I was up to my eyes in 2009 bordeaux when Wine Australia announced the participants of this year's Landmark Australia Tutorial so please forgive the delay in my relaying this information. Landmark Australia Tutorial 2010 will be the second of these week-long immersions in the best wines that Australia has to offer, and will be held in the Yarra Valley, Victoria 20-24 Sep. You may remember that Julia was one of the participants in the inaugural Landmark Tutorial held in the Barossa Valley last June and supplied us with a stream of wonderful tasting notes and reports. This year's tutorial will be for an expanded group of 14 participants, including for the first time two from Australia itself. Six of the 14 are based in Asia and include a couple, Purple pager Fongyee Walker and Edward Ragg. Only one participant is based in the US, two in the UK and one each in Canada, Denmark and Germany.
We are told that 'the applications for the September 2010 experience were as keenly contested as the previous year, and reflected an increased awareness and interest from north and south-east Asia.'
The 14 successful applicants are:
Sarah Ahmed, freelance wine writer and educator, UK (pictured)
Kim Bickley, sommelier, Hilton Hotel, Australia
Jessica Harnois, wine buyer/sommelier, SAQ (Société des Alcools du Québec), Canada
Tony Love, wine writer, News Ltd metropolitan newspapers, Australia
Karen MacNeil, chairman, Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies at the Culinary Institute of America, US
Kenichi Ohashi, president, Yamajin Co Ltd, Utsunomiya, Japan
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Asian wine correspondent and reviewer, eRobertParker.com and The Wine Advocate, Singapore
Diwen Qiu, managing editor, Wine in China magazine, Singapore
Dr Edward Ragg, wine writer, educator and consultant, Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting, China
Thomas Rydberg, wine writer and editor, Ekstra Bladet, Denmark
Joerg Sievers, editor, Weinwirtschaft, Meininger Publications, Germany
Simon Tam, wine journalist, educator and consultant, Independent Wine Centre, Hong Kong
Fongyee Walker, wine writer, educator and consultant, Dragon Phoenix Fine Wine Consulting, China
Thomas Woolrych, buying manager, Direct Wines/Laithwaites, UK
Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, on discovering she had been selected, is quoted as saying, 'The Landmark Australia Tutorial is one of the best educational tools ever to be developed by any wine organisation in the world and I'm very excited to be accepted to participate. Ever a wine student as much as a wine educator and commentator myself, I'm looking forward to this valuable opportunity to better understand the development of traditional versus new wine styles from Australia's wide range of regions and the levels of quality and ageability that have been and are now being achieved.'
Wine Australia's general manager market development, Paul Henry added: 'The focus of the Tutorial remains to capture the interest and support of the next wave of international wine opinion leaders. The importance of addressing the image of Australian wine as a whole is well served by this programme, and the tutorial capably displays the depth and range of Australia's quality winemaking. Once again, a collaborative but uncompromised approach will demonstrate that Australia produces some of the best wines in the world.'
Details, including the full programme of tastings and presenters, is available at www.wineaustralia.com/landmark
If you would like to know when applications are open for the 2011 Tutorial, email landmark@wineaustralia.com. Wine Australia covers all expenses for this tasteathon but a very strong constitution is required for this extremely intense week of tastings and lectures.
