The Armagh: Eight Acres of Ambition
The First Qualified Man
Jim Barry came to the Clare Valley in 1947 carrying a piece of paper that nobody else in the district possessed. He had begun studying oenology...
When the Devil Comes to Town
Melbourne, the early nineties. I was a brash young salesman on the floor of an upmarket wine boutique, and Chilean Merlot was one of the easiest sales in the...
Things of Stone & Soil
Saison d'octobre
Over thirty years ago I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon at the National Gallery of Victoria, meandering through an exhibition of paintings by Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition also...
The Tea Chronicles – Wabi Cha
"Though you wipe your hands and brush off the dust and dirt from the vessels, what is the use of all this fuss if the heart is still impure?"...
The Tea Chronicles
Tea and Football
At my grandmother's house, the kettle went on before the coats came off. It was the first thing you did after answering the door — before the news, before the...
Sons of Ceylon
Tea with Thierry
The pot arrives first. It always does now.
For eighteen years, Phnom Penh has been my home, and for most of those years there has been a standing appointment in my...
A Cinnamon Life
Sri Lanka is cinnamon: the birthplace of this spice, and its natural producer in its finest form, taste, and scent. Cinnamon permeates all life in Sri Lanka — the island produces over...
Chapter Two: The First Earthrise
All human suffering concerns each human being.
— Václav Havel
The photograph that changed how the human race understood itself was taken almost by accident, in a hurry, by a man who...
