Father figures of Australian wine
[question]
Question from Steven Chua, Singapore.
Who do you consider is the father of Australia wine; Matt Busby or Max Schubert and why?
[/question]
[answer]
An easy one. Max Schubert was one of Australia’s most innovative winemakers whose signature wine, Penfolds Grange, changed the way Australians make red wine. Sir Matt Busby was perhaps the most famous manager of all time at the English football club of Manchester United, and established the club’s ethos and style that exist until the present time. So of these two, I’d give the gong to Schubert.
If, however, we were considering the activities of a certain James Busby, it might be a different matter. This Busby was a Scottish chap who arrived in Australia in 1824 determined to create a wine industry. Having studied winemaking and viticulture in France, he developed the first vineyard in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, imported a significant collection of grapevines into Australia and wrote the country’s first wine books.
‘A manual of plain directions for planting and cultivating vineyards and for making wine in New South Wales’ was published in Sydney in 1830. This was followed by another work that explained the importance of the vine collection he had brought, which encompassed 678 different grape varieties, 362 of which were grown for a short time in the Botanical Gardens of Sydney. While the collection did not last for long, a number of cuttings were taken to South Australia, where they acted as the original resource for many Australian vineyards. His third book related a tour through the wine regions of France and Spain.
It’s easy, then, to see why Busby’s work has been so highly regarded for so long. He developed, he inspired, he taught and he created opportunities for others to follow on his coat tails.
It’s difficult to say which of these two gentlemen have played a more significant role. Since 1990, McWilliam’s Wines has presented an award for lifetime achievement in Australian wine, the Maurice O’Shea Award, which is itself named after a man still regarded amongst the most talented, inspirational, creative and visionary winemakers ever to work in this country.
Max Schubert was the inaugural winner of this award, and he has since been followed by the promoter, critic and entrepreneur of Len Evans, the winemaking technologist Ron Potter, the visionary David Wynn the founder of Wynn’s, the winemaker and critic James Halliday, the promoter Hazel Murphy, the scientist Dr Bryce Rankine, the enigmatic entrepreneur and winemaker Wolf Blass, the winemaker Brian Croser of Petaluma fame and Guenter Prass, a major figure behind the South Australian wine industry.
In recent years you could add to this list people like Peter Lehmann, whose efforts in the 1980s effectively saved the Barossa Valley from extinction, as well as winemakers like John Vickery the father of Australian riesling and Max Lake, founder of the first ’boutique’ Australian winery of modern times, Lake’s Folly.
If, however, it’s fair to make the assumption that Australia would one day have developed a wine industry without Busby’s efforts, the spotlight does perhaps fall back on Max Schubert. When it was first released to the public, Grange was regarded so badly he was told to stop making it. He continued, in secret, and once his efforts were finally recognised, created a new yardstick against which all Australian wine has since been judged. Even if people have never tasted it, most respect Grange. Schubert’s contribution to Australian wine was inestimable. And, at this time in history when Australia desperately needs to promote its top-end wines, Schubert’s legacy is invaluable.
[/answer]
Please login to post comment