I AM:
Evan Milne, Chief Whip #Stockonhandwines (VIC Committee)

 

I BECAME A COMMITTEE MEMBER TO:
Support the future of our industry.

 

MY BACKGROUND IS:
From hospitality worker at Vue de monde, Walters Wine Bar, Royal Mail hotel to restaurant owner of Scorched in Torquay my focus was always on wine and guest experience. I now try and offer the same customer focused experience through my wholesale wine distribution business and through the wines my wife and I make.

 

ONE THING PEOPLE MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME IS…
I ran a 2000 acre sheep and cattle farm for 2 years in my early 20s.

 

THE MOTTO I LIVE BY IS:
‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

MY ROLE MODELS ARE:
Mark Walpole of Fighting Gully Road: Plays the long game in the endless pursuit of perfection. Incredible knowledge, experience and wisdom that is generously shared. Very few people with as much knowledge are as humble and grounded. A truly inspiring individual.Isa Bal: Consummate wine professional. Generous with his time and knowledge. Equally comfortable sharing the world’s greatest and most humble wines.

 

THE PERFECT MEAL WOULD BE:
A large table of family & friends with too much food and magnums of delicious wine. My perfect food & wine pairing at present would be Abrolhos Island scallops served raw with salt, lemon, olive oil and lemon thyme flowers matched to a great bottle of dry riesling.

 

MY GREATEST INDULGENCE IS:
2008 champagne. Old records on a great sound system.