to ripeness.

Louisa grew up in Melbourne, completing a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in physics at Melbourne University before moving to South Australia and Roseworthy College to study winemaking, graduating as dux in 1992.  While studying she worked a vintage as a cellar hand at Yalumba, Australia’s oldest family owned winery, at Angaston in the Barossa, and returned to join the sparkling wine team in January 1993. Louisa is now Head of Winemaking.