CHAPTER 20 | 1950s – Boom Times Again
Although additional plantings of table wine varieties took place steadily over the next 20 years, the bulk of the grapes, cropped at ‘a rate of around 20 tonnes to the hectare, worked hard to slake Australians’ thirst for Brandivino, a sweet fortified mixer that soared to annual sales of 200,000 cases (i.e., 2.4 million bottles)’. According to journalist Chris Shanahan, the marketers commissioned a report to find out who was drinking Brandivino, and when the research came back in, it indicated that no one was drinking it! Unsurprisingly, sales dwindled significantly as the decade came to a close, but the report highlighted the transition of the wine industry from one of a fortified wine producer to table wine once again. And Yalumba’s Oxford Landing became a symbol of the winery’s success in redefining its relevance and purpose. The introduction of new winemaking technology from Germany during the 1950s (notably pressure fermenters, refrigeration, and presses), an increase in tourism, and a search for a unique Australian identity saw a renewed interest in the history and culture of the Barossa. Names like Siegersdorf, Kaiser Stuhl, and Krondorf reappeared in the lexicon of Barossa wine. According to Frank Sheppard, an engineer working for Penfolds at Magill, it often took ages to ship wine in bulk between Victoria and South Australia. The service was primarily by rail and inefficient. ‘Just to go to Melbourne and back’, he said, ‘a thousand-gallon tank used to take 22 days’. So, around 1950 he stepped out of the business and established his own haulage company, specialising in wine. He purchased a Foden lorry from England, adapted the chassis, and built a stainless steel tank. Sheppard’s was an immediate great success, with Samuel Wynn being one of the first clients. Brian and Devron Booth also expanded their family business to transport wine across state boundaries. . . . In 1950, Max Schubert was sent to France and Spain to investigate sherry-making practices and the production of port. Fortified wines still dominated the fine wine scene in Australia. It was on a side trip to Bordeaux that the idea of producing a red wine ‘capable of staying alive for a minimum of 20 years’ first entered Schubert’s mind. He was taken around the Médoc by Christian Cruse, whom he described as ‘one of the most respected and highly qualified wine men of the old school in France’. Schubert visited many of the great vineyard estates, where he enjoyed the ‘rare opportunity of tasting and evaluating Bordeaux wines between 40 and 50 years old’. By coincidence, Ron Haselgrove was also in Bordeaux that year, possibly at the same time, and was also hosted by Christian Cruse. Haselgrove recalled, ‘Christian Cruse, the doyen of the wine industry of Bordeaux, was particularly kind to me when he realised my intense interest and was not above setting a few hazards in my
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