THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
and cleanliness. Many young winemakers quipped that they were cleaners first and winemakers second. Expectations began to change in which fruit definition, clarity of flavours, and pleasure were paramount in all wines. Australia’s reputation for sunshine-in-a-glass wines propelled the export markets and brought new profitability to the industry. But, in some ways, this success diminished Australia’s fine wine aspirations. Most of Australia’s great wines, like Wendouree Shiraz and Henschke Hill of Grace, were enjoyed in the domestic markets, resulting in a golden age of inexpensive fine wines. The 1976 Penfolds Grange, in 1982, could be purchased for $12 a bottle. The wine show system in Australia dominated the fine wine scene, beginning in the early 1980s. It pushed a strong technical agenda, which further enhanced Australia’s new reputation for making clean-cut wines. But as Australia’s growing success became seen as a threat, rival countries began to push back. The term ‘industrial wine’, or vin de pharmacie as coined by French wine critics, made the rounds in an effort to spoil Australia’s momentum in export markets. It was typical Gallic passive aggression, a 20th-century extension of protection of identity. Still, winemaking technology and discipline in Australia were more advanced than anywhere else in the world at the time. An Australian winemaker was hardworking, a jack of all trades, flexible, and technically trained to make wines with definition and clarity. As a consequence, ‘flying winemakers’, mostly drawn from Australia, were in high demand to improve the quality of Languedoc, Spanish, and Eastern European wines. The term ‘flying winemaker’ was coined by
Vigneron Robert O’Callaghan of Rockford winery, Barossa Valley, South Australia. [Rockford Collection]
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