Kerry Staight

Acclaimed winemaker Ben Radford has introduced a new and surprising line-up of sparklings at a historic vineyard in South Australia's Barossa Valley. The bottles look at home among his cellar door wines, but when the cork pops, what pours out is actually beer. Ben Radford is growing barley as well as wine grapes on his Barossa property.

Making mezcal spirits, like tequila, comes with some serious spiky hazards. No-one knows that better than the manager of Australia's only commercial agave farm. "We're affectionately known as the prickle farm to the locals, so they are very dangerous," Brett Smail said. "The other thing a lot of people don't know is that if you get the sap on you a very itchy rash can come up." Farm manager Brett Smail didn't know agave was used to make tequila before working at the farm.