THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
Jim Barry (standing top right) with fellow students at Roseworthy College, near Gawler, South Australia. [Jim Barry Collection]
1946 SEPPELT SPARKLING BURGUNDY Great Western, Victoria
The 1946 is generally regarded as having been a relatively poor year, not only in Australia but around the world. Colin Preece, ranked with Maurice O’Shea as one of Australia’s greatest winemakers, developed the quintessential Australian sparkling burgundy style. Although he preferred the 1943, overall sentiment favours the 1946 Seppelt Sparkling Burgundy as the greatest vintage of the era. According to Nick Bullied, the wine was actually a blend of 1944, 1945, and 1946, which explains its success. The 1946 Seppelt Sparkling Burgundy was regularly listed at auction throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Wine writer James Halliday recalled, in a 20th of July 2013 Weekend Australian Magazine article, that ‘some of my early memories of the exhibitors’ tastings at the Sydney Royal Wine Show are of the art dealer and gourmand Rudy Komon bearing down on the sparkling Burgundy class with Len Evans in tow (an unaccustomed role, to be sure). An even earlier memory was the scandalised stories of a doctor friend of my father who called it “Pinky Plonk”, or “Paradise for Two”. ‘Then, in the mid 1970s, Seppelt’s marketing man, Karl Seppelt, announced that 1946 Show Sparkling Burgundy was available for $14 a bottle. I wasted no time in buying a dozen bottles, only to find that others were not so enthused, leading Karl to drop the price to $7. I was even quicker to – in stockbroking parlance – average my price down substantially. I also managed to secure some 1944 Sparkling Burgundy, albeit in lesser quantities. Alas, I have none left.’
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