Max Allen - finding the joy in a bottle of wine

The Melbourne leg of the 2010 Tasmania Unbottled event was a fantastic opportunity to find out what Victorians think of Tasmanian wine. Not only did the natives turn out to be friendly and wine savvy but they seemed to take to the winepunter view of wine (OMG complimenting Victorians, that will generate hate mail! - Ed).

In addition to fine wine, posh surrounds and well dressed inner city punters there was the chance to pick the brains of one of Australia's best wine writers. Max Allen ran several wine tasting master classes at the Unbottled event. 

If you know anything about wine you will have heard of this 'self indulgent fat boy' (his description of himself, not ours - Ed). He has written books, writes for nearly all the wine magazines and appears in newspapers regularly. Appears in a good way, rather than the 'celebrity off to rehab .... again' way.

Despite this notoriety what you find is a relaxed, down to earth person who ... er ... well ... doesn't seem to be a wine tosser ... at least not all the time. "Oh I have my moments" he laughingly agreed. Max thinks people take wine far too seriously. While he is passionate about the juice of the grape he doesn't lose perspective.

In fact Max summed up his approach to wine in an eerily punterish fashion. "I don't care how expensive it is, I don't care whether it's got a great reputation. All I care about really is how much joy there is to be found in the glass, and I can find that joy in a $15 bottle".

You could say Max has been in a long term love affair with wine and like all long term relationships there has been some ups and downs. Max will admit that there was a time when he lost the plot. Thoughts like "Oh do I really have to try another pinot" made him realise that he was being 'ridiculous' and 'behaving like a spoilt child'.

In fact Tassie had a hand in helping Max rekindle his wine passion. In 2002 Max heard how many gold medals the Tasmanian 2000 pinots had won and wanted to find out why this had happened. Trying several of them he thought "that's why I do this!".

Max doesn't agree but you'd have to say that he's a big wheel in the wine caper.  This success is built on his ability to write like a normal person. People feel like his writing is a conversation about wine rather than some sort of dry lecture, technical ramble or marketing spin. 

It is his abilities and his love of Tasmanian wine that saw him invited by Wine Industry Tasmania to run master classes at the 2010 Tasmanian Unbottled events. It was an inspired choice. Being in those classes was a relaxing, informative and lively experience.

When Max is not drinking or writing about wine he is a flag waver for biodynamics. His interest is not surprising given the fact that he's an ex-vegetarian hippie and self confessed lazy gardener. Like many people Max was initially put off by some of the mysticism that surrounds this branch of organics but he just kept tasting fantastic biodynamic wine.

To Max taste is everything. Just as trying some illicit bacon in an organic shop stopped him being a vegetarian so it was that the taste of biodynamic wine got him past his scepticism. He cheerfully admits that, despite a lot of research, he doesn't understand why it works but he keeps coming back to the fact that it does work.

One of the interesting aspects of talking to people who have done so much is to find out what they intend to do next. Max is set to continue to match his wider interests with his motto 'don't drink the same wine twice'. He believes that the future lays with organic and biodynamic wines and he wants to both follow and support their progress.

According to Max Tasmania has the potential to be a major part of the expanding organic wine industry. "It already has a green glow and it's happening with food but not so much with wine ... but that will change".

You can hear the full interview and details of his latest book by listening to the podcast. You'll hear us get to the bottom of the whole catastrophe that is Anglo wine snobbery, we find out about the Yeastie Boys, discover the secrets of writing about wine like a normal person, and find out why burying cow manure in a cow horn at just the right moment is good for wine.

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