Episode
The Words and the Wine: Nick Ryan on Writing, Tasting and the Soul of Australian Terroir
- Podcast
- Sensing Up
- Published
- Apr 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2229
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://smellycheese.co/pages/sensing-up-podcast
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Summary
Valérie Henbest sits down with Nick Ryan — senior wine writer for The Australian , contributor to The World of Fine Wine , Halliday Magazine and The Robb Report , and one of the most compelling voices in Australian wine today. Nick inherited the column previously held by James Halliday for four decades. It is, as Valérie notes, a big pair of shoes to fill — though Nick's feet are more than equal to them. Their conversation moves through the full arc of a life shaped by wine: from a childhood sip of Château d'Yquem at a cancelled dinner party, to King's Cross wine shops and backstreet Paddington newsletters, to the pressures and pleasures of judging hundreds of wines in a single sitting. Nick reflects on the difference between tasting deeply and expressing what you taste — and why the second skill is rarer, and harder, than it looks. The discussion turns to the future of Australian wine, and Nick is both clear-eyed and quietly optimistic. The industry is undergoing structural change, not merely a market cycle, and the wines that will endure are those that hold the line — old vine Barossa Shiraz, Coonawarra Cabernet, the finest Chardonnay coming out of the Adelaide Hills — while the era of bulk commodity wine recedes. Terroir, provenance and restraint are the story now. Voltaire wrote that writing is the painting of the voice. Listening to Nick Ryan, the line feels less like a metaphor and more like a job description. About Our Guest Nick Ryan is the senior wine writer for The Australian , a position previously held by James Halliday for over forty years. He also writes for The World of Fine Wine , Halliday Magazine and The Robb Report , and is a respected wine judge at competitions across Australia. Follow his writing at theaustralian.com.au . Try It at Home: Beppino Oc…