Joe Wadsack

Câv, a new hybrid bar serving pre-batched bottled cocktails alongside wines, has Joe Wadsack wondering if this is the next big step in hospitality. I am settled in a warm, cosy corner of a bar on a foray up-town with my wife. I have selected a bottle from the drinks list and a couple of plates of gorgeous presunto ham and some whipped smoked bacalhau from the guest Portuguese chef in residence. A charming fellow has just pulled a perfectly chilled bottle out of our ice bucket and begins to pour.

Once the undisputed champion of popular wine, Australia’s star has been waning in recent years. But Joe Wadsack says it’s worthy of more investigation now as a new generation of winemakers are making it interesting again. Not so long ago, I fell into conversation with a young chef, who, on discovering what my job is, lit up.

So here we are, the third and final part of my tour of Australia’s most diverse and exciting wine state. We have travelled from the cool mountainous appellations, starting with Henty to the west, through the hot warmer Mediterranean climate in the north, encompassing the world famous Victorian fortified gems of Rutherglen and Glenrowan, finishing in the extreme mountainous climates of Beechworth and the Alpine Valleys to the east.