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The Riverina is the biggest wine region in New South Wales by volume, and for decades its reputation has been built on bulk Chardonnay and Shiraz sold by the tonne. …Peter Valeri wants people to see it differently.

On this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Peter, the winemaker behind Via Pola in Griffith. He grew up following his dad around the family vineyard, studied wine science and viticulture, then crammed ten vintages into five years, bouncing between the Riverina and the northern hemisphere. A first overseas vintage in Canada’s Okanagan Valley taught him the lesson that still drives everything: wine is made in the vineyard. And despite every other region on offer, he kept coming home to Griffith.

In 2024, the same year he became a dad, Peter made the first Via Pola wines. He and his father carved off part of the family vineyard and planted Italian varieties suited to the warm climate: Pecorino, Fiano, Vermentino and Nero d’Avola, alongside Montepulciano vines dating back to 2008. It’s a nod to his Italian heritage, but also a practical bet that these grapes can thrive in the Riverina. The vineyard has been farmed without synthetic inputs since day one, and has just been granted organic certification, with the vines certified organic from 2027.

We taste two wines that tell the story. The 2026 Pecorino, the only one grown in the Riverina, comes with a great origin story about sheep raiding vineyards, while the 2024 Montepulciano uses carbonic maceration to make a juicy, lighter style that’s built for pizza and pasta night. Peter also explains why the winery is named after the street in Abruzzo where his grandfather grew up, what his dad thought of the idea, and why Durif, fortifieds and Noble One deserve more credit than the region usually gets.

To finish, we look ahead to NSW Wine Month, a Via Pola collaboration with a local Griffith restaurant, a Prosecco in the works, and where Peter hopes the brand will be in ten years.

It’s an honest, warm conversation about family, place and backing yourself, and a good reason to give the Riverina another look.

👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:
What would it take for you to give the Riverina another go? Drop it in the comments 👇

Go check out Via Pola: https://www.viapolawines.com.au/ and NSW Wine Month: https://www.nswwine.com.au/nsw-wine-month

🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast
📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up and @viapolawines
🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au
📩 info@thewinedup.com.au

We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷

YouTube Chapters
00:00 More Than Just Bulk Wine
00:56 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions
04:15 Growing Up on a Griffith Vineyard
06:50 Ten Vintages in Five Years
08:27 What the Riverina Was, and What It’s Becoming
11:17 Starting Via Pola From Scratch
14:39 The Street in Abruzzo Behind the Name
17:52 Pecorino, Sheep and a Salty Finish
21:13 A Lighter Monty Built for Pizza Night
24:40 Going Organic the Hard Way
26:48 Why the Riverina Deserves a Second Look
28:55 Where Via Pola Is Heading by 2036Show More

Why Peter Valeri Is Betting on the Riverina

The Riverina is the biggest wine region in New South Wales by volume, …

How good is Australian Pinot Noir?

Ten glasses, one blind tasting, and a question that’s been quietly …

Ten glasses, one blind tasting, and a question that’s been quietly dividing Australian wine for years: are we still trying to make Burgundy, or have we finally found our own …voice with Pinot Noir?

On this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with returning guest Marc Malouf of iHeartWine for a genuine celebration of Pinot Noir, not a ranking exercise. They kick off with a round of Pinot specific icebreakers, including the 2012 Comte Georges de Vogüé Musigny that Marc calls the most gorgeous Pinot of his life, and a dinner with United Cellars that ran through nine vintages of Mascarello Monprivato Barolo.

From there the conversation gets into the real substance. Marc is honest that Australian Pinot doesn’t quite reach the heights of Shiraz or Chardonnay yet, but argues that isn’t really the point. Where Burgundy has had centuries to map its soils down to the individual row, Australia is still working it out, and Marc makes the case that chasing a Burgundian blueprint might be the wrong goal altogether. Sites like the Yarra Valley grow half a dozen varieties side by side, which makes the kind of granular classification Burgundy is famous for a genuinely different challenge here.

Then comes the main event: ten Pinot Noirs poured blind, head to head across two glasses at a time, with the loser pushed out and replaced until only a favourite remains. Whole bunch versus destemmed, carbonic maceration, oak tannin versus stem tannin, and the way colour gives away a wine’s story all come up as Trent and Marc work through bracket after bracket, laughing at how genuinely hard it is to choose between wines that are all, in their words, unfairly good.
The reveal at the end is the twist. The wine that very nearly won the whole tasting turns out to cost around $60, a reminder that some of the best Pinot in the country doesn’t need to cost a bomb. Marc also hands over a genuine gateway recommendation for anyone new to the variety: an independent Geelong producer punching well above its price point.

It’s an honest, occasionally chaotic and thoroughly enjoyable look at where Australian Pinot Noir actually stands right now, and why that might be something worth celebrating rather than comparing.

👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:
Which Australian Pinot region do you think deserves more attention? Drop it in the comments 👇

Go check out Marc’s site: https://iheartwine.com.au/
🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast
📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up, @iheartwineaustralia and @wineworthwritingabout
🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au

📩 info@thewinedup.com.au

#pinotnoir #australianwine #marcmalouf #bromleywines #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwetrywelearnweconnect

We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷
YouTube Chapters
00:00 How Good Is Australian Pinot, Really?
01:04 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions
04:49 Fun Facts Even Wine Lovers Miss About Pinot
07:12 Marc’s Favourite Australian Producers
08:39 Chasing Burgundy Without the Centuries of History
13:29 Ten Wines, One Blind Tasting Begins
20:37 A New Bracket and a Total Change of Personality
39:10 The Reveal and a Surprise Under $60
41:17 Final Reflections and Advice for New Pinot DrinkersShow More

Mark Best – To Infinity and beyond!

Mark Best doesn’t care what people say about him. He never really has. …

Mark Best doesn’t care what people say about him. He never really has. And oddly, that’s the throughline of one of the most layered conversations we’ve recorded for The Wined …Up Podcast.

Best built his reputation the hard way at Marque, seventeen years of three-hat, top-50 cooking that, by his own account, took more than it gave back. He talks candidly about closing those doors in 2016 by the skin of his teeth, about losing a hat and losing financial viability in the same breath, and about how long it actually took to work out who he was as a chef once the accolades stopped defining him.

Ten years on, he’s running Infinity, high above Sydney in the Tower, and he’s made a call most restaurateurs wouldn’t touch: an entirely Australian wine list. No safety net of international labels, no champagne carve-out. Sommeliers pushed back. One told him the concept was weak. Mark Best leaned into the friction anyway, and the diners backed him.

Along the way there’s a tasting of the Chalou “Quixotic” Pinot Noir, made by Nadia Wallington and her husband Steve in a genuinely symbiotic vineyard-and-winery partnership, paired with Infinity’s dry-aged, chargrilled coral trout. There’s a proper conversation about mentoring the generation of chefs who came through Mark’s tiny kitchen, Dan Hong and Victor Liong among them, and what he actually looks for in people. And there’s an unfiltered take on where Sydney’s dining scene is heading, on cultural cringe, on old vines and new heads, and on why he’d rather do good work quietly than chase anyone’s approval.

It’s honest, occasionally profane, and full of the kind of hard-won perspective you only get from someone who’s actually lived through the highs and the wreckage of hospitality. If you care about Australian wine, Australian food, or what it actually takes to build and rebuild a career in this industry.

👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:
What would it take for you to walk away from something you’d built? Drop it in the comments 👇

Go check out Infinity: https://infinitysydneytower.com.au/ and Chalou: https://www.chalouwines.com.au/

🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast
📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up, @infinitysydneytower, @chalouwines and @markbest

🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au
📩 info@thewinedup.com.au

#markbest #infinitysydney #chalouwines #drinkaustralian #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwetrywelearnweconnect

We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷

YouTube Chapters
00:00 Three Hats, One Restless Chef
01:00 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions
07:05 Portraits, Truth and a Craftsman, Not an Artist
09:34 Wheat Country, No Chefs, No Celebrity
11:37 The Night the Lightning Struck
13:10 What Mark Best Cuisine Actually Means
16:09 Chasing the Hats and the Weight of Getting There
19:32 Closing the Doors on Marque
20:57 Stepping Into Infinity and the All-Australian Bet
28:55 The Chalou, the Coral Trout and Why Customers Bought In
39:51 Passing It Down: Mentoring the Next Generation
45:47 Why Mark Best Doesn’t Chase ApprovalShow More

Five Way Cellars – One of Sydney’s Wine Institutions

In this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Ches …

In this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Ches Cook from Five Way Cellars, the independent Paddington wine store his parents Ian and Prue opened in …1987 after Ian came home from a year in Europe wanting to bring that world of wine back to Sydney. Ches has now worked there for half his life, and he takes us through what’s changed, and what hasn’t, across nearly forty years of European-focused wine retail.

The chat moves from a standout cellar visit in the Mosel and an unopened birthday bottle of Côte-Rôtie, through to the philosophy that actually keeps a small shop full of loyal customers: knowing people, being straight with them, and never pretending to love a bottle you don’t. Ches breaks down why a higher price tag doesn’t mean better wine, what a genuine beginner should actually look for on a label, and the seven types of wine drinker he sees walk through the door, tosser included.

There’s a proper detour into a mega-steep, volcanic Grand Cru in Alsace that almost nobody wants to farm, a case for Beechworth as Australia’s best-kept Nebbiolo secret, and an honest read on where Burgundy’s pricing might be heading. As Ian approaches 70 and the next generation starts taking the reins, Ches reflects on what he’s learned from watching his dad build trust with an entire city, one recommendation at a time.

It all circles back to that Grange. Wine, Ches argues, isn’t something to hoard for bragging rights, it’s something to open with the people who matter. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve already got a cellar full of Shiraz and only want Pinot, there’s something here for you.

👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:
What’s sitting in your cellar that you’re waiting too long to open? Drop it in the comments 👇

Go check out fivewaycellars.com.au

YouTube Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:18 The Wined Up Ice Breaker Questions
11:01 What Actually Is Five Way Cellars
17:28 The Real Difference Is Connection
20:37 The Grand Cru Almost No One Wants to Farm
24:01 Building Trust One Bottle at a Time
30:43 The Biggest Mistake Wine Buyers Make
33:04 A Beginner’s Guide to Buying Better Wine
37:31 The Seven Types of Wine Drinker
46:01 Beechworth: Australia’s Nebbiolo Secret
48:04 Rapid-Fire This or That
50:58 What Excites (and Worries) Ches
53:57 Why You Never Sell the Grange

🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast
📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up
🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au
📩 info@thewinedup.com.au

#fivewaycellars #paddington #sydneywine #independentbottleshop #TheWinedUpPodcast #wedrinkwelearnweconnect

We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We Connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷Show More

The Winemaker Trying to Prove Wine Doesn't Need the Alcohol

What happens when you take a winemaker who never planned to work in …

What happens when you take a winemaker who never planned to work in alcohol-free wine, and hand him the job of making it actually taste like wine?

Aaron Milne fell into …it almost by accident. A winery job during his studies happened to be run by the same people leading Australia’s zero-alcohol scene, and a “one year, just to learn it” detour turned into a career. In this episode of The Wined Up Podcast, Trent sits down with Aaron, winemaker for Edenvale, to pull apart what actually happens when you strip the alcohol out of wine, and why it’s so much harder than it sounds.

Aaron walks through the process, from the early days of simply boiling off the alcohol, to vacuum distillation, spinning cone columns, and now single-pass equipment that separates the essence, removes the alcohol and returns the flavour. But the technical side is only half the story. Alcohol carries weight, sweetness and length on the palate, and once it’s gone, a wine can turn “fossil dry” almost overnight. Reds are the real test: strip the alcohol from a Cabernet and the tannins and colour compounds that depended on it start to fall apart, which is why Eden Vale’s Coonawarra Cabernet is described as the Everest of the whole project.

The conversation also gets into the culture around no and low alcohol wine: why traditional wine drinkers have been resistant, the idea of “vinosity” as the actual goal, and the rise of the “zebra drinker” — people who move between full-strength and zero wine in the same session rather than choosing one camp for good. Aaron also touches on where the category is heading, including the mid-strength range he thinks holds the most promise over the next five to ten years.

It’s an honest, occasionally very funny look at one of the more overlooked corners of the Australian wine industry, and what it actually takes to make something that isn’t wine taste like it belongs at the table with food anyway.

Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, SBS and Cabernet all make an appearance, alongside a story about a 98 Grange, a fire drum, and Snoop Dogg.

👉 Subscribe to @thewinedup and tell us below:
What’s your take — is alcohol-free wine a genuine alternative, or does wine need the alcohol to be wine? Drop it in the comments 👇

Go check out edenvalle.com.au
🎙️ Clip from The Wined Up Podcast
📺 Watch full episodes on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow us on Instagram @the.wined.up
🌐 Visit https://www.thewinedup.com.au
📩 info@thewinedup.com.au

We Drink. We Try. We Learn. We connect. Drink Responsibly. 🍷

## YouTube Chapters
00:00 Can Wine Still Be Wine Without the Alcohol?
0:56 Grange, Snoop Dogg and the Icebreaker Questions
5:59 How Aaron Fell Into Winemaking by Accident
8:03 Ending Up at the Frontier of Alcohol-Free Wine
10:33 Why Eden Vale Exists in the First Place
12:58 From Boiling It Out to Vacuum Distillation
16:12 The Real Fight Is Replacing What Alcohol Does
24:09 The Expensive Mistakes Along the Way
25:48 Why Whites Are Easy and Reds Are Brutal
32:53 Chasing Something Called “Vinosity”
36:14 The Rise of the Zebra Drinker
44:03 Taking On the Everest of Zero-Alcohol Wine
50:35 Where Low and No Alcohol Wine Is Headed NextShow More

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Through podcast interviews, editorial features and digital content, we share the stories behind the people, places and experiences that shape our industry.

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Hosted by Trent, The Wined Up celebrates the stories behind wine, food, travel and hospitality.

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