Wendouree
Wendouree By Matthew Wilson
Wendouree is an Australian wine time capsule. Unswayed by fad or fashion, Tony and Lita are fair dinkum custodians. Think Wendouree; think 100+ years, genuine fruit and perfume, structure and equilibrium, acid and tension, power and finesse.
Background
In 1892 Alfred Percy Birks and his brother planted a 0.2-ha block of cabernet sauvignon, and made a few gallons of wine from grapes purchased from other growers in the Clare Valley district of South Australia. In 1893 an additional 1.2 ha of shiraz were planted (the vines derived from the original James Busby Collection via the Adelaide Botanical Gardens). In 1896 a further 0.5 ha of shiraz were planted. All remain in production. By 1903 the Birks brothers had built a small winery. They were unable to turn all their grapes into wine, but made 4,550 litres and sold both them and their surplus grapes to the Stanley Wine Company. For the next 20 years Stanley remained their sole customer, either reselling the wine to the London market, or using it to bolster some of their own lighter bodied wines.
In 1914, with production around 18,000 litres a year, it was time to construct a proper wine cellar and expand. The first stone section of the cellars, which remains in use almost unaltered to this day, was built. A large basket press was installed on rails set in cement running between open fermenters. In 1917, failing health caused Alfred Birks to hand over winemaking responsibilities to his son Roly, who then started a winemaking career which was to span 65 vintages.
The vineyards were expanded again; the Eastern Vineyard was purchased and planted over the winters of 1919 and 1920. Part of this survives: two large blocks of shiraz of 1.6 and 0.8 ha respectively, and 0.2 ha of bush-pruned mataro. The other two blocks have been grafted to cabernet sauvignon and malbec respectively, but the 1920 rootstocks remain. The cellars were once again extended, and equipment was upgraded with one of the first must pumps in the district.
From 1925 Roly Birks and his brother would load up a truck with casks and kegs of varying sizes and set off on a round trip selling to hotels. In the years up to World War II output stayed roughly constant, at 50% full-bodied dry red and 50% fortified wine. In the years after the war, Wendouree also built up a business supplying substantial quantities of base wine for the then-infant sparkling wine production of Wynns. By the early 1950s this had grown to between 55,000 and 65,000 litres a year.
In the 1950s Melbourne wine merchant, WJ Seabrook & Son, began purchasing substantial quantities of Wendouree wines, making a specialty of Birks’ ‘pressings’ red. Although the wines were bought in cask by Doug Seabrook and matured for a period of time before bottling, the maker was always specified on the label – refer to our dinners 1967.
In 1970, aged 77, Roly Birks decided to sell Wendouree, but unfortunately found a purchaser who had neither the capital nor the winemaking ability to do anything other than rapidly run down the business to the point where, in 1974, only 10 tonnes of grapes were crushed. The properties were then split up and offered for sale by the mortgagee. The two principal vineyard blocks (which included the old house and winery) were purchased by Sydney businessman Max Liberman, and son-in-law, Tony Brady, together with wife Lita, were installed as managers. Roly Birks was retained as a consultant, and a close and enduring friendship was forged between the Bradys and the Birks. The Bradys regarded it as their duty to rejuvenate the old vineyards. There are now 12 ha of vineyard planted to cabernet sauvignon, malbec, shiraz, mataro and a little muscat gordo blanco, most with different blocks of different ages. Production seldom exceeds 60 tonnes a year, and is often less. Even at its maximum this is only 2 tonnes per acre.
For several decades the wines have been made with the assistance of Stephen George, who is the owner/winemaker of Ashton Hills in the Adelaide Hills.