He wrote “the book” on Champagne and is a multi-award winning Wine Communicator of the Year and |Tysn Stwlzer has been an important part of our team for more than a decade. Recently he visited France, not to meet the usual Champagne Housesm but to speak with the grape growers about how they are affected by climate change and world geo-politics. Tyson tells Graeme Kemlo that in speaking to senior winemakers, they told him they believe, as he also believes, that Tasmania is producing the world’s best sparkling wines now. Tysin also shares his best suggestions for what sparkling wine to buy with our nominal $100 budget.
Photo: Tyson on tour at Residence Eisenhower in the Champagne region.Read More 

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Emily McAuliffe is a Melbourne travel writer who is back on the road after having a baby and she tells Graeme Kemlo about the lesser-known boutique wine region that is probably Melbourne’s closest, and produces some marvellous cool-climate wines, especially chardonnay and pinot noir. Emily talks about some of the wineries she visited and recommends it is a great weekend getaway not far from the city.
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When Carolyne Jasinski was asked to check out the newest development in South Australia’s Clare Valley, she discovered the story behind Clare Valley Distillery was almost as delicious as the gins they create and the luxury accommodation on site. Carolyne talks to one of the founders, Katherine Nugent. Carolyne also shares some tips she learned about mixing your G&T plus the correct way to drink it.
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Now this is curious… Graeme Kemlo went to Spencer on the Hawkesbury River for lunch at a local Thai restaurant. He bought a bottle of wine from the general store, and the staff told him he could drink it at the Drinking Tree on the foreshore across the road. Under federal regulation, they said any town with no hotels closer than 25 km can do this. You can’t miss it: the tree has a sign on it – Dunkirk Hotel – allegedly “borrowed” from a pub in Newtown, Sydney, but the Drinking Tree itself is apparently legit… even a band plays there on Sundays.. We think it’s worth 1000 words.

Graeme Kemlo speaks with French-born Victorian cheesemaker, Matthieu Megard who produces organic cheeses in the style of the his home region, the Jura. He describes how you can visit cheesemakers there. His Jura-style L’Artisan cheeses are not only sold made in Mortlake Victoria and across Australia, but he has an export licence and plans on selling them back to his native France. See
www.lartisancheese.com

We are proud to have had Tyson Stelzer as our resident wine expert almost since the start of the show. Over the past couple of years we have not heard from him as often, simply because he was very busy as chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion and heavily involved in the judging of the wines. Born in the Barossa, Tyson has a wonderful palate, but more than that he has won numerous awards as the wine communicator of the year with his ability to explain complex ideas simply. He is internationally regarded for his champagne knowledge and for the tours he leads. So we’re glad to have him back talking to Graeme Kemlo about the latest wine vintage, the best way to tour the famous French Champagne houses. And as usual he leaves us with his tip for a value wine from a family producer in the Yarra Valley. See https://champagne.guide/ and www.tysonstelzer.com

Husk Distillery is a boutique business in the Tweed Valley of northern New South Wales. Graeme Kemlo talks to Quentin Brival, the head distiller, of about their unique farm-to-bottle approach of producing rum. It tastes so good they even refer to the terroir of their product, which is made direct from sugar cane juice, not molasses.

Tune in to hear Quentin in conversation with Graeme Kemlo.

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Photo: Martinique-born distiller Quentin Brival

The narrative of Tasmania’s Huon Valley is beautifully simple. It spans rivers, orchards, forests, towns sans gentrification, friendly locals and, to a lesser extent, homes where smoke from chimneys drifts without purpose when the yachts on the nearby bays are becalmed.

It is 12033 kilometres from Kigali, Rwanda, to Hobart, Tasmania. That’s via the direct route. The estimated 20 Rwandans who initially arrived in Tasmania some 16 years ago had to travel much further than that to set up home in Australia’s island state. They were forced via hell first. They are some of the survivors of the [attempted] genocide of the minority Tutsi people in 1994.

A Rwandan Australia Friendship Association based in the Huon Valley, south of Hobart, has been assisting genocide survivors since it was formed in the 1990s. Coffee and the goodwill of a community of Tasmanians are the foundations of the association.

The group has established a Rwandan Coffee Club. The volunteer association sells five different types of coffee ($4.50 for 100 grams and $7.90 for 200grams plus postage costs) and three styles of tea ($5 for 100g) as a way of raising dollars for projects in Tasmania and Rwanda. The funds it raises from selling coffee directly support survivors of genocide in Rwanda.

John Middleton is president of the group. “One of their [the refugees] largest concerns was their inability to assist their fellows in Rwanda while they had financial and physical security. [In Rwanda] there were people dying of starvation and even people who were relatively healthy had their lives taken away,” says John.

The refugees were sending what money they could back to Rwanda. “But it was just a drop in the ocean compared to the real needs,” John says. In consultation with the Tasmanian Rwandans and volunteers from the association the idea of buying cows with coffee profits grew.

“Most of the Tutsi people have a very strong association with cows. Their ethnic association is probably with the Maasai who are also cow people,” says John. “Cows are closely associated with cultural life. The ownership of a cow provides not only nutrition but it is very symbolic.”

“We [established] a partnership with other associations and survivors of genocide in Rwanda. They identify the people who are to be the recipients of the cows,” says John. One of the fundamentals of the program is that the recipient of a cow must give the first progeny to another survivor.” The first recipients in the project then became partners in the project rather than just recipients of a cow.

The association has bought 91 local cows and two bulls to date – it costs from $200 to $300 Australian dollars to buy a cow in Africa.

The maths behind the coffee dollars for cows is, gulp, reasonably straight forward. The Rwandan Coffee Club sells 200grams of coffee for about $8. That’s $40 per kilogram. Which means around six to seven kilograms of coffee will buy a cow (there are costs of course).

The organisation guarantees that all funds donated reach the intended recipients. John and other volunteers have had two self-funded trips to Rwanda.

Not surprisingly the coffee club has received lots of media coverage over the years and according to John sales always increase after a mention in a magazine on TV and sometimes via blogs. It’s reason enough to write about the Rwandan Coffee Club now.

www.rwandancoffeeclub.org and jmiddleton45@bigpond.com

– Greg Clarke