Wine with Meg + Mel

Send us Fan Mail Queensland wine sounds like it shouldn’t work, so we taste our way through the Granite Belt and talk through the climate science that makes it possible. Four bottles later, we’re genuinely shocked by how balanced, fresh, and buy-worthy these wines are.  Golden Grove Vermentino 2025 - https://www.goldengroveestate.com.au/product/2025-vermentino/ Witches Falls Verdelho 2024 - https:...

Send us Fan Mail We move through the week’s biggest wine headlines, from career-building opportunities in Adelaide to the very real stress of smoke over vineyards during harvest. We also unpack rising fuel costs, what redundancies signal about the market, and why Michel Rolland’s legacy still shapes how wine tastes today. • Scholarships for under-35s to attend the International Masters of Wine Sym...

Send us Fan Mail We taste and test how different glasses change the way wine shows up, from aroma to texture, with SPIEGELAU CEO Richard Voit. We land on a simple, practical setup for real life: buy fewer glasses, buy better, and match the glass to what you actually drink.  Throughout this episode we try Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir (Of Course!) and even Champagne and the results left us shock...

Send us Fan Mail You know that moment on a weekend away when you’re standing in a local supermarket with bananas in one hand and a basket in the other, staring at a random wall of wine and thinking, “How am I meant to pick something good from this?” That’s the problem we set out to solve with a simple challenge: we’re heading to an Airbnb with mates, we each get $50, and we have to buy wine that d...

Send us Fan Mail We put goon on trial by tasting Bagnum versus a classic tap cask, blind, and learned just how easily packaging can mess with perception. Along the way we unpack why a Goon Bag can inflate (unintentionally, unlike Austin's high school pillows), what freshness really means in larger formats, and why the cheaper option can still be the best drink in the glass.  • What counts as...

Send us Fan Mail We break down why hedge funds are shorting Treasury Wine Estates in plain language, explore how Victoria Wine posted a record year, and unpack Penfolds’ culture pivot with Troye Sivan and the switch from the Australian Open to F1. We close by mapping the new logic of event sponsorships and what authenticity now means for wine brands. • How short selling works and why TWE is target...

Send us Fan Mail We test Thai favourites (roti with satay, pad Thai and green curry) against a tight wine list to find pairings that truly work. A skinsy white surprises with satay, Riesling shines with pad Thai, Moscato calms green curry, and a light red secretly turns up the heat. We would love your feedback on this episode!  Did you enjoy it, or do you want us to just shut up and keep giving yo...

Send us Fan Mail What passes the Pub test? Beyond catchy slogans and sleek aesthetics, where does alcohol marketing cross the line? We examine Australia’s ABAC standards through the lens of recent, real-world complaints. By breaking down which campaigns were cleared and which were banned, Mel takes us inside the alcohol marketing world and boy did we get an education! Follow us on instagram @winew...

Send us Fan Mail Forget everything you thought you knew about the Limestone Coast being "just for Cabernet." We’re following Meg’s week-long trek along South Australia’s wind-whipped shoreline to discover a region that’s cooling down and sharpening up. From the electric Blue Lake of Mount Gambier to the chalky soils of Robe and Cape Jaffa, we’re trading heavy reds for whites that speak w...

Send us Fan Mail A fresh studio, a new season, and the most pressing question in Australian wine: how do we move a region built on volume toward a future built on value? We open with Riverland’s reality—cheap grapes, heavy irrigation, and a glut of ageing red—and ask whether protecting old vines and dialing back yields can spark a quality reset. Brendan Carter’s deep dive provides a hopeful bluepr...

Send us Fan Mail Bushfire season has arrived with brutal force, impacting Victorian wineries - this extra episode is to answer your questions around what this means. From Strathbogie Ranges and Yea through to watch zones near the Yarra Valley, we map the fire lines, the shifting winds, and the hard choices facing growers who are only weeks from harvest. It’s not just scorched rows and lost stock;...

Send us Fan Mail A glass of champagne in hand and a year’s worth of tasting notes on the table, we set out to crown ten wines that genuinely moved us. Not the priciest. Not the rarest. The bottles that delivered texture, balance and joy—whether poured at a barbecue, opened for a milestone, or discovered on a whim at the local. We start with the unexpected: an Australian Arinto that lives in the mi...

Send us Fan Mail We taste through Australian icons and ask what truly makes a wine “great”: site, story, structure, or time. From Great Western’s mineral Shiraz to Margaret River’s silky Cabernet, Grange’s legend and Noble One’s golden botrytis, we weigh value, ageability and joy. • Best’s Bin 0 Shiraz 2021 as elegant, dark-fruited Great Western benchmark • Continental climate, phenolic ripeness a...

Send us Fan Mail We taste a line-up of Australian icons. From Tasmanian bubbles to Hunter Semillon, Canberra Shiraz Viognier, and Yarra Cabernet blends, we map style, site, and ageability with unashamed love for homegrown greatness. • Arras Late Disgorged 2009  • Tyrrell’s Vat 1 2019 • Tolpuddle Chardonnay 2004 • Clonakilla’s Shiraz Viognier 2024 • Yarra Yering Dry Red No. 1 2021 Please follow us...

Send us Fan Mail A toast to legacy, a clash over creativity, and a bottle that could change how we drink. We open with a tribute to Peter Fraser—winemaker, mentor, and quiet force at Yangarra—then step straight into the friction points shaping wine right now: the awards that reward meaningful storytelling, the slogan that sparked a pile-on, and the packaging pivot that’s bigger than aesthetics. We...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wondered how a $12 Italian white can stand toe-to-toe with a $40 benchmark? We bring Aldi Australia’s wine buyer, Jason, into the studio and pull back the curtain on how supermarket wines can be precise, expressive, and outrageously good value without cutting corners. From the first pour, it’s clear his approach is different: start with typicity, build texture with intention,...

Send us Fan Mail We blind taste Aldi’s Blackstone Paddock against renowned Australian bottles and were absolutely shocked by what we found. • Aldi wines + our end of year partnership • Aldi Blackstone Paddock Tasmanian Pinot Gris ($19.99) tasted with a renowned Tasmanian Pinot Gris worth approx $40 - a beautiful alsatian style with savoury notes and oily texture. • Aldi Blackstone Paddock Margaret...

Send us Fan Mail We blind-taste three Kunawarra Cabernets and then compare our notes to the wineries’ own descriptions to see what holds up. Along the way we share a science-backed look at regional character, practical decanting and cellaring advice, and a simple rule to spot trustworthy tasting notes. Wines:  Redman 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon  Brand and Sons 2026 Cabernet Sauvignon  Zema Estate 2018...

Send us Fan Mail We taste the spritz surge head‑on, from peachy Bellina to zesty Zoncello, a spiced curveball, and a local bitter orange can, while unpacking how climate news nudges fine‑wine prices and how producers adapt. We share how to serve spritz properly, why real fruit matters, and why welcoming spritz grows the wine world. • the spritz boom across Australian shelves and bars • serving rul...

Send us Fan Mail We put the champagne opening myth to the test, comparing the quiet hiss to the party pop to see if bubble quality actually changes. Along the way we unpack Coravin’s medical-engineering roots, wine by the glass growth, and why glassware choice feels fussy yet useful. • Coravin inventor’s medical background and impact • How Coravin preserves wine using argon • London and Melbourne...

Send us Fan Mail What if two Pinots from the same producer, made the same way, could still taste nothing alike? We uncork that mystery by tracing flavour back to elevation, aspect, soil and the quiet work of a long ripening season. Starting on the Mornington Peninsula with Ten Minutes by Tractor, we compare “Down the Hill” and “Up the Hill” and show how a cooler ridge delivers darker colour, finer...

Send us Fan Mail Think all Pinot Noir is just “light red”? Three glasses say otherwise. We set up a controlled taste test with Handpicked’s single-vineyard Pinot from Tasmania, Mornington Peninsula, and the Yarra Valley to hear terroir speak without the noise of wildly different winemaking. The result is a crisp, side-by-side sensory map of Australian Pinot: an elegant, hibiscus-and-cranberry whis...

Send us Fan Mail Wine scoring systems have proliferated, leaving many consumers confused about who to trust when choosing their next bottle. We break down the differences between wine shows, critic ratings, classifications, and journalistic approaches to help you navigate the complex world of wine recommendations. • Wine shows use panels of expert judges who taste wines blind, scoring on a 100-poi...

Send us Fan Mail Meg and Mel dive into the groundbreaking Endeavor wine industry report that reveals surprising insights about Australian wine consumption patterns across demographics and regions. • Affluence drives wine purchase more than age, with wealthy consumers favouring Champagne, Chardonnay, and surprisingly, Riesling • Gen Z unexpectedly over-indexes on Champagne consumption despite limit...

Send us Fan Mail It came to our attention that our Nebb ep wasn’t uploaded currently so you all never heard us Greek out over one of our fav grapes… well…  here it is!  Meg and Mel explore the world of Nebbiolo, comparing Australian examples from Victoria with Italian classics from Piedmont. • Nebbiolo is known for its paradoxical nature - light in colour but powerful in tannin and structure • Cla...