THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
1945 HARDY’S VINTAGE PORT McLaren Vale, South Australia
Roger Warren’s 1945 Hardy’s Vintage Port is generally acknowledged to be one of the greatest fortified wines of the era, ‘possessing all the integration and balance for which the wine is legendary’ (Halliday: The Australian Wine Compendium, 1985). Together with Château Reynella, which Hardy’s would later buy, Hardy’s produced a remarkable line of vintage ports fortified with brandy spirit and laid down for up to a decade before commercial release. The 1956 vintage would be highly regarded as well, with some observers believing it to be of similar ilk to the 1945.
1945 STONYFELL VINTAGE PORT Stonyfell, South Australia
George Fairbrother, the doyen of wine show judges, regarded this as ‘the best among the few Australian vintage ports’. The wine was made by Jack Kilgour, known to be one of South Australia’s best-known technical winemen. After graduating from Roseworthy Agricultural College, he joined Stonyfell Winery in 1932, where he produced 27 vintages as a winemaker, specialising in fortified wines. The 1945 Stonyfell Vintage Port is considered his greatest achievement in winemaking. As Peter Lehmann recalled, ‘A batch of cabernet wine was accidentally fortified, instead of shiraz. Although there was plenty of denial at the time, George Fairbrother once told me it was true. It was made at Stonyfell’s Metala winery in Langhorne Creek.’ According to James Godfrey, a stash of 600 bottles was hidden within the walls of Saltram winery and only rediscovered years later during renovation work.
Take the Hunter Valley District of New South Wales: Kaludah, Catawba, Kirkton, Cote d’Or, Coolalta and many others; Victoria, the Lilydale Vineyards, Yering, De Pury’s, St Huberts, the vineyards of Great Western and Rhymney: and Pewsey Vale and Clarendon and others in South Australia. All have passed out except in the memory of wine-lovers, and the few bottles stored away in some secluded cellar. – Winemaker Leo Buring, ‘Wine-Magic of Sunlight Served with Meals’, Smith’s Weekly, 9th of April 1938
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