Max Allen
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
It seems like such a good idea at the time. Plant a few vines, make some wine. Lovely. But the thing about vines is they can live for an awfully long time. A century or more in some cases. Longer, clearly, than most people. And the other thing about vines is that they keep squeezing out grapes. Every year. Which means somebody has to keep making those grapes into wine. Every year. Even when the people who planted the vines are long gone.
The issue of succession is just as fraught in the wine industry as in any other agricultural sector. For the larger, older wine companies, with generations of grape-growing and winemaking behind them, there is always a worry that the next generation won’t want to enter the family firm, forcing a sale to some faceless drinks multinational. And for the pioneers of the boutique wine boom of the 70s and 80s, now heading towards (or way past) ‘retirement’ age, the worry is that the kids might not share their parents’ dream of being a vigneron - indeed, growing up on the vineyard every weekend, pruning in the chill of early winter, picking in the heat of late summer, may well have turned them off wine for life.
The good news, then, is that succession is taking place right across the wine industry - sometimes smooth, sometimes turbulent, but almost always taking the wine company in new and exciting directions.
Among many of the old family firms, and for the first time, this new generation has a female face - a significant departure from the male-dominated traditions of the wine industry establishment.
Thirty-two year old Eliza Brown took on the challenge of running her family’s All Saints and St Leonard’s vineyards in Rutherglen with her siblings Angela and Nick following the sudden tragic death of their father in a motorbike accident in 2005. In just two years, Brown has instigated many changes.
‘We’re constantly looking at why we’re doing things and reassessing how we do them,’ she says. ‘Take our great old fortified wines, for example. They’re not necessarily wines our generation - people in their twenties and thirties - want to drink, and we need to work out how to change the style without losing the tradition, to keep the history going.’
So as well as refining the Rutherglen styles of fortifieds and dry red durifs with young winemaker Dan Crane, and overseeing a re-branding of the family labels, Brown has helped launch the radically-packaged (and delicous) Kid You Not range of modern north-east Victorian wines, aimed directly at her generation.
Like Eliza Brown, whose initial career choice was advertising, Christina Tulloch admits that wine wasn’t always her vocation.
In 2001, when her father Jay ‘bought back the farm’ from then-owners, Southcorp, Tulloch was working in publishing, after following her father’s advice to go out and find her own path in life. But a short stint ‘filling in’ at cellar door in 2003 rekindled a love of her family’s wine tradition, and the three month stop-gap soon turned into a full-time position as manager.
‘A lot of it had to do with seeing the pride Dad felt in having the name back,’ says Christina Tulloch. ‘I realised a lot of people would kill to have our history and story, and we had an opportunity to make the most of that. I remembered growing up together with other wine families’ kids in the Hunter, riding on the harvester at vintage. It was a very social industry. And I tell you what, working for a company with your name on the brand, it really gives you motivation to get up every day.’
Rob Wignall relished the prospect of taking over at his family’s vineyard in Albany, Western Australia, when the opportunity arose in 2004. First planted by Rob’s parents in 1982, Wignalls had established itself as one of the leading vineyards in the Great Southern, but by the beginning of the new millennium had lost some of its gloss.
‘When the vineyard changed hands, it gave the kid - me - the opportunity to really sink his teeth in,’ says Rob. ‘In every family that’s normal, I think: sometimes you need to make changes. And since I’ve been running the show, it’s been reminiscent of the old days, when we were having fun.’
This attitude is reflected in the wines: since Rob took over, the quality (and packaging) at Wignalls has definitely taken a big leap forward. But a change in quality and direction can also evolve with the first and second generations working together.
Hunter and Elizabeth Smith, for example, haven’t yet taken over from parents Barrie Smith and Judy Cullam at the 20 year old Frankland Estate, also in the Great Southern region of WA. But as they become more involved in running the vineyard and winery, they are implementing a number of changes from the conversion to organic viticulture to the introduction of a bold, robust new wine, a 2005 shiraz cabernet, stylistically quite different from Frankland Estate’s traditional elegant, reserved reds.
And it’s no coincidence, I think, that since Dr Peter Pratten handed over the day-to-day management of the 30 year old Capel Vale winery to his son Simon in 2003, there has been a thrilling reinvention of the company, from a dramatic boost in wine quality to a complete overhaul of the labels.
Sometimes, though, succession involves a fair amount of creative compromise.
James Lance is the second generation of his family to make wine in the Yarra Valley: his parents, David and Cathy, planted Diamond Valley Vineyards in 1976.
‘The tricky bit with changing over,’ says Lance, ‘is that the older generation needs to extract enough money from the company to live on in their retirement. And that’s hard after only one generation of making wine.’
The solution to that problem came in 2005, when Graeme Rathbone (brother of Yering Station owner Doug Rathbone) bought the well-known Diamond Valley label - but not the vines and winery - and son James, with his wife Claire, leased the vineyard from his parents. It meant losing the name that the family had spent 30 years establishing - but presented the opportunity of starting afresh with now-mature vines.
The result is some seriously amazing wines - pinot noir in particular - under the Punch label.
‘All through my teenage years,’ remembers James Lance, ‘until I was 22, I thought winemaking was way too hard a way to make a living. Then Dad got me back to do a vintage and I just become infected. It all clicked. Now, I realise it doesn’t matter how hard it is: I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else.’
BREAKOUT - WINE: THE NEXT GENERATION
- In the Yarra Valley, fourth generation Sandra de Pury, along with brother David, has helped parents Guill and Katherine de Pury expand the small Yeringberg vineyard from two to 20 hectares, returning this historic property to some of its 19th century glory.
- Although Seville Estate, one of the Yarra’s pioneering 1970s vineyards, is no longer owned by its founders, Peter and Margaret McMahon - it has passed through a number of hands before ending up with the current owners, Graham and Margaret Van Der Meulen - the McMahons’ grandson, Dylan, is now employed as the winemaker.
- In South Australia’s Riverland, fifth generation Victoria Angove is another passionate believer in the importance of family ownership, and looks set to become the next managing director of Angoves, one of Australia’s largest wine companies.
- At the 30 year old Wilson Vineyard in the Clare Valley, young winemaker Daniel Wilson established his identity as a winemaker in 2001 by developing his own style of riesling - fuller and richer than his father John’s classically austere Polish Hill River riesling - and still continues to make both styles each vintage.
- Since joining her father at Eden Valley merlot specialists, Irvine Wines, a few years ago, Joanne Irvine has introduced her global winemaking experience in the form of an award-winning zinfandel and an innovative albarinho.
- Winemaker Jen Pfeiffer is making her presence felt at her parents’ 25 year old Rutherglen winery by taking experience working in the Beaujolais region and applying it to the Pfeiffer’s unusual planting of gamay, with lip-smacking, juicy, fruity results.
© Max Allen
www.redwhiteandgreen.com.au
www.maxallen.com.au
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