Working at Halliday Wine Companion Magazine
IN 2001 I LEFT PAID EMPLOYMENT and headed out into the wilds of freelance writing. There was no Plan B. The lack of a Plan B was compounded when in 2004 we then moved a 3.5 hour drive out of Melbourne. If we couldn't cut it as freelancers, there was no real chance of getting a full time job someplace near. Thalia Kalkipsakis, my partner, was/is a freelance writer/editor too (or was until recently). Freelance doesn’t just mean no fixed income; it means no guarantee of any income. On top, it can take years to sell a house that far out of town; our flexibility as low; we had to make it work. I still don't know how we did. Or why we thought we could. I look back now and think: that was crazy risky, especially with little kids in tow.
We made it work, somehow. There were lean years. I recall filing tax returns three years in a row where my taxable income was in the $30Ks. There are still lean years, and there will be more to come. But there have been good years too. If it hadn’t been for Hardie Grant Books and Halliday Wine Companion though, there would have been more of the former, and far fewer of the latter.
I did three editions of the Big Red Wine Book with Hardie Grant and then, more importantly, in 2011 I started working at Wine Companion Magazine as its editor (along with the wonderful Amelia Ball). I've moved around over the years, mostly because I’m both restless and forever trying to extract the best words from myself. I like getting paid, but I like getting the best out of myself even more. I was chief features writer at the magazine for a couple of years, a job title I always liked, and from there became a regular columnist, and a regular contributor. I was there – and heard all the arguments for and against – as the name Halliday became part of the main brand, instead of ‘just’ Wine Companion.
For 10 or 11 of the past 13 years I've done the TOP 50 REDS winter feature in the magazine, mostly in tandem with James Halliday though over the past couple of years, as James has stepped back, I've compiled the list myself, with help from the Halliday tasting team/the Halliday database of reviews. I've written an opinion piece in every edition of the magazine over the past couple of years too, and for the past year have contributed features, and also written the opening editor's letter. I was the editor of the magazine over this past year by appearance only; Nola James was in charge of the editor's desk.
I didn’t know, when the June/Winter 2024 edition of Halliday Magazine announced that James Halliday had retired from wine writing completely, that this edition would be my last. The end is rarely telegraphed. This edition then is the last where I'll have an opinion column or anything else in the magazine. It's also the last time that I compile the TOP 50 REDS feature. Normally it would be disappointing to see that the TOP 50 REDS feature isn't mentioned on the front cover but if you’re going to be bumped, the retirement of James Halliday is a pretty damn good reason.
It wasn’t planned this way by any stretch but, it turns out, as James stepped out the door, I slipped out with him.
My thirteen years with Halliday Wine Companion magazine is at an end. I’ve been out on my own, freelance, nothing much fixed, since 2001. It’s always scary. It’s always right. I’m a pure writer, I don’t do events, the words are good or I’m done. In both this light and in the shades of grey between, I’m grateful for the opportunities afforded to me by the Halliday masthead, over these many years. These opportunities put food on the plates of our children.
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When I started as a wine journalist I remember driving through the hot dry wine lands and thinking about the spirit and toughness it would require of a person to make beautiful liquid out of this hot harshness. I’ve been hooked on trying to capture or delve into that spirit and that toughness ever since.
