Andrew Caillard and The Australian Ark, perhaps the best wine book ever written!
Website: https://australianark.com
Andrew Caillard’s ‘The Australian Ark’ is one of the most amazing wine books ever written. I caught up with him at the recent Pinot Massif event in Victoria, where he described the project and also gave an illuminating talk on the history of Pinot Noir in Australia.
Interesting fact about Andrew: initially, his career plan was to be in the British army. But he never got further than the rank of trooper, for various reasons. One of them was the loss of a rifle and 20 rounds of ammunition during a training exercise involving stretcher bearing. This is a big deal apparently, and although they were later found, this incident was taken very seriously! The army’s loss is wine’s gain.
The Australian Ark project started 17 years ago. Andrew says that the book cost around A$1 million to put together, and this isn’t including any fees for the author. Andrew initially raised money by crowdfunding: this raised A$320 000, and then a second wave of crowdfunding pulled in another A$300 000. So far an impressive 5000 copies have been sold. This is quite a lot for a huge reference work that comes in three large volumes, with 500 000 words and 1200 illustrations.
Assisting Andrew in the project were Angus Hughson, who convinced him to go the crowdfunding route, and David Longfield, who became the managing editor. The book has been taken in the UK by the Acadamie du Vin Library, a very active wine-book publishing house originally started by Steven Spurrier.
‘I think it’s an incredibly important project,’ says Andrew, and I agree. It was very collaborative, with many Australian wineries raiding their archives and supplying lots of pictures that have never been published before.
The three volumes break down the history of Australian wine into three periods. Andrew says that the more recent one was the hardest to write. And you can buy various versions of this book, including a paperback version at A$199. This is pricey for a book, but consider this: you are getting a valuable reference work that won’t go out of date, for the price of a couple of bottles of wine in a restaurant, or a concert ticket to see some ageing pop band at a stadium gig.
To buy in the UK: https://academieduvinlibrary.com/products/the-australian-ark
In Australia, buy from the Australian Ark direct: https://australianark.com
