CHAPTER 19 | 1946–1949 – Return to Normality
1948 AP BIRKS WENDOUREE CLARET Clare Valley, South Australia
During the first half of the 20th century, Wendouree supplied many South Australian wineries with its richly concentrated and flavourful wine, including Lindeman’s and Romalo Cellars at Magill, for the production of sparkling burgundy. Based on primarily shiraz fruit, Peter Lehmann noted that ‘their wines were always big, so big that sometimes they had to be broken down first’. But cabernet sauvignon and malbec were also included in many blends, and bulk wines were sold to various wine agencies, including the highly influential Melbourne fine wine merchant Doug Seabrook. AP Birks of Wendouree died in 1948 at the age of 80. His third son, Roland (Roly) Napier Birks, described as diminutive and gentle and who had been a winemaker since 1917, retained Wendouree’s reputation for making old-style wines, big reds noted for their longevity. Curiously, Roly Birks was not confident that his reds would age well. Vigneron Peter Lehmann said, in a conversation with me, that Roly ‘used to show his red wines to other winemakers, including myself, to prove they would not age, but they always did! He failed to convince us. The 1948 Claret was one of the great wines of this era, a fabulous wine with typical pronounced tannin structure.’ This would have included cabernet sauvignon in the blend.
For years, wine bottles had been reused two or three times using a recycling/bottle deposit scheme, and corks were cut in half to save a valuable resource. As Halliday noted in A History of the Australian Wine Industry 1949–1994 , there was also a serious shortage of oak, which he noted caused the industry grave concern. In 1948, the Australian Wine Board wrote to the federal minister, telling him the industry was virtually starved of suitable material. Wineries needed hogsheads and vats, he pointed out, ‘for maturation of brandy and certain wines’. Also, the domestic wine market was largely controlled by brewers, who could dictate terms regarding prices as well as the types of containers wine could be sold in. For instance, flagons would only be introduced into the market in 1967/1968. Major changes in wine distribution were caused primarily by a gradual change in lifestyle. Aside from the European experiences of Australian soldiers, and the influx of European migrants, overseas travel would soon become more accessible, especially with the ushering in of the jet age, still some years away.
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