THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
1949 WOODLEY’S ‘A NATURAL HISTORY VIGNETTE’ TREASURE CHEST SERIES Coonawarra, South Australia
The 1949 Woodley’s was released in the late 1950s. Woodley’s Wines was based at Glen Osmond, now a suburb of Adelaide. Silver and lead deposits had originally been found on the land during the 1840s. Once the deposits were depleted, Osmond Gilles, the first treasurer of South Australia, planted a vineyard. The four kilometres of underground drives were used for wine storage. Urban pressure, however, resulted in the loss of vineyards to suburban building blocks in 1922. Woodley’s became a négociant-type wine merchant and established a relationship with Bill Redman, whom Les Hinton, in Redman Wine: The Story of a Winemaker, says ‘made or supervised virtually every wine out of Coonawarra for the most part of the 20th century [50 years, to be accurate]’. The wines were trucked up to Woodley’s for further maturation and bottling. Under the direction of Tony Nelson, an Austrian-trained winemaker, Woodley’s expanded into Coonawarra, buying Château Comaum in 1946, which was then sold to the Wynns family in 1951 at a huge profit. The ‘opening up’ of Coonawarra would lead to a bust-up between Woodley’s and Redman’s in 1956. The famous Woodley’s Treasure Chest Series Clarets belonged to a large cache of residual inventory lying in the drives of Woodley’s in Glen Osmond. There were eight contiguous vintages of museum stocks from 1949 to 1956, all claret styles based on shiraz and all made by Bill Redman, whose fame was quickly spreading across the Australian wine market. The 1949 was previously known as the ‘magnificent young Woodley’ and bottled by David Sutherland Smith. Subsequent releases, especially the 1954, 1955, and 1956, would also be highly regarded. Seeing an opportunity, Tony Nelson would employ Wytt Morro to design a series of labels for his unique collection of back vintages, with each historical print chosen to match the character of the wine. Based on colonial etchings and printed on heavy paper, the Treasure Chest Series would ignite huge interest. Morro recalls that Nelson even marketed the wines to ‘Australian Trade Commissioners around the world’. The wines would quickly sell out. The Treasure Chest Series would be sold as:
Treasure Pack – three bottles each of 1949, 1950, 1951, and 1952 Vintage Box – three bottles each of 1953, 1954, 1955, and 1956 Single bottles – 1953 and 1955
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