CHAPTER 16 | 1920s – Bountiful Years
CIRCA 1921 NV LA PÉROUSE CHAMPAGNE CUVÉE DE LUXE Magill, South Australia
Released in 1921, this wine was marketed thus: ‘You can drink the quality of France in the Sparkling Wines of your own Australian Vineyards’. The wine was the jewel in the range, which offered ‘the highest standard of excellence ever yet attained in the Commonwealth’. This was also the swan song of Edmond Mazure, who retired in 1921 to Victor Harbour. The previous year he had sold the La Perouse Vineyard and business to New Zealanders Alexander Simm and Bertram Reginald Collins. Despite great aspirations for the brand, it failed in 1922. The business, which also included Te Mata Vineyards in New Zealand, adopted a new moniker, Romalo Cellars, in 1922. But Romalo Cellars floundered during the 1920s and was once again acquired, this time by Samuel Wynn, in 1929. Sparkling winemaker and war veteran Hurtle Walker, who joined the company in 1920, had previously worked at Auldana with Edmond Mazure, where he had learned his craft. Mazure had told him that he believed that Australia could produce sparkling wines equally as good as French champagne. Romalo’s ‘Champagne’ wines were well received by the public, although the business thrived on the production of fortified wines after the implementation of export bounties in 1924.
. . . There was much excitement when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes detective books, arrived in Adelaide with his family in 1920. Like Mark Twain and Anthony Trollope, who visited the Australian colonies during the late 19th century, he wrote about his travels and experiences to Australia, now a self- governing federation of states. He liked the Australians very much, admiring their friendliness, good humour, and reserved nature. But he was shocked by the drinking culture, which he believed was promoted by ardent drinks and could be resolved by lowering alcohol levels. He wrote, ‘We have been shocked and astonished by the number of young men of decent exterior whom we have seen staggering down the street, often quite early in the day’. He was also astonished by Australia’s obsession with horseracing, which he believed was a ‘real drag upon progress’. Despite his convictions, Doyle visited both Penfolds at Magill and Hamilton’s Ewell Vineyards at Glenelg in September, as noted in Daniel Keene’s November 2013 article ‘A Spiritualist abroad: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s adventures in the Antipodes’. The temperance movement in Australia was vocal in 1920, and many observers believed that reforms would be introduced to curb excessive drinking, but despite this wowserism, Doyle enjoyed his experience with Australian wine.
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