“It is currently not obvious to observers and managers caught up by the damage of change that Australia has just finished two decades of branded commodity wine growth to dominance and inevitable decline and is now entering the decades of Australian wine emergence. As the trauma recedes that will become apparent to all.”

Not my words but those of Brian Croser in the latest issue of Tappenings (download the PDF here), the newsletter of the Tappanappa winery that he co-owns with the Cazes family of Bordeaux’s Lynch-Bages and Champagne Bollinger. Croser’s never been short of either opinions or self-belief – he’s the sort of person who if he were into reincarnation would want to come back as himself. But his talent as winemaker, teacher and judge, his passion for great wine, and his desire to see Australia become a nation known for great wines rather than for Yellowtail is beyond question. You might not agree with everything he says, but you can’t deny that he’s earned the right to say it.