Alternative Reality - AAVWS Book

To celebrate our 21st Birthday the AAVWS is teaming up with Award-winning wine writer Max Allen and independent publisher Melbourne Books to publish an exciting new book, Alternative Reality, that charts the course of Australia’s alternative variety wine scene over the last two decades through the lens of the stories, people and wines of the AAVWS.

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Synopsis

Australian wine has been through a revolution over the last two decades years. New grape varieties, new wine styles, new winemaking personalities and cultures have emerged, dramatically changing how this country thinks about and enjoys wine. And much of this change can be traced to a wine competition in Mildura, in the remote northwest of Victoria.

Since 2001, the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show has examined and championed exciting new non-mainstream grapes (anything but chardonnay and shiraz …), with a roll-call of leading winemakers, sommeliers, writers and viticulturists travelling from all over the country each November to talk and taste, to swap ideas, to imagine a different wine landscape.

This book tells the story of those last two decades, not just of the show, but also of the wider world of Australian wine, told through interviews with the key people who made it happen. It also includes comprehensive information about the 150 different grape varieties currently grown in Australia: what the wines made from these grapes taste like, and who the best producers are.

If you want to deepen your understanding of why the Australian wine scene is the way it is today, and to get more enjoyment out of a wider range of delicious wines, then this book is for you.

What’s Inside?

The book is a triple threat … it comprises:

– a chronological history of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show, with each chapter – chock-full of stories from the show itself – placed in historical context, both relating to concurrent developments in Australian wine, and also how the wider world itself has changed

– interviews with and profiles of the key winemakers, viticulturists, sommeliers, retailers, writers and other people who have been involved with the show over the last 21 years

– detailed practical information about grape varieties: names, pronunciation, origins, viticultural details, flavours, styles, best producers, etc