Writer
Andrew Caillard, a graduate of South Australia’s Roseworthy Agricultural College, is a leading Australian Master of Wine. He is best known as a co-founding director of Australian wine auction house Langton’s, an advocate for Australian fine wine and author of the multi-award winning The Australian Ark. In 1993 Caillard passed the Master of Wine examination winning the Madame Lily Bollinger Medal for excellence in wine tasting. After 19 years at Langton’s Fine Wine Auctions and 15 years at Woolworths/ Endeavour Group/ Pinnacle Drinks (including Langton’s and Dan Murphy’s) as Fine Wine Principal, Caillard transitioned to becoming a full-time writer and independent wine consultant in 2023. In addition to his 47-year career, Caillard has worked extensively in multi-media and film. He has written for publications in Australia, the UK and the US and authored many wine books. In 2021 he launched The Vintage Journal and established the not-for-profit The Australian Ark Project with wine entrepreneur Dr Angus Hughson, the latter as a vehicle to publish Caillard’s 500,000-word manuscript on the history of Australian wine. The three-volume 1700-page The Australian Ark – The story of Australian Wine 1788-2023 – co-published by The Vintage Journal and Longueville Media has received wide acclaim from across the world. Caillard’s authorship has been described by key media observers as a ‘triumph’, ‘a masterpiece’, ‘majestic’ and ‘magisterial’, highlighting the book’s potential significance in Australian historical literature. The Australian Ark has won several awards including the UK's André Simon Award (2025), the OIV's President's Award (2024) , the World Gourmand Award for Best Wine Book in the World (2025), the National Trust of NSW Heritage Award (2025) and the Australian Wine Communicator's Award (2024) for Best New Wine Book. Other reference wine editions by Andrew Caillard MW include Penfold’s “The Rewards of Patience” (editions III to IX ), Marqués de Riscal – A Travel Through Time, Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine (editions I to VII), Imagining Coonawarra – The story of Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon, The Essence of Dreams – The story of Mornington Peninsula Wine. He has also co-authored student reference books Australian Wine and A Taste of the World of Wine with academic scientists Dr Patrick Iland, Dr Peter Dry and Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago. Caillard is also the associate producer of the AACTA award-winning feature documentary Red Obsession (a story about the economic shift in power from the west to the east through the prism of Bordeaux’s wine and China) and the widely-acclaimed Blind Ambition (a story about four Zimbabwean Sommeliers competing in the World Blind Wine Championship in France). Typical of many industry professionals, Caillard has assessed wines extensively through various forums including commercial and media wine panels, independent review, Bordeaux Primeurs, European buying trips, Australian and international wine shows in Europe and Asia. He was chair of Shanghai’s Wine 100 competition for ten years, a judge of provenance classes at the Adelaide and Barossa wine shows and more recently a vice-chair at the Wynn Signature Chinese Wine Awards (2024 & 2026) in Macau and a panel judge at the IWSC's regional competition in Margaret River (2025) Andrew Caillard MW has received the “Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award” (2011 & 2024), 'Legend of the Vine Award (2022), the prestigious Maurice O'Shea Award (2025) and the Cullen Award for Excellence (2025). The 9th Edition of Penfolds The Rewards of Patience and a lavishly illustrated book on the history of Seppeltsfield will be released in 2026.
