CHAPTER 16 | 1920s – Bountiful Years
two or three years to come, little was known of the cause and effect of beneficial malolactic fermentation’. When Haselgrove’s brother Colin, who later became managing director of Reynella, was at Montpellier College in 1927, he was aware that research had started in Switzerland. But it was not until the 1950s that Australian winemakers would understand how malolactic fermentation occurred and how to harness it in winemaking. In France, this naturally occurring event took place during the maturation phase but delayed the timing of release. . . . Fortified wines, particularly tawny port and sherry, were at this point the dominant wine styles enjoyed by Australians, although sparkling wine production based on the Champagne method was hugely popular during the 1920s and 1930s. However, Penfolds Minchinbury Champagne carved a niche and was also one of the leading and most popular products of the time. The vineyards and cellars, first managed by Leo Buring, were one of the star attractions for visiting dignitaries and celebrities. Indeed, the Russian Anna Pavlova, one of the most famous prima ballerinas of all time, visited Minchinbury in 1926 with great fanfare.
MAURICE O’SHEA ‘Turning grapes into wine, for Maurice O’Shea, was not a recipe: it was a sea of possibilities, all pitched according to the notes his hands and nose and mouth could tell’. – Campbell Mattinson, Wine Hunter: The Man Who Changed Australian Wine
While there were some before him, the great Maurice O’Shea epitomises the importance of personal authority, character, and vision behind Australian fine wine. Considered a pioneer of the modern Australian wine industry, he was one of the first winemakers to articulate the idea of ‘place’ in the Australian fine wine market, although not once is he ever recorded as mentioning the word terroir . For many years, he was almost a lone voice in a sea of fortified wine production. Maurice O’Shea was educated at St Ignatius’ College, Riverview, and Holy Cross College, Ryde – both in the Sydney metropolitan area. His Irish-born father, John Augustus O’Shea, was a moderately successful wine and spirit merchant and married to French-born Leontine Frances Beaucher. Before returning to New South Wales in 1920, he had also attended lycée, secondary school, at Montpellier, France, to learn French, and continued his education at the École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Grigon, near Paris.
147
Powered by FlippingBook