Max Lake

Max Emory Lake, OAM (24 July 1924 – 14 April 2009) was an Australian winemaker and surgeon, who is generally regarded as the "father of the Australian boutique wine industry".

Early life and education Lake was born in 1924 in Albany, in upstate New York Lake went to Bellevue Hill Public School and then Sydney Boys' High School. He gave up his work as a surgeon in 1979 to concentrate on his interest in wine and food.

His wife and son, Stephen, were active in the winery. Stephen said that "Dad was the boss, Mum the brains and I was the brawn". Many of these books relate to his third career as a "flavourolgist", his description of his "attempt to understand how taste, smell and flavour shaped humanity". Flavour and pleasure were two guiding principles in his life.

Death Lake died on 14 April 2009, aged 84, at his home in Longueville on Sydney's Lower North Shore, after sustaining a head injury from a fall.

Personal life Lake married fellow medical student Joy Townsend in 1948.