Two strangers met in Adelaide Australia, in the most unusual of circumstances, and over many glasses of South Australian wine became lifelong friends.
One moved to Norway to marry the love of his life and the other stayed in Adelaide to continue work.
After many conversations these two friends agreed that the world needed more of the best South Australian Wines, so more people across the globe could relax, enjoy, bond and make lifelong friendships too.
Freelance Wine Journalist, Wine Industry Consultant and Director of Wine Assist Pty Ltd, has 31 years’ experience in the Wine Industry.
Journalism:
Since 2010 Dan has been regularly writing articles for wine industry magazines:
1. Wine Business Magazine (WRM) — mainly on Alternative grape varieties — 58 different varieties covered.
Dan has had 65 articles published by WBM out of the 68 articles submitted. He has also the Australian wine judge at the World Bulk Wine Exhibition in Amsterdam each year.
2. Winestate Magazine — as commissioned, 43 articles to date have been published. Dan has travelled to Austria, Spain, France, Japan and Hong Kong on behalf of Winestate Magazine to write about their wines.
Included in the above Dan has written about the wines from: Austria, China, Georgia, Greece, India, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, Loire Valley, Languedoc and Alsace.
In 2014 Dan was one of four finalists in the Wine Communicators of Australia Awards, in the “Best Individual Article” category — “WHAT Article: Let’s Be Franc”.
In addition, Dan publishes a weekly blog covering a wide variety of global wine matters and publishes daily wine reviews on Linkedln, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, across which he has just over 36,000 contacts (and rising). Dan has also had articles published online in the USA, Africa, Austria and India.
WINE INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE:
Dan commenced his working career as an accountant for an Insurance company but in the late 1980s made a career change to the wine industry joining the Orlando Wyndham Group. There he spent 10 years working his way up from National Branch Administration Manger, to National Sales Support Manager and finally to heading up a premium spirits division of Orlando, G & V Trading, as their General Manager.
In 1999, Dan was head hunted to become the General Manager for Chateau Yaldara, in the Barossa Valley and was instrumental in reorganising and rebuilding the business which was renamed, Yaldara Wines. During this time Dan restructured the Sales force, bottling facility, product portfolio, including creating three completely new premium wine brands. Dan was instrumental in Yaldara creating an Australian wine industry first by placing a thermal panel on the back label of certain product ranges (this panel shows when the wine is at optimal drinking temperature). Label designs introduced by Yaldara under Dan’s direction won Australia’s first two wine industry Gold Medals at the Global Packaging Awards.
After Yaldara wines was sold, Dan was appointed Chief Executive Officer of a mid-sized wine company in the Riverland with 1,500 acres of vines, an olive grove and a citrus orchard. He spent the next two years restructuring and stabilising the company’s finances and vineyard programs, expanding their export markets and opening a Cellar Door. During his time in the Riverland, Dan was elected to both the Riverland Wine Industry Development Corporation’s marketing committee and the Riverland Vine Improvement Committee management board.
Also, in 2002 Dan was the instigator of the Winestate Magazine Jimmy Watson Trophy (Australia’s most sought after wine trophy) tasting, during which Dan along with Wolf Blass and two other judges reviewed 30 vintages of Jimmy Watson Trophy winning wines. This was the biggest and most complete tasting of the Jimmy Watson Trophy winning wines ever conducted in Australia.
Having completed the restructure of the Riverland wine company, Dan moved back to Adelaide in 2004 to develop his consultancy business, Wine Assist.
In 2004 he was approached by an Adelaide winery to represent them as a Delegate on the South Australian Premier’s first tour of India organised by Amstrad°. Dan’s input soon led to him being appointed the unofficial team leader for the six wineries involved in this venture and liaising with Austrade representatives both in South Australia and India.
When Dan returned from India, he assisted a new client to start up a virtual wine company dealing primarily with exports to China. Dan was then contracted as General Manager of this company and spent the next three years building lip the busi-ness.
After this period, Dan handed over the reins to continue with Wine Assist and now provides export services to several small wineries, production and marketing consultancy to others as well as Trade Mark registration services. www.wineas-sist.com.au
Most recently Dan was contracted to assist in the re-commissioning of a 20,000 tonnes winery in rural INSW which had been lying idle for two years.
Dan also conducts Wine Education courses which are tailored to suit the company involved.
He has conducted courses for:
Dan is an occasional judge on Winestate Magazine wine judging panels and one the judges of the Australian National Ama-teur Wine & Beer Show for the last five years.
Through Wine Assist, Dan continues to offer a wide range of services to the Australian wine industry and wine enthusiasts, as well as writing regularly about most aspects of wine.