THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
In 1933, John Charles Brown, the only son of John Francis Brown, had returned to the family vineyard after schooling at Scotch College in Melbourne. By this time, the winery had, like many other wine producers in Australia, changed the direction of its winemaking in response to the increasing demand from the UK for mostly cheap fortified wine. The 1924 Export Bounty Act had encouraged a switch from table wine production. Although it meant economic stability and opportunity for Australian wine companies, this political engineering also diminished the fine wine ambitions of a previous generation. But in the wake of the Depression, demand for fortified wine was a blessing. When Brown Brothers received an order of 6,000 gallons (92 hogsheads) of tawny port in 1934 from Messrs Burgoyne & Co of London, it was reason to celebrate. But reliance on bulk wine export markets had been a cause of the wine industry’s woes. When John Charles Brown opened a cellar door at the vineyard, it was an outright success. Local workers, mostly newly arrived Italian immigrants working with tobacco plantations in the Ovens and King Valleys, flocked to Brown Brothers to fill their flagons and containers with wine of all types. Although the winery was still making mostly table wines, the demand for fortified wines from the UK encouraged more plantings of ‘Grenache, White Grenache, White Hermitage and Palomino’. In 1938, there were also ambitions to make a ‘real tawny’, and the family was advised to bud graft some bastardo and touriga cuttings onto one-year-old phylloxera-resistant rootstock. Although war and the dry red wine boom intervened, the willingness to experiment with alternative grape varieties laid the foundations for new trailblazing directions during the 1950s. . . . A number of important vineyards were established during the 1930s. Seppelt’s Great Western, more famous for its champagne and sparkling burgundies, also planted the hugely valuable St Peters and Imperial Vineyards. Colin Preece, one of the greatest Australian winemakers of the era, started working at Seppelt Great Western in 1932. His red wines, including Moyston Claret and Chalambar Burgundy, became benchmark styles during the early 1950s. Meanwhile, at Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building, Penfolds had established, it claimed, the largest underground cellars in the world, carrying stock of over 500,000 gallons. The export market to England was still important for many producers. The Emu Wine Company produced medals to commemorate the jubilee (25th anniversary) of King George V’s ascension to the throne in 1935 and emphasised Australia’s connection to the empire and the Emu Wine Company’s special appointment as suppliers to the royal household. Bearing the images of King
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