Barossa Wine Traveller

Many moons ago, my then partner (now wife) came home from work one day and said, "There's a wine nerd like you at my work." Cruel, but accurate.

Not long later, I got in touch with said person, a budding wine enthusiast by the name of Tyson Stelzer. Soon after we both found ourselves with little wine writing gigs in a couple of magazines, which meant that a few samples started coming our way.

So what we did was get together every couple of weeks, taste the samples, discuss wines, and basically use each other as a sounding board as we tried to understand wine a little better.

Tyson has gone on to become one of the most prolific writers in the country, authoring numerous books, and contributing to Decanter and Wine Spectator. I've gone down a different path, and consequently we don't see that much of each other these days, although we do stay in touch.

A while back, it was observed by Barossa winemaker Wayne Dutschke that the Barossa Valley didn't have an up-to-date tourist guide that detailed all the wine producers in the 'Valley. Tyson and I came into the discussion, the idea of writing a book was mooted and then it was promptly forgotten about for a good year.

The Tyson called and said, 'Do you want to write this book?', and the rest, as they say, is history. Or history from Friday(tomorrow) onwards, when 'Barossa Wine Traveller' will be launched in Tanunda on August 28.

Writing a book is a massive task. For two months I don't think I went to bed before midnight once. We set a seriously tight writing and research schedule, but met the deadlines somehow.

The result is something that I'm very proud of, but most of the credit needs to go to Tyson. The writing is just one part- putting a book like this together though is way out of my league.

The photography by Dragan Radocaj in Barossa Wine Traveller is some of the most spectacular I have ever seen, and it's a good read- Barossa through the eyes of the Barossan's. Check it out at http://www.barossawinetraveller.com.au/