The drive from Barossa to McLaren Vale is
beautiful. It is also like going from Germany to Italy. You leave behind the
super-successful, teutonic-efficiency valley and arrive in arty,
laid-back-Latino land. That's how it seems to me anyway.
No massive oil-refinery-winerys in the Vale
just yet. More of your family outfits and sheddists. It was the natural place
for the RedHeads movement to start.
And a 'movement' is what it is. The guiding
light is a set of beliefs rather than a business plan.
You start ventures, I find, and they soon get
a life of their own. THEY decide where they are going. Not you. You just try
and keep up. Of all the ventures I've helped start up there's been nothing
harder to keep up with than RedHeads.
Two big pictures tell the story:
.jpg)
Why did I do it? Because I just loved the open honest fearless way Australians do wine... but had become worried that honesty was being lost. Aussie wine was the Big Success in the 80's and 90's. From nowhere to almost top. But then, of course, the Big Money poured in. Most of the small hardworking family outfits we worked with were bought from under their owners. Became part of massive conglomerates. Or worse; brewers. And what brewers have ever understood about wine would fit on a beermat. One side. Production got moved to mega-wineries. Good wine but samey; no individuality. Badge engineering.
At the same time, wine making became cool and
trendy. Rich and successful people from other industries moved in and built up
their status with fancy boutique wineries. Our skilled winemaker friends who had
to work for these newbie, 'in-comer' bosses, called them (quietly) the
're-treads'. I, as a wine 'lifer', love that term.
The 'edge' was going out of Aussie wine. And
it didn't help that 80% of Aussie wine went through just two supermarket
groups. But RedHeads and what sprang from it helped and are still helping to
bring back individual edginess.
There isn't an actual RedHeads shed in McLaren
Vale this year. It’s in Barossa. See previous blog. But the Vale now has at
least a dozen RedHeads graduates in sheds of their own.
We arrived first at Philbo's. Phil
Christiansen is now, to his great embarrassment known as the GOS; the Godfather
of Shed. In fact there's a label (which he did not create and does not like,
featuring his face with Brando's pouchy cheeks added on). But quiet Philbo
truly was the inspiration.
Made redundant by Hardy's when the family lost
the business. With no job and hardly any money he rented a sheep-shed on Chalk
Hill. Lined it with tin foil and with scavenged old equipment (old barrels,
water butts, garden hose, and a redundant milk chiller) - made terrific wine.
The not-so-quiet Justin Lane; a Flying
Winemaker who had worked all over for us in European wineries took me to see
Philbo's shed and it got me all excited… RedHeads was the result.
Justin now has a bar, the 'Cantina Sociale',
doing his wines on tap in downtown Adelaide. Philbo still has a shed but now it’s
a Buckingham Palace of a shed. No frills still. But making much more wine. He
contract-makes wines for quite a few famous names. But his own Longwood is
getting quietly famous itself.
Adam 'Hoops' came by to drop off a carton of
Cooper's Ale. That's the currency amongst the old Heads. "Lend us your
de-stemmer? Press? Pump? Pick-up?" " Sure". No discussion. No problem.
"That's a case of Coopers, then". Wineries here could not
function without South Australia's finest brew-with-bits-in.
Hoops bought the old RedHeads building from
us. He rents it out as a restaurant and makes his growing range of
'Curio' wines in the old Back Shed. He again has a new lady in his
life; one of our finest Wine Advisors who upped and left us in the UK to fly
all that way just for 'Hoops'!!!! – who looks increasingly like someone
from 'The Musketeers'.
 |
| Adam 'Hoops' |
Eternal bachelor Nat - 'the other' McMurtrie
(we also have one in the UK who runs our firm, so he says), comes for a BBQ
lunch by Mrs Philbo who is a nurse.
 |
| Nat McMurtrie |
Later we met Elena the Bulgarian who worked as
unpaid labour for Hoops in the early days, now mother of two and with her own
range of Dandelion label Wines. Big Andrew Pieri turned up in the evening when
we were at Steve's Shed or sheds or Shed Estate and Steve had the pizza oven
going.
Gorgeous Jess Hardy was plunging her caps so
of course she's the one I took a picture of. I mean the others are nice but
photogenic??? Mmm?
 |
| Jess, plunging |
The 'Doc' was working. Shame. Works too hard.
Actually this year we've bought some of his fruit for our amazing Esulé.
On the way out saw a sign to the Lazy Ballerina
Winery... yet another ex-Head.
It feels good to have helped get these boys
going. They now have their own sheds and do very well in the Australian market.
They should get better known here in the UK and the US.
But that's up to them. They are launched.
RedHeads did that. Now, they are RedHeads Alumni.
Its been hard lately with the Aussie exchange
rate pushing up all the prices of what are never going to be cheap wines. But
RedHeads fans fear not. Now the rate has got better a whole raft of excellent
RedHeads wines is on its way...
COME AND SEE/TASTE THEM AT THE VINTAGE
FESTIVAL WHERE WE ARE PREVIEWING SOME BARREL SAMPLES OF 2012/13 STUDIO WINES
The VF is on Friday 25th and
Saturday 26th April at Old Billingsgate, London.
Look for a seething mob Heads fans.
See you there.
 |
| Vintage Festival |
No comments:
Post a Comment