The Auswine Forum

Jancis Robinson has been in Australia for the past three weeks. She was invited to judge at a Hunter Valley wine show and apparently had supper with Len Evans the night before he died. She intends to write about it and post it on her web site. I am a visitor to Sydney and don't necessarily know the best places to look for information about wine but I haven't seen anything in the local press about her visit or any event that would allow the public a chance to meet her. For those who may not know it Jancis Robinson is a Master of Wine and writes very well about wine. She edited the Oxford Companion of Wine, hosted an excellent BBC documentary series on wine, and wrote a charming book about her life in the wine industry full of wonderful stories (including a great story about drinking wine and stickies with Mick Morris and company in Griffith). Anything she recommends I know I will like. I would have loved to have attended a wine function at which she attended. Who knows, she may have been at Wine Australia 2006 and I didn't even know it. Does anyone know anything about her visit and any chance of seeing or meeting her? Thanks.

Perhaps you should try her fan club @ welovejanroboheapso.com

I believe apart from the Hunter judging engagement she was here for pleasure rather than business. I don't think she was doing any public appearances as far as I know.

She was at Hamilton Island a couple weeks ago and hosted a degustation dinner there I heard from a friend who works there.

Jancis Robinson on Len Evans:
Farewell to a true lover of wine
By Jancis Robinson
Published: September 2 2006 03:00

"Two weeks today hundreds, possibly thousands, of wine lovers will drive two hours north of Sydney to Tower Estate in the Hunter Valley to give Australia's most famous wine man, Len Evans AO OBE, what he asked for: "A bloody good send-off." Wine, made by the most prominent of his hundreds of protégés, will be taken.

This will be exactly a month after he gave what would in any circumstances have been a memorable dinner for us at the home he built in the Hunter. We were served more than two dozen great Australian wines blind plus a magnum of Le Montrachet as "quaffing white" and almost a dozen other treasures including an 1890 Chambers Rutherglen Muscat. Afterwards, we reeled out into the night counting the blessings of this 30-year friendship as we blinked up at the Southern Cross. The next day, we learnt via a newsflash in Sydney airport that he had been found dead in his car that morning while picking up his wife, Trish, from hospital. The heart that had struggled for 75 years against all the odds to keep up with the appetites and passions of this pugnacious hedonist finally gave up...."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/46cbcdaa-3996-1 ... e2340.html


Australian Pinot Noir - an oxymoron no longer (in: tasting notes)
30 aug 06
About 55 Pinots from Australia assessed, some very enthusiastically.
[Purple pages- subscription service]
http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/tasting060830

Beautiful writing.
Jancis is queen.
GW

I second that.
A very good, and fitting tribute.