We are delighted to announce that the award-winning writer Andrea Frost (inevitably, perhaps, known as Frosty by fellow Melburnians such as our Australian correspondent Max Allen) is joining our growing team.
Andrea is hugely impressive – academic in thought but not in writing style. And, as Elaine and I saw in Wellington at Pinot Noir NZ last year, she is a brilliant speaker too. Her work is highly distinctive and has aptly been described as ‘more like an evening with a particularly erudite and witty dinner companion than a class at the local wine school’. Her unique approach to wine has as much to do with culture and philosophy as it does with tasting notes and terroir, which is why we think she will make an ideal successor to the much-missed Alex Hunt MW at the end of every other month.
(Hrishi Poola, winner of our wine writing competition, will continue to make his excellent contributions to JancisRobinson.com too.)
In 2013, Andrea was named Wine Communicator of the Year in her native Australia and her first book, Through a Sparkling Glass: An A–Z of the Wonderland of Wine (published by Hardie Grant/Rizzoli Books and described by Andrew Jefford as a ‘gentle, thoughtful stroll through wine, life and most things in between’), was awarded Best Wine Publication. For the past three years, Andrea has been shortlisted in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards for her regular columns, and her article 'The Invention of Wine' won the Best Editorial Wine Writing award at the Born Digital Wine Awards. A graduate of the exclusive Len Evans Tutorial in the Hunter Valley, Andrea has judged at wine shows in Australia, New Zealand and the Decanter World Wine Awards in London.
Her first degree was Bachelor of Applied Science at Deakin University. This was followed by a Masters in Marketing at Melbourne Business School and she later attended numerous short courses in non-fiction writing, including a summer programme at Yale.
She has appeared at several literary festivals and before becoming a freelance writer held various roles in publishing and media, as you can read in her first contribution also published today. In the last few years she has shared her time between Australia and the UK.
The theme of her columns is ‘thinking and drinking’ and she has suggested we publish them as ‘Andrea’s salon’. Nothing to do with hairdressing, but because the word is linked with definitions such as this: ‘The French Salon, a product of The Enlightenment in the early 18th century, was a key institution in which women played a central role. Salons provided a place for women and men to congregate for intellectual discourse.’ See also this definition of the word.
Andrea’s portrait is the work of James Broadway.