Books

I have written over a dozen books: New World of Wine (co-author, 1997); Red and White: Wine Made Simple (with photographer Adrian Lander, 1997); The Food Lover’s Guide to the Great Ocean Road (1999, updated 2005); Crush: The New Australian Wine Book (with photographer Adrian Lander, 2000); Quaff: Best Wines Under $15 (with Peter Forrestal, 2001-2005); Sniff, Swirl & Slurp (with photographer Adrian Lander, 2002); The Really Useful Pocket Wine Book (2004); The Future Makers: Australian Wines for the 21st Century (2010); The History of Australian Wine (2012); Max Allen’s Wine Know How (2013); Intoxicating, Ten drinks that shaped Australia (2020) and the latest, Alternative Reality: How Australian wine changed course (2023). You can check out Adrian Lander’s work here.

ALTERNATIVE REALITY: HOW AUSTRALIAN WINE CHANGED COURSE - buy now

To celebrate the 21st birthday of the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show in Mildura, the organisers asked me to write a book charting the course of this country's alternative variety wine scene over the last two decades, seen through the lens of the stories, people and wines of the AAVWS. It also includes comprehensive information about the 150-plus different grape varieties currently grown in Australia: what the wines made from these grapes taste like, and who the award-winning producers are.

INTOXICATING: TEN DRINKS THAT SHAPED AUSTRALIA – BUY NOW

The fiery burn of rebellion rum, a thirst-quenching gulp of ice-cold beer, the medicinal tang of restorative bitters... What did the drinks that shaped Australia originally taste like?

‘Break out the adjectives. A book about grog that’s not only an appealing, invigorating, exhilarating and heady brew, but a valuable and uniquely informative national history.’
— Robert Drewe

‘Max Allen sucks you into this book by promising lots of grog stories but what he does, the sly dog, is teach you about your country.’
— Bruce Pascoe

‘A history as potent as the devil’s own firewater, and writing as beautiful as that final drop of Grange Hermitage. Pour a few chapters out for yourself.’
— Josh Birmingham

Red And white

Winner of the André Simon Memorial Prize. James Halliday, in his foreword for the book wrote: ‘Red and White is by far the most enjoyable basic introduction to wine I have ever read or am ever likely to read. Indeed, it is one of the best books on wine of any description I have seen.’

the future makers

This groundbreaking work about the people putting the heart and soul back into Australian wine, was named Best International Wine Book at the Louis Roederer Wine Writers Awards in London.

the history of Australian wine

A unique inside account of the development of the Australian wine industry throughout the 20th century, woven together from oral history interviews with winemakers, cellarhands, business leaders and grape growers.