CHAPTER 18 | 1939–1945 – The Second World War
1945 BEN EAN (LINDEMAN’S) BIN 4080 HUNTER RIVER BURGUNDY Hunter Valley, New South Wales
A legendary bottling that is remembered as one of the great wines of the era. This was a reference wine that inspired comparisons later to the famous 1965 Lindeman’s Bin 3100 Hunter River Burgundy. According to historian Valmai Hankel, the wine was rolled out in honour of André Simon (1877–1970), the founder of Britain’s Wine and Food Society. On the 30th of December 1964, he was hosted for lunch by Ray King of Lindeman’s. He had previously tasted the same wine 12 days earlier at a dinner party by Lady Lloyd Jones in Sydney. Max Lake also mentioned it as being a part of a lineage of great wines in Classic Wines of Australia. At Ray King’s lunch, the 1945 Bin 4080 was sandwiched between the 1946 Bin 4225 and the 1944 Bin 2836, both of which also impressed the octogenarian wine expert and writer.
Douglas Collett, probably at the No 2 Air Observers School, RAAF Mount Gambier, South Australia before his wartime adventures, ca 1941.
By the end of the war, many wine producers were making dry white and red table wines, albeit in relatively small volumes. Mount Pleasant, Reynella, Hardy’s, Houghton’s, Tahbilk, Lindeman’s, Penfolds, Seppelt, and many others produced hock, chablis, white burgundy, burgundy, and claret styles. The move towards varietal labelling and Australian references was still in its infancy and would take many years to establish. Nevertheless, Maurice O’Shea produced single regional wines, including his outstanding 1944 Mount Pleasant Mount Henry Light Dry Red Pinot Hermitage, whilst the 1945 Hardy’s St Thomas Bin 185 Burgundy and the prize-winning 1945 Lindeman’s Bin 4080 Hunter River Burgundy were exemplary multi-regional blends. It was not uncommon for Hunter wine to be blended with heavier McLaren Vale or northeast Victoria material. Maurice
O’Shea took this extreme multi-district sourcing to an exquisite level. But it would still take time before winemakers trusted single vineyards again, even though they were the foundation of the Australian wine industry. Some years before, Leo Buring had lamented, ‘Where are the famous dry wine vineyards of early Federation?’
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