CHAPTER 13 | 1900s – Federation
had distilled 230,000 gallons of wine from within a four-mile radius of its premises at Angas Park (Nuriootpa) in the Barossa Valley. The ‘Among the Vineyards’ column further observed that ‘no winemaker wishes to convert his own wine into spirit if he can buy all he wants and retain the extra profit of six, nine or twelve pence per gallon, which he can reckon on by selling his produce of wine’. Tolley Scott & Tolley’s distillation equipment included a brandy pot still and the latest patent Coffie rectified spirit apparatus, which produced spirit at 67 degrees overproof. Of interest also was the company’s double-barrelled Mabille press, which combined crushing and pressing in one continuous action. Around ‘850 to 1,100 hogsheads of brandy, young and old were always kept on hand’, according to the Adelaide Chronicle (6th of July 1907). These were kept in the old cellars once belonging to Mssrs Sage. Such was the way the Barossa wine industry was evolving and adapting to the market opportunities and challenges of the day. At Penfolds Grange Vineyards near Adelaide, the Magill Cellars were also being expanded to meet demand. In November 1907 celebrations were under way with the formal inauguration of a new dry wine cellar and tunnel. The popular English contralto Clara Butt (later Dame Clara Butt) performed the opening ceremony with ‘the cellar wearing an aspect that would do credit to a Lord Mayor’s show.’
‘The building is, as usual, built of stone from the Penfolds Quarry, and the design bids fair to revolutionise the construction of dry wine cellars. The tunnel with its novel ventilating powers, is certainly a step forward in ideas of ventilation. The temperature stands evenly at Fhr (Fahrenheit) 58, and the experts who have visited this cellar are of the opinion that there is no cellar in Australia to equal it for the maturing of light, dry wines.’ – Wine and Spirit News and Australian Vigneron , 30 November 1907, p 464
Penfolds horse and cart wine delivery, Magill, South Australia ca 1900. [Penfolds’ Collection]
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