According to my very rubbery estimations, this website – Australian Wine Review or ozwinereview – turns eight today. Eight years old! Wow.

Those original (backdated) posts are a tad cringeworthy now, but I think everyone feels the same way about their early work. Rubbish, but important all the same.

Really there is just one purpose of this post – a massive thanks for reading. I wouldn’t have bothered sinking thousands of unpaid hours into this website if I didn’t think that at least somebody was out there.

I’m grateful for every person who comments, emails, texts, proofreads, complains and occasionally writes an angry/complementary message in response to what I post. Thanks to everyone. All of it. Everything.

Much has changed over the last eight years. This site started as a repository for my tasting notes, but has now morphed into something much bigger. This past year, in particular, has been a big one, with the first major refresh in eight years. A busy time for me all round, actually, with my own wine business now several months old (more on that soon).

I’m crap at acceptance speeches but I did a two part video about being a wine blogger that wraps up the sentiment quite well (have a squizz here and here).

Otherwise, again, I can’t say enough thanks. Thanks to everyone who keeps this show on the road. Thanks to my family, my wonderful (long-suffering) partner, my friends. Thanks to all the generous winemakers out there who’ve given me their time and opened up great bottles, just because. Thanks, thanks, thanks and more thanks.

That decade is nearing fast…

Oh and the picture? It was from my first published article in 2009.