THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
blended and bottled. But not all exports were in barrels. Some wine companies received orders for bottled wine. A picture of a thriving market emerges in which Australian wines were sold in the form of UK wine trade proprietary brands or as classic Australian-bottled wines and fortified wines. At the 1909 Brewers Exhibition in London, The Australian Wine Company, owned by Walter Pownall, figured prominently. John E Fells & Sons and E Burney Young and Co won medals for their own branded Australian burgundy. And, as noted in Melbourne’s Weekly Times , Auldana Cellars, Lindeman’s, Penfolds, Walter Reynell & Sons, Buring and Sobels, James Angus (Minchinbury), and Horn & Co (Horndale) all won medals for various sparkling, table, and fortified wines and brandy, all bottled in Australia. . . .
1908 YALUMBA TOKAY BAROSSA VALLEY South Australia
A magical wine still showing freshness, density, and richness of flavour 109 years later at Yalumba in 2017. The roasted hazelnuts, espresso, panforte aromas, volume of fruit, and superb alcoholic cut showed a fortified wine in some form of suspended animation. Only the cork will determine its longevity, as the 1908 Yalumba Tokay, made from muscat frontignan, also known as muscadelle, could last another century. The same wine was shown at a national wine show event in Canberra in 1979, along with the 1955 and 1971 Penfolds Grange, highlighting its centrepiece reputation. Wine writer Campbell Mattinson said, in 2012, ‘Yalumba Tokay 1908 made in the vintage style possessed incredible intensity with golden treacle, heaps of spice, raisins, fruitcake, earth and rich dark chocolate. Viscous on the palate and with seemingly unending length, this was a 104-year-old beauty come back to vivid life.’
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