Nick Ryan

1 week ago | worldoffinewine.com | Nick Ryan

While a new manifesto by the Slow Wine Coalition has much to commend it, Nick Ryan finds a potentially fatal flaw. Lock a dozen people in a room and give each of them a tin of paint and a brush. Some will look up and imagine Sistine beauty. They’re the creative types. Others declare the room in need of a freshen up and assiduously apply their paint to the walls. They’re the practical people who keep things ticking along.

Nov 15, 2024 | worldoffinewine.com | Nick Ryan

It’s as much a myth as it is a vineyard, this place they call Bastard Hill. You’d never find it unless you really went looking for it. Vines are rarely reached through towering tree ferns or heralded by the sappy call of the elusive lyrebird. It’s carved out of the temperate rainforest at Gladysdale, in the Upper Yarra Valley, standing at just under 1,300ft (400m), on red basalt soils that are uncommon in these parts. A high fence keeps out the kangaroos and the introduced deer.

Jul 21, 2024 | robbreport.com.au | Nick Ryan |Belinda Aucott

There’s a reason Islay produces some of the world’s most characterful whisky. And it’s hidden in the undergrowth. Scotland’s single malts are a source of great national pride, and the people are passionate about their preferences. The Highlanders praise the floral overtones in their malts, while those along the River Spey regard theirs as Scotland’s finest. But the most distinctive, seductive and downright wild examples come from a windswept island off the rugged west coast.

Jul 7, 2024 | robbreport.com.au | Nick Ryan |Belinda Aucott

There’s a kind of “liquid relativism” at play when you start discussing the world’s priciest drinks. Just what is it that shapes the stratospheric prices of the world’s most prized bottles? Provenance, rarity, and the hyper-competitive nature of high-end collecting all come into it, so too the unquantifiable value of patience and time. And then the … Continue reading “Liquid Gold” There’s a kind of “liquid relativism” at play when you start discussing the world’s priciest drinks.

Jul 4, 2024 | robbreport.com.au | Nick Ryan |Belinda Aucott

With respect to gin, rum, brandy et al., you just don’t stand a chance against the magical malt. It’s all in the name, really. Uisce beatha. It’s from the Old Irish and simply means, “The water of life”. It doesn’t get more existentially important than that. From here, the passage of time and centuries of slurred usage have delivered us the word for what is, unquestionably, the most diverse, complex, collectible and celebrated spirit of them all: whisky.