Pressing Matters

Greg Melick simultaneously wears more hats than most people manage in a lifetime. He is a top-level barrister (Senior Counsel), a Major General (the highest rank in the Australian Army Reserve) and has presided over a number of headline special commissions and enquiries into subjects as diverse as cricket match-fixing allegations and the Beaconsfield mine collapse. More recently he has become Deputy President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and Chief Commissioner of the Tasmanian Integrity Commission. Yet, if asked, he would probably nominate wine as his major focus in life. Having built up an exceptional cellar of the great wines of Europe, he has turned his attention to grapegrowing and winemaking, planting 2.9ha of riesling at his vineyard in the Coal River Valley. It is a perfect north-facing slope, and the Mosel-style Rieslings are sweeping all before them. His multi-clone 4.2ha pinot noir block is also striking gold. JAMES HALLIDAY winecompanion.com.au