CHAPTER 17 | 1930–1938 – The Dead Dog Bounce
By 1936, the vineyard acreage in the Hunter Valley had fallen to just 1,500. The decline in plantings throughout the next 10 years continued to diminish the standing of the region. Eric Lindeman, in charge of the Ben Ean Vineyard and who possessed ‘one of the keenest of wine palates’, died aged 55, leaving a void. . . . The diminutive Maurice O’Shea was one of the first winemakers in Australia to adopt varietal labelling. He also named his fine wines after individual vats, vineyards, friends, and relations. His quirky system was loved by collectors of the era, as it connected them personally with the wine characters of the day. For instance, ‘Henry’ was in honour of Henry Renault, a Sydney wine merchant who supported and encouraged O’Shea. Other names included ‘Richard’ (Tyrrell) and ‘HT’ (Hector Tulloch). JK ‘Johnnie’ Walker, the great Sydney restaurateur, did much to put Maurice O’Shea’s wines on the map. Max Lake noted that Maurice O’Shea ‘was a great blender of wine, able to achieve effects like a painter uses colours and textures. Luckily for his reputation, he had the great good fortune to be subsidised against economic failure by McWilliams.’ O’Shea made a succession of beautiful wines, many of which were single-cask offerings and, therefore, of very limited production. The 1929 Grandmother, 1937 Mountain A, 1939 Mountain C, 1944 Mountain D, 1942 Henry I, 1945 Henry II, 1947 Henry III, 1942 Pinot Hermitage, 1952 Pinot Hermitage, 1952 Prince, and 1954 Richard all have been written about. Max Lake describes many of these wines as ‘great, beyond imagining’. The character and presence of these wines are still etched in the memories of many Australian winemakers and wine people. John Keith Walker, better known as Johnnie Walker, who worked as a telegram boy at Sydney’s General Post Office at age 15, had later, in 1930, bought into a wine bar on Market Street. A flourishing commercial relationship was established with JJ McWilliam & Sons. The bar attracted all sorts, but mainly European immigrants. According to historian David Dunstan, Johnnie Walker and his father, CT Walker, made a carbonated sparkling wine called Spagno. In 1936, a joint venture was formed with McWilliams to market the wines made by Maurice O’Shea at Mount Pleasant wines. In addition, the Rhine Castle proprietary brand, based on mostly Hunter Valley wine selections, became a feature of Australia’s emerging fine wine scene. After vintage, Johnnie Walker would accompany Maurice O’Shea around the Hunter Valley wine region to source high-quality parcels of wine for the joint venture’s Rhine Castle, which were then trucked to nearby Newcastle and bottled at Mount Pleasant’s bottling facility.
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