LEADING Australian online wine information sites The Wine Front and Winorama today announced that they were joining forces to create what is likely to be Australia’s most active wine review site. This site will run under The Wine Front banner.

The Wine Front has been published by Campbell Mattinson under the www.winefront.com.au address since early 2002. Its articles have won widespread acclaim (it won the 2005 Wine Press Club Wine Communicator Award and is a two-time finalist at the World Food Media Awards) and is one of only a very few commercially-successful wine information sites in Australia.

Winorama has been published by Gary Walsh under the www.winorama.com.au address over the past three years. While it’s true that Winorama’s information has been free-of-charge, its success has been remarkable: in just three years interest in the site has soared to the point where today it records nearly 50,000 unique visitors per month. One of the great successes of Winorama has been its daily interaction with the wine loving community – a feature also available on The Wine Front site.

By moving under the one banner Mattinson and Walsh believe they will publish an average of between 200 and 500 detailed wine reviews each month – on top of ongoing news and feature articles and videos. In Australia today there is no online source that comes anywhere close to this number of current reviews – and crucially, the wines are reviewed as the wines are released (i.e. when the wines are available for sale).

Mattinson said, “Over the past five years we’ve steadily emailed each other half a dozen times per day – and we have very similar philosophies on how wine should be reviewed. In the end the decision to co-publish a site was simply a natural progression. It just happened. The best thing is that subscribers to the site should see a lot of action.”

Walsh said, “Like any good wedding, this is happy and jolly day for me, but also tinged with sadness as I say (for the larger part of my work) goodbye to Winorama. But it’s time to move on and get serious about creating the biggest and best wine review site in Australia. Campbell and I are a natural fit, he’s both a great writer and a taster for whom I have the highest regard, and we see eye to eye on most things…at least most of the time. It’s an honour to team up with him. And like big Kev..I’m excited! “

Walsh and Mattinson will clearly mark who has reviewed what – though in a quirky innovation they’ll also publish “Double-Take” reviews where they both review the same wine, side by side.

“I’ve long since loved the way Margaret (Pomeranz) and David (Stratton) review films – I reckon there’s a place for this style of reviewing in wine, in print. With Gary Walsh as the co-publisher of The Wine Front it gives us the perfect and easy opportunity to do just that. I also hope that this move brings Walsh to a new audience – he’s not only an outstanding taster of wine, but he’s got a unique take on things.” Mattinson said.

Subscriptions to The Wine Front cost $39.95 per annum. See http://www.winefront.com.au/subscribe-to-winefront


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