AUSTRALIAN CLASSICS AULDANA & BALGOWNIE
1888 Auldana St Henri Claret, Auldana, South Australia The first vintage of St Henri was produced in 1888, beginning one of the most famous and ultimately enduring names in Australian wine. Probably named after Mazure’s son, or wife Henrietta, it won the best claret in Australia prize at the Adelaide Wine Show in 1891. The brand was primarily established to push export sales into England. It enjoyed early success with 300 hogsheads of the wine exported to England between November 1890 and June 1891. An early vintage won First Prize at the 1895 Bordeaux International Exhibition. Some of the early St Henri Clarets were vinified with French levures, said to have come from Château Latour. After federation, St Henri Claret became widely available and became known as the ‘Margaux of Australia’. By 1909 Auldana Cellars had a reputation for its celebrated table and sparkling wines. The Adelaide Chronicle (1909) reported, From a spectacular point of view there are few places more impressive than Auldana in full working order during the crushing season. From the delivery of grapes in the old world style per bullock-dray, through the various stages of fermentation and treatment, to a walk below ground along the bottle- lined corridors hewn out of limestone, until one emerges upon the scene of champagne-making in its many processes, and winds up with a banquet in the hall of a thousand casks, no better effect could be stage managed to afford a glimpse of another world. The St Henri label disappeared somewhere around the beginning of World War I. It was revived by John Davoren at Penfolds, in 1953, after the purchase of Auldana Cellars in 1947. 1973 Balgownie Cabernet Sauvignon, Bendigo Victoria Stuart Anderson, a pivotal figure in the Victorian wine scene during the 1970s, established Balgownie at Maiden Gully, near Bendigo, in 1969. It was the first time in 80 years that a new vineyard had been planted in the district. The 1973 Balgownie Cabernet Sauvignon was inspirational. Robyn Bradley, Australia’s most influential wine critic of the time, said, ‘Then there was the 1973 Balgownie Cabernet Sauvignon. I first saw the wine in a half bottle drawn from the wood, together with its hermitage sibling. Its impact made me speechless. It seemed for all the world like a young Latour except for its desiccated coconut character in bouquet: a new star had swung
208 The Wine Journal – 2023
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