A Tattered History of Australian Wine Through 30 Bottles Looking back at history for clues about the future is not nostalgia; it is a way of learning. Reputations, good and bad, are achieved through track record. For instance, when compiling the Canon of Australian Wine for The Australian Ark, I looked for wines that marked waypoints in the story of winemaking and viticulture, using both history and experience for guidance. Every wine on the list had to stand for something tangible or relatable. Vintage by vintage, The Canon threads together the ambitions and successes of past generations while clearly showing a progression in technology and outlooks from 1792 to the present day. Many of the wines on the list are a distant memory – remembered by previous generations – or recalled through living memory. A recent Australian wine tasting and dinner in Hong Kong highlighted the fragmented nature of history and how outlooks are forged by experience and relationships. Perspectives are established by curiosity, effort, and engagement. Bristol wine merchant John Avery MW (1941–2012) was a regular visitor to Australia and judged at many wine shows throughout his professional career. With an enlightened view, he championed the cause of many new world wines from California, New Zealand, and Australia, while distributing some of the finest European wines in the UK. This would lead to a peripatetic life and a network of friends all around the world. It would also translate to a cellar filled with treasures from all corners of the wine universe. According to John Avery’s son, Richard, “John was not a natural businessman. Like many in the wine trade, what he loved was the wine itself, and he was lucky enough to have been brought up with constant access to some of the world’s finest, including some legendary bottlings. The Averys were famous for blurring the line between the company’s stocks and their own personal cellars.” The June 2024 wine auction was headlined A Legacy Preserved: The Last Treasures of the Avery Collection . Christie’s wine auctioneer Noah May described John Avery’s stone-vaulted cellar in Somerset as ‘like a library
Hong Kong, March 2026
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