AceHighWine

Max Veenhuyzen is a perilously close to 30-something writer in Western Australia who was fortunate enough to land a writing job straight out of uni after finishing his studies in journalism and creative writing.

After toiling in the glamorous world of on-hold copywriting, he luckboxed his way into a job at Community Newspaper Group where has had the privilege of being able to write on a variety of topics close to his heart.

For almost a year, he penned a weekly wine column in the Guardian Express entitled “Grape Expectations” (which had apparently already been picked by a writer on the other side of the country. Oops, my bad) which sadly ended when its section in the paper was given the arse.

He established a website in 2005 entitled yum.org.au that was dedicated to food, drink and life in WA but through the power of evolution, the website and its associated monthly newsletter “Tasting Notes” morphed into www.acehighwine.com which also factored in his love of poker (not to be confused with “gambling”).

While Max’s lightly-subbed words on wine can be glossed over in West Australian lifestyle magazine Scoop where he is a regular panel leader in Scoop’s quarterly tastings, the tenure he is most proud of is that of “apprentice chairman” on the tasting panel for Peter Forrestal’s Quaff - the annual guide to the best wines available in Australia for less than $15.

While he doubts he’ll ever be able to match the ruthless efficiency and take-no-prisoners approach of current panel chair Neville Phillips, the privilege of tasting alongside such distinguished palates as John Jens, Peter Forrestal, the good doctor Neville and the ever-forthright Will Nairn is reason enough to risk speed camera prosecution in the mad dash to get from Subiaco to Scarborough in half an hour through peak hour traffic on a Tuesday night - sometimes Monday as well if Max’s playing commitments to his indoor soccer team WFC allow.

Max is also the first Australian to have won the PokerStars Sunday Million tournament - beating out a record (at the time) 8063 runners on the March 2 edition of the weekly $200+$15 no limit hold’em tournament to pocket more than US$160,000. What a clever luckbox.

After contributing to Scoop as a freelancer for almost two years, Max joined the magazine as a full-time senior writer in 2008 where he writes copy for Scoop as well as other titles in the Scoop Publishing stable.

In addition to trying to correctly assemble verbs, nouns and adjectives, Max’s day is also filled with fiddling with his digital SLR (purchased through the proceeds of many a tournament of Pacific Poker back in the day) and a selection of lenses.

Max looks forward to the day when Polaroids are considered “appropriate” for publication in high-end mags.