Rick Allen's backyard is a stone's throw from nearest vineyard, that's how much he enjoys wine.
Now retired as a full-time editor and journalist, the Maitland-born Allen still dabbles in feature writing, quite frequently about wines, wineries and winemakers.
So having him come aboard as the Newcastle Herald's wine writer after the retirement of John Lewis, who faithfully wrote about food and wine for 47 years, is a natural step.
"I don't have a great palate, but I know what I like," Allen says. "I reckon I can pick a good wine from a bad wine. The full nuances, I don't profess to know."
Allen is a great storyteller and no-nonsense wine writer, a perfect fit for the Herald. His wife, Brenda Christian, has been a great companion on his journey: she writes about food, he writes about wine.
Allen's first adventure with wine began when he was a young bloke living in a share house in Sydney. "We discovered Wolf Blass Rhine riesling," he says. "I don't know to this day if it was any good or rubbish, but at the time we thought it was mother's milk. So we'd have it all the time."
But his most memorable light-bulb moment came the first time he took Brenda to a "classy" restaurant - Level 41 in the Chifley Tower in Sydney.
"We had this encyclopaedic wine list in front of us, just page after page," he says. "We were so out of our depth. But one of Brenda's mates had worked at Leeuwin Estate, and I saw it on the list. Out of the blue, 'cause I had to pick a wine, so I said we'll have this 1987 Leeuwin Estate Art Series chardonnay, which happened to be, we had no idea, still to this day one of the most iconic Australian chardonnays ever. It was just an absolute ball-tearer."
"I'd never had anything like that before. It just transcended me to a new place."
Another vital moment on his learning curve was spending time with a mate who had inherited his father's wine cellar. "That was the final piece of the puzzle for us," Allen says. "If you can age, and you get good stuff that can age, you are drinking very well."
His wine adventure has continued unabated for decades. The couple take their holidays to wine regions - Burgundy, Chablis, Champagne, Napa and Sonoma, Tuscany, Languedoc, New Zealand. They were heading to Nebbiolo this year until they decided to stay home and tend to the deteriorating health of their dog, Rosie.
While enjoying wine frequently in the Hunter Valley - at Friday pizza at Brokenwood Estate, or lunch with one of the interesting drops on the menu at Yellow Billy (renowned for its worldly wine list), the couple make wine worthy of many memorable moments. Even enjoying duck sausages on their own barbie with a bottle of 1983 Henschke Hill of Grace shiraz.
Brenda bought an 1989 Chateau Haut Brion (Bordeaux) for their wedding that year, and they opened it with great pleasure on their 25th anniversary.
Allen fondly recalls an event at Paulett's in the Clare Valley - "a glorious long table wine tasting day".
He also works at a Hunter Valley cellar door one day a week.
Allen has written about wine for decades, and seen changes from near and far. He can feel the trend towards lighter, cleaner wines coming from winemakers new and old, like Andrew Thomas, Matty Burton, Aaron Mercer, and Mike De Iuliis.
"I do like them all," he says. "I've come to the lighter bodied ones, not the heavier wines, not so much Barossa and McLaren Vale now, but you can still get some diamonds. Because the Hunter is so hot now, that lighter style red is more comfortable drinking here. I really enjoy the Hunter stuff. It's so elegant."
As for tasting, Allen does not pretend to be an expert.
"Tasting the nuances of wine doesn't come naturally to me," he says.
"Sometimes it doesn't taste exactly the same the next day, a different occasion or different food. It just tastes different.
"I try to taste it again the next day, give myself two goes at it.
"Tasting is different to drinking."
