The Cellar Door Podcast

Send us Fan Mail We are going deep into the heart of Coonawarra, but through a lens few could have imagined: blockchain, NFTs, and quality Coonawarra wine. My guest is Jack Burston: former Goldman Sachs banker turned unlikely vineyard owner and innovator who’s shaking up the Australian wine scene with a project that fuses old-world craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology. Jack’s journey began o...

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Send us Fan Mail Ed Cavanagh’s wine writing stands apart. He somehow fuses the flair of a journalist with the depth and precision of a scholar — a rare combination, but then again, few writers in the wine world have a background quite like his. Many of you will know Ed from his work across the Limestone Coast wine industry, or from his time in cellar doors throughout South and Western Australia. B...

Send us Fan Mail This weekend I got a text from John Hesketh, letting me know that Keeda Zilm had done it again. Keeda, and her Vickery Riesling, struck again at the Adelaide Wine Show, walking away with a back of accolades. Everyone seems to be in agreement that Keeda Zilm is the capable custodian of something very special.  Named in honour of the late, great John Vickery, often described as the...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Fattorini shares some secrets on how to maximize your entertainment value as a presenter during a wine tasting!  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Ladies and gentlemen, he’s back — Michael Juergens: Orange County finance consultant, wine industry pioneer, and one of our most colourful guests. Michaels back to share an update on the current state of the US wine economy and the progress with the Bhutan Wine Co., with updates on their very first auction and fresh insights that highlight just how exciting this project has become...

Send us Fan Mail I first came across Unico Zelo almost a decade ago, in a wine shop in Kansas City. The owners poured me a skin-contact white from South Australia, a wine I’d never seen before. I was immediately struck by its vibrant label, its unusual blend, and its perfectly fitting name: Esoterico . That was my first introduction to Brendan Carter and his work at Unico Zelo. Since then, I’ve wa...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Fattorini shares some secrets on how to maximize your entertainment value as a presenter during a wine tasting!  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Patrick White is the lead Somm and Cellar Master at the Adelaide Club. With a resume like his, it's no wonder he has the trust of both the Club and the wider industry. An Adelaide local, Patrick has been a somm since 2001, working his way across the country, from top end restaurants in Sydney to the Penfolds Maggill Restaurant and the Mt Lofty House Estate in the Adelaide Hil...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s guest is Adam Coward, someone who’s worn a lot of hats across his career, from tourism in the Top End, to retail and fast-moving consumer goods, and now, to helping wineries unlock growth through Vin Creative and Uno Vino. Adam’s journey is fascinating because he’s not from a wine background originally, yet he’s bringing in ideas and lessons from other industries that coul...

Send us Fan Mail Milly Hoffmann, or Miss Hoffmann to the students at Nuriootpa High School, has been working tirelessly with her class on a remarkable mission: raising the funds to travel to their sister city, Grapevine in Texas, USA. At its heart, this connection is about more than a trip; it’s about cultural exchange, shared experiences, and building relationships that last. Milly also plays a l...

Send us Fan Mail Mike Madaio loves history, sandwiches, and above all, wine—and the industry that brings it to life. A respected wine writer, his long-form pieces have featured in Wine Enthusiast and on his own blog, Life at Table . While Mike has a deep appreciation for traditional forms of media and communication, he is equally attuned to the modern world of user experience (UX)—a factor that ca...

Send us Fan Mail Stephen Mok is on a mission to make sure the wine industry doesn’t miss its moment with artificial intelligence. As Founder of Vintage Labs, Stephen has spent the past few years embedded in the practical reality of AI experimenting, prototyping, and testing what actually moves the needle for wine businesses. He has built automations, stress-tested emerging tools, and logged countl...

Send us Fan Mail Jacob Ner-David is, in many ways, the quintessential entrepreneur. He’s built and led multiple pioneering companies, including DeltaThree, one of the first to offer internet-based telephony, dramatically reducing the cost of international calls, and NomadIQ, which specialised in location-based internet services. But alongside his startup successes runs a deep and enduring passion...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone in marketing knows Mark Ritson. He’s built a reputation for being direct, sharp, and unapologetically honest in how he approaches both the practice and teaching of marketing. With a career that includes advising major global brands like LVMH, Mark now focuses his energy on the Mini MBA , an online course designed to give students what he sees as the core foundations of ma...

Send us Fan Mail Earlier this year, while in Sydney, I had the pleasure of grabbing a quick bite with two locals behind one of Australia’s fastest-growing wine communities. I was curious to meet the duo behind the WinedUp podcast—and to see whether their personalities matched their mission. It was a short but memorable session. Over a bottle of German Riesling and some outstanding Thai food, I cam...

Send us Fan Mail In 2024 Coles took steps testing its One Brand Brand Strategy, which included the conversion of all Vintage Cellars Stores to Liquor Land. Bill Rooney is the CEO at 6one5 Retail Consulting. He has consulted for a range of companies including Silicon Valley’s Intel. Bill has been watching the Coles transition unfold, from the implementation of the pilot program, to execution and wh...

Send us Fan Mail This is the third and final installment of my conversation with Professor Gerald McDermott. We start by focussing on case studies that demonstrate innovation in action. What can the wine industry, or any industry for that matter, learn from the evolution of Silicon Valley? Or from the crash of the Chilean Salmon Industry? Professor McDermott shares principles that are vital for an...

Send us Fan Mail In Mid May of this year I had the pleasure of releasing a short chat with Jackson Family winemaker Chris Carpenter in which we spoke about the magic of the Hickinbotham Vineyard, the Hickenbotham label and the wider magic of Clarendon. To get that one in full Check out episode 25 of Season 5. Chris and I discussed a great many things during my time in Clarendon, that we did not in...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Professor Gerald McDermott and I continue our discussion on systems and innovation. With the background and context to Gerald’s Mendoza case study established, we start to go deeper into the foundational concepts, and what a healthy system might look like, along with its different component parts. To start part 2 of our conversation, I ask Gerald whether it's...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to CDP Insights, a Cellar Door Podcast initiative where we stay up to date with market trends and get sharp industry insights. My guest is Joe Fattorini and in this episode we discuss the fundamental of nailing your sales pitch. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This episode began with a curious email landing in my inbox. Not that the sender — my good friend Priscilla Hennekem — was mysterious, but rather the contents of her message were. It was brief and enclosed an attachment: a paper by Professor Gerald McDermott, titled “Public-Private Institutions as Catalysts for Upgrading in Emerging Market Societies.” I scratched my head, opened t...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to CDP Insights, a Cellar Door Podcast initiative where we stay up to date with market trends and get sharp industry insights. My guest is Joe Fattorini and in this episode we discuss the most fundamental aspects of a business sales plan. Support the show

Send us Fan Mail In mid-2024, I found myself in the heart of Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley—an enchanting sub-AVA that has quietly, but confidently, shaped America’s wine identity. With a history that stretches from pre-Prohibition endurance to present-day renaissance, Dry Creek is a place where multigenerational family wineries continue to define what authenticity in American wine really means. At the...