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For centuries, France has occupied a unique place in the world of wine. Its vineyards, classifications, language, and traditions have shaped how we think about fine wine, from Bordeaux and Burgundy to concepts like terroir and appellation. But how did French wine come to dominate the global imagination? And was that dominance really built on superior wine, or on something else entirely?

My guest today is historian Kathy Burk. Kathy is Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London, an acclaimed author, broadcaster, and one of the world's leading historians of economic and cultural history.

In this conversation, we explore the rise of French wine, the role of England in creating the reputation of Bordeaux, the significance of the 1855 Classification, the origins of concepts like terroir and chaptalisation, and how the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris challenged centuries of French supremacy. Along the way, Kathy takes us from the Stone Age to modern California, revealing how trade, politics, empire, religion, and marketing helped shape the wine world we know today.

And where better to begin than at the very beginning.

Here is Kathy Burk.

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For more than four decades, Charles Melton has been one of the defining voices of the Barossa Valley. His journey stretches from the wine glut of the 1980s, through the rise of modern Australian wine, to the creation of one of the country's most recognisable labels.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down at the Charles Melton winery on Krondorf Road with Charles Melton and his daughter Sophie Melton, the next generation helping to shape the future of the family business.

We discuss brand, authenticity, family, and the challenge of remaining relevant in an industry that has changed dramatically over the last fifty years. Charles reflects on his early days in the industry, surviving the industry's darkest periods, and developing a brand that today enjoys a loyal following across multiple generations. Sophie shares what it is like to inherit that legacy, and how she is finding her own voice as a winemaker through her Domaine Sophie Claire label.

Together, they explore the power of story in wine, the importance of place, the realities of today's wine market, and why the strongest brands are often built not through marketing campaigns, but through decades of genuine human connection.

Whether you're interested in the history of the Barossa, the business of building a premium wine brand, or the future of Australian wine, this conversation offers a fascinating look at how one family has navigated change while remaining true to its values.

This is my conversation with Charles and Sophie Melton. A huge thanks to Charles and Sophie for joining.

Topics covered:

• The history of the Barossa vine pull and how oversupply crises shaped the region
• North vs south Barossa style differences and what makes the southern end distinct
• The origin story of Nine Popes — and its surprising connection to Châteauneuf-du-Pape
• Brand authenticity, storytelling, and what keeps Charles Melton relevant across four generations of customers
• The current Australian wine industry glut and how small producers are navigating it
• Distribution philosophy: long-term relationships, staying boutique, and resisting over-expansion
• The Young Gun of Wine awards and what it means for a new generation winemaker to compete
• Staying true to classic Barossa varieties — Grenache, Shiraz, Mataro, Cabernet — rather than chasing trends

Keywords: Charles Melton Wines, Barossa Valley wine, Nine Popes, Grenache Barossa, Sophie Melton winemaker, Domaine Sophie Claire, Peter Lehmann, Barossa vine pull, Krondorf Road winery, Young Gun of Wine, Australian wine industry, family winery, wine brand storytelling, Barossa Shiraz, cellar door Barossa

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Wine is full of simple stories.

Old vines are better than young vines. Great vineyards are all about terroir. Climate determines quality. Pick the right variety, put it in the right place, and the rest takes care of itself.

They're neat stories. They're marketable stories.

According to this week's guest, they're also dangerously incomplete.

Dylan Grigg is one of the most respected viticulturists in Australia. He's a consultant, researcher, vineyard owner, international speaker, former Australian Viticulturist of the Year, and a man whose work takes him from the Barossa Valley to Tasmania, Western Australia, California, Spain and beyond.

In this conversation, we explore the extraordinary complexity that exists beneath the surface of every vineyard. We discuss old vines, epigenetics, vine memory, climate variability, regenerative viticulture, and why so many of the questions wine lovers ask can never be answered with a simple yes or no.

We unpack Dylan's remarkable journey from a young apprentice chef in the Barossa to earning a PhD, before relocating his family to Catalonia and building an international reputation as one of the wine industry's most respected vineyard minds.

Along the way, Dylan explains why vineyards aren't spreadsheets, why experience matters as much as science, and why the best viticulturists often spend their lives becoming more comfortable with uncertainty rather than less.

This is my conversation with Dylan Grigg. A huge thanks to Dylan for joining me

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In Part 1 of my conversation with wine industry commentator, producer, and recovering wine critic Robert Joseph, we explored a deceptively simple question: where do wineries actually make their money?

But that conversation quickly led to a much bigger one.

What happens when the traditional wine business model comes under pressure?

In this second part, we move beyond profitability and into the forces reshaping the global wine industry. We discuss ageing vineyard owners, succession challenges, private equity, direct-to-consumer sales, wine tourism, changing consumer behaviour, and why adaptation may be the defining challenge for wineries over the next decade.

We also tackle the role of wine critics and traditional wine media, and Robert offers some characteristically frank views on Australia's place in the global wine market and whether we've lost clarity about what Australian wine stands for internationally. Buckle up for this section team.

Whether you're a wine producer, retailer, marketer, or simply fascinated by the business of wine, there's plenty here to challenge conventional thinking.

And if you'd like to explore these ideas further, I highly recommend following Robert's work through Wine Thinker and his Substack, where he continues to ask some of the most important, and often uncomfortable, questions facing the wine industry today.

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Robert Joseph.

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For a long time, the wine industry has sold itself on romance.

The rolling vineyard. The family story. The passionate winemaker chasing perfection in a bottle.

But behind every bottle of wine is something far more complicated: a business model. And right now, many of those models are under enormous pressure.

In this conversation, Robert Joseph returns to The Cellar Door Podcast to unpack one of the most important, and least understood, questions in wine:

How does the wine industry actually make money?

From tiny family growers to giant corporations, cooperatives, negociants, supermarkets, private labels, cellar doors and direct-to-consumer sales, Robert peels back the layers of an industry where agriculture, luxury, hospitality, branding, land value and distribution all collide.

We talk about why some wineries survive while others struggle, why owning vineyard land is not always the asset people think it is, how supermarkets and distribution chains shape the entire market, and why the future belongs to producers who think beyond simply growing grapes and making wine.

This is one of those conversations that changes the way you look at the wine business, and maybe the wine bottle sitting in front of you.

Here is my conversation with Robert Joseph.

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Over the last year, while speaking with people across the Australian wine industry, one name kept unexpectedly coming up in conversation in connection with the Queensland market, not a winemaker, not a sommelier, but a lawyer.

Today’s guest is Travis Schultz, founder of Travis Schultz & Partners, philanthropist, wine writer, and someone who has quietly built some of Queensland’s most respected wine events.

Through events supporting charities including SunnyKids and LifeFlight, Travis has used wine not simply as a product, but as a powerful tool for connection, bringing together winemakers, professionals, community leaders, and wine lovers to raise millions of dollars for good causes.

We discuss everything from the anatomy of a great wine event, to why wine creates a different kind of conversation, through to the upcoming Noosa Concours d'Elegance activation, where Travis and his team will host an exclusive winemakers lunch in the middle of one of Australia’s most spectacular luxury events.

But beneath the wine, the stories, and the philanthropy, this conversation is really about something deeper: the role wine plays in bringing people together.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is my conversation with Travis Schultz.

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Late last year I had the pleasure of speaking with Pipa Nielson who gave an exciting and colourful introduction to the Western Australian region of Geographe wine region. Following that first course in Geographe education, Pipa arranged a second: a conversation with wine rockstar, Kim Horton, of Willow Bridge Estate.

After growing up in the Swan Valley, Kim has made wine across multiple regions in WA, and in this conversation I get to ask him what makes Geographe, and the broader WA wine scene, so very special. Kim’s story is also fascinating, with early aspirations in the finance sector… aspirations that took a remarkably different turn.

What follows is a deep dive into a young region that’s still defining itself. We talk about the diversity of Geographe, from coastal plains to the elevated Ferguson Valley, and how that translates into a wide spectrum of wine styles.

This is a conversation about people and craft. Kim shares what it’s really like to be a winemaker: the highs, the setbacks, and the reality of building a career in an industry that’s anything but predictable.

This is Geographe, through the eyes of someone living and shaping it.

A huge thanks to Kim Horton for joining.

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