Australian and New Zealand Wine For Dummies

Maryann Egan is the wine writer for Donna hay magazine, a leading food magazine in Australia. Also she lectured in the wine appraisal course for the Charles Sturt Oenology Degree.
For Maryann, Life began among the vines and wine when, in 1963, her father established Wantirna Estate vineyard in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia. Growing up with a wine-mad family (traipsing through the vineyards of Europe for holidays) Prepared her for a life in the wine business. Wantirna is now her main focus.
Wantirna Estate is tiny in comparison with some of the huge Australian wine business but size doesn't have to count. her father primarily looks after the vines, Maryann looks after the wines and her mother looks after the computer stuff.
The winery makes for wines, each proudly named after a granddaughter-Isabella Chardonnay, Lily Pinot Noir, Amelia Cabernet Merlot and Hannah and, in doing so, spends a lot of time in the vineyard maximizing the potential quality of the fruit.
Maryann's work experience in the wine industry began after completing a physical education degree. Backpacking on a trip to Europe, she worked a vintage in Burgundy with Sophie Confuron at Jean Jacques Confuron in Premauz-Prissey, France. A year in Paris learning French followed.
On returning to Australia, she traded physical education for a degree in oenology ( more commonly known as wine science), at  Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.
Maryann then worked for a few years at the family winery, interspersed with vintages in the NSW Hunter Valley winery, Tyrell's Wines, and in Bordeaux, France, in the Mèdoc wine region.

She returned to Australia to take up a winemaking position with Domaine Chandon in the Yarra Valley, where she remained for almost six years as a winemaker before leaving to have her first daughter.

Maryann became a regular contributor to the Australian Gourmet Traveler Wine magazine and was a member of the magazine's main tasting panel. As part o f this role, she was a judge for the prestigious 'The Wine Magazine Winemaker of the Year' award.