Knockoffs with… comedian and wine-lover Merrick Watts
CityMag sits down with comedian Merrick Watts to chat about the ‘best show I’ve ever’ written – a wine-tasting extravaganza at the Garden of Unearthly Delights. Then there’s his journey to becoming a sommelier, his best wine-drinking buddy and why SA creates the best drops.
Merrick Watts is an Australian comedian who returns to the Garden of Unearthly Delights this Fringe season with a brand‑new wine-tasting comedy experience.
We sit down with the comedian who has been coming to Adelaide for the arts festival for 25 years to talk South Australian wine, his first Adelaide show in a CBD car park, and who the best comedian in Australia is to share a wine.
WHERE: The Garden of Unearthly Delights
WHAT WE DRANK:
- Hahndorf Hill 2024 Gru Gruner Veltliner
- Hiteher & Yon 2023 Touriga Tempranillo
David Simmons: What are we drinking?
Merrick Watts: We’ve got a Hahndorf Hill Gru Gruner Veltliner. This is a genuinely very good wine. I think this is like a Gold Class wine, meaning it’s received over 95 or 96 points from memory. So it goes in the Gold Class. If we were judging that, that would be gold.
DS: Do you care much about the scores?
MW: I do a little bit. I think it’s important because it gives you some context, particularly if the wine is from South Australia and it’s a good brand, if it’s got a good score, it’s really validated.
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DS: Give me some tasting notes.
MW: Beautiful, bright acidity. Nice apple in there. Really nice apple. Little bit of florals on the nose, little bit of mineral kick in there as well. Sometimes you get a little bit of white pepper. And this is just really, really nicely finished. It’s a very, very nice, clean, bright drinking wine, great with food, great with anything. I really like this a lot.
DS: Did you study wine tasting to become a sommelier?
MW: I’m a qualified sommelier. And I’ve done judging qualifications as well. This year I’m judging the Barossa Valley Wine Show. I’m also a Barossa Master as well. It is an honour and a privilege, because they take it very, very seriously. I don’t consume alcohol in the week I’m judging so stay completely, you know, totally below 00, the whole time, just because I think you’ve got to have a really high level of attention to the wines. There’s people’s livelihoods at the end of this.
DS: When did you develop an interest in wine?
MW: About 27 years ago, I was over here for Fringe, and I was invited to go out to the Barossa Valley and have a look at some wineries there. I went to several winners, but I ended up at Rockford, and I had Basket Press there, and that just blew my mind and changed my world. And then after that, I liked wine. I particularly liked things like Sangiovese with food. I spent a lot of time in Adelaide, in the regions, and it just kind of grew and grew and grew from there and germinated into something. Then I got the qualifications, because I wanted to do events in wineries with Grapes of Mirth, and I wanted the wine makers and the wine industry to realise that, you know, we weren’t grass tramplers. We weren’t there to ruin wineries. We were there to respect them and understand them.
DS: Tell me about the show.
MW: This is the best show I’ve ever written. I’m really happy with the show. It was the hardest process I’ve ever had to write a show. It was the longest, the most drafts, the most amount of work, the most amount of research. It was a lot of labour in it, but it all just kind of fell together.
DS: How many wines do people get to taste?
MW: A flight of six. Some of them are from South Australia and other ones, all of them from Australian wines. I always use 100 per cent Australian wines, but they’re from different parts of the country, depending on the varietals. I’ve just come back from London. I was performing in the United States and in London for a couple of weeks, and that went really well. It’s quite surprising.
DS: I wonder how much of an impact you’re having on wine exports.
MW: I hope so! I’ve got to be having an impact somewhere, I’m certainly not having it with my children.
DS: Do you have to localise the show for a US audience?
MW: You’d be surprised at how much translates. Doing jokes about Chardonnay and pissed aunties, that’s universal. I can tell you that right now. Everybody just goes, ‘Yeah, drunk moms on Chardonnay’. There’s lots of stuff that travels really well.
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DS: You’re talking about wine so seriously, but it is a comedy show at the end of the day?
MW: There’s so much dickheadery in the show. That’s what the purpose of the show is, to take something that you know is high-class and to compress it down with idiocy. You don’t have to know anything about wine. I’ve had Masters of Wine come and see the show and wine makers as well, and they love it. They think it’s hilarious, because they love the juxtaposition of the well-weighted wine knowledge and research and respect to the craft and respect to the vintages and respect to the regions.
DS: Would you say South Australians make the best wine?
MW: I think South Australia is the best, probably the best province, probably in the world for wine. And I say that because the amount of variety you can have in South Australia is incredible as far as grape varieties go.
DS: Have you checked out any of the Adelaide wine bars?
MW: Yeah, I’m banned from most of them. I’m a frequent traveller here. I love to go to Fino. I like to go to East End Cellars. We often do that after the show, we’ll go and have a cheeky glass of rosé.
DS: Where did you do your first gig in Adelaide?
MW: The Old Frome Street car park, and we did it on the incline down, and the audience was sitting on the ground. It was 42 degrees and I was wearing a boiler suit. I’ve never sweated so much in my life.
DS: You’ve been performing at the Fringe for 25 years. How have you seen it change?
MW: It’s so much better. I’m very excited about seeing it this year. There’s a different vibe. I’ve only been here for a short time. But there’s a really, really nice kind of vibe. In the old days 25 years ago, I was doing a show in the Frome Street car park, and now you’ve got the Garden of Unearthly Delights, which is where I spend the majority of my time, both as a performer and also to you know, as a patron, I love to just hang out here and meet up with friends and family. My wife and my daughter and her friend are coming over from Sydney next week to spend the weekend here. They’ll just roam the Garden and go on rides and stuff like that. And, you know, mum and dad will be close. And I love that. I love that ability for parents to have a bit of that, at all times kids are safe, everything’s contained, everything you need is here.
DS: Tell me about a couple of shows that you think people should go to at the Fringe this year.
MW: There’s a couple of local boys who are doing a show that I’m seeing – The Fairbairns. I think they’re funny. Really like their comedy because they talk about Adelaide heaps, and I know all of the references. When they’re talking about, you know, like Elizabeth or something like that, I go, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Tom Gleeson and Tommy Little are always funny. I always like to go and see them.
DS: Who is your favourite Aussie comedian to sink a bottle of wine with?
MW: I do like having wine with Judith Lucy. She’s a lot of fun. She’s very, very funny. She’s an amazing raconteur. I love to have a beer with Pete [Hellier], and all of my mates in comedy and all my friends in comedy. But there’s something about having a glass of wine with Judith Lucy that feels like an entirely elevated life experience.
This interview was edited to keep it within space restrictions.
Merrick Watts presents ‘An Idiot’s Guide to Wine: Volume 3’ at the Spiegeltent from February 20 to March 14 (FRI-SUN). Click here for more info.
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