Nick Ryan reviews The Australian Ark: The Story of Australian Wine by Andrew Caillard MW.
Before anything else, a disclaimer: The impartiality a reviewer requires is beyond me here. The first time I held this work in my hands, tears came. Andrew Caillard has been a mentor to me from my earliest days in wine—occasionally without trying, often without knowing.
Two decades ago, desperate to escape the only office job I ever had, I applied for a position at Langtons, the wine auction house Andrew had co-founded. It wasn’t a particularly exciting job, little more than a store man, but at least it was better than running the copy department of a direct-mail wine club business with colleagues who viewed me as either a drunk or an idiot. Or both.
In applying for the job, I submitted an underwhelming résumé and several issues of a glossy lifestyle magazine that had, in a clear indication of how little it cared for the subject, allowed me space to write about wine. I was summoned for an interview, to be conducted at an inner-city café near the Langtons headquarters. It began thus:
“Right, you should probably know from the outset that you’re not getting this job. Now, how do you have your coffee?”
What I thought was a swifter rejection than even I deserved turned out to be a long, expansive, and career-defining conversation that put me on the path I stumble today. Caillard saw something in my writing that I couldn’t.
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
