Aesthetics and integrity matter to Erin Larkin, the Wine Advocate reviewer for Australia and New Zealand.
She grew up in Perth, a chic street urchin around the oceanside neighbourhoods of Perth who found joy in making things.
That turned into an early career in fashion and a lifelong love of style, patterns, materials, details—and dressing well.
As is often the case with creative people in underpaid jobs, she moonlighted in bottle shops and borderline hospitality, where parallels with her approach to fashion and a burgeoning curiosity in people and places plunged her deep into the world of wine.
In 2020, Erin became a critic at Halliday Wine Companion, Australia’s most prolific publisher of reviews. She balanced this with various presenting, judging and writing gigs.
A couple of years later, a fateful call from The Wine Advocate made her a full-time international critic. She’s the first Australia-based reviewer for the publication, which grew out of Robert M. Parker Jr's late-1970s direct-mail newsletter, The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate. Parker went on to become the world's most influential wine critic, and his magazine has grown into a crack international team headed by editor-in-chief William Kelley.
Erin and I were both selected as scholars for the Len Evans Tutorial in 2022. Andrea Pritzker MW was also a member of that contingent; for more on LET, as it’s known, please listen to episode 2 of the podcast.
Erin is thoughtful and thoroughly articulate about the evolution of her writing and approach to criticism. There is a large element of making your own luck in the way she has thrown herself into opportunities in wine, thriving on curiosity.
We also went into depth about the most exciting wines coming out of Margaret River, Swan Valley and Great Southern in her home state of Western Australia.
I really hope you enjoy the conversation. And I’d love to hear from you—please like, subscribe, share and comment. Your curiosity and input make the wine world go round!
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