PJ had the opportunity to interview Huon Hooke and James Halliday at the 2009 Tasmanian Wine Show. 5 to 6 minutes in the big time. Did he cover himself in glory ? Well he certainly covered himself in something!

Our humble website has not be around for very long and we are desperate to build our audience so we can win some 'street cred' in the wine world. So you can imagine our excitement when Phil Laing (author of a number of books on Tasmanian wine and President of the Tasmanian Wine Show) mentioned that we could have a chance to speak to James Halliday and Huon Hooke who were part of the judging panel at the show (punters, you may not have heard of these fine gentlemen but trust me they are just a tad world famous - Ed).

PJ was tasked with heading to the Tasmania Wine Show to generally hang around, be polite or helpful and to not come back to Winepunters HQ without some audio from James and Huon. So how do you impress people with international reputations during the 5 or 6 minutes allocated to you? Well lets hear how PJ went about it.

"I forgot to take in the prepared questions and I spent a minute explaining why we started Winepunters" (bzzz wrong - Ed).

"Phil told me to not ask open ended questions because I would probably use up all my time with one question. My first question was - so why do you do this?" (wrong, wrong - Ed).

"When the time was up I suggested they get in touch with us so we could do a longer interview". "Steve Lockwood (the Show's Vice President) took pity on me and told me later that it is usual for you to contact them not the other way around" (wrong, wrong, wrong - Ed).

"Still I did manage to give a card to Huon but James was too fast for me." (Isn't he in his 70's? - Ed).

"But I did get called an 'internet journalist' so they must have been impressed!" (oh good grief - Ed).

We asked him what he was thinking during his 5 minutes of fame and his reply? "Please like me, or was it please help me I need to be famous I can't remember".

So there you have it punters. Three important lessons on how not to waste opportunities. PJ forgot the Winepunters creed. In every interview situation remember to ask yourself WWADD - What would Andrew Denton Do. So he is currently in naughty corner and will be there for some time.

We will, however, be posting a podcast of our brief discussion with the Tasmanian Wine Show Judges (James Halliday, Huon Hooke, David Bricknell and Matt Wood) soon and hopefully we can get further interviews from them in the future. There will also be a write up of the 2009 Show in the update at the end of this month (January 2009). Lastly PJ wanted to thank Phil and Steve for their time, the opportunity and for making him feel welcome. As he said "it says good things about a person when they treat someone they have only just met as a welcome guest"

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