OLIVER'S TARANGA 170th VINTAGE PARTY

MARGIE, DON, AND MARJORIE OLIVER WITH CORRINA WRIGHT AND BRIONI OLIVER all colour photography by LEANNE ROUVRAY

Stalwart Vales Tribe Hits 170
Huge Knees-up Feast & Frolic
3rd-Oldest Family Co. In Oz!
by PHILIP WHITE

It couldna happened to a bonnier mob, really. The Olivers, I mean, of Taranga Vineyards in McLaren Vale.

They just had their 170th birthday in the grape-growing business.

They’ve been farming the same handsome slice of this picture-book vignoble by the sea since William and Elizabeth Oliver (left) first got their shovels into it in 1841. The Family Business Association reckons they’re the third-oldest family business known in Australia. Cousins and buddies, Winemaker Corrina and Cellar and Sales Manager Brioni are the sixth generation – the great, great, great, great grandchildren of the founders.

So, as you can see, they had a feast. Andre Ursini cooked a stunning fourteen-dish meal, and they poured eleven of their favourite Olivers’ Taranga wines, from the brave new Fiano and Vermintino whites, through Grenache, Sagratino, a formidable troop of Shiraz and finally a fabulous liqueur Muscat.


Jeez it was fun. The Yearlings played just perfectly, the table service was better than it gets, and The Swell Brewing Company ales – another family enterprise – were simply swimming.

William and Elizabeth must have been remarkable people. That's the page of their family Bible, with all the birth and death records. They came on the Delhi from Berwick, Scotland, and got straight into it: sheep, cattle, orchards and vines. In 1857, William was awarded a prize for The Best Collection Of Grapes at the Willunga Agricultural Society Annual Exhibition.

When he died in 1888, William left eighteen horses, 38 head of cattle, 400 fat sheep, a good flock of fowls and 4000 gallons of good wine. He lies there in the family crypt, alongside his wife and three of their ten children.

Their son Archibald took over then, or at least his fierce wife, Ruth (right) did, setting a precedent for bold women at the family helm. Archibald and his bothers were rambunctious rascals who were more into the product than your actual production. And on it went: the enterprising RW Oliver did more than his share of the latter, establishing a cattle stud, a Clydesdale stud, a merino stud, a proper piggery. He bought their first tractor in ’44, and with his son Herbert – HJ – and the help of the local Kaurna aboriginal people, planted the famous 1948 Block to vines which flourish to this day.

HJ is survived by his beloved Marjorie, who knits the thick socks beloved by the winery crew, and their son Don runs the firm in his cool, determined way. He is a McLaren Vale Viticulturist Of The Year, and a deeply respected bloody good bloke who knows how to grow grapes that go into the very best of Penfolds, amongst other lucky recipients.


Corrina (see family photo at top) is the first qualified winemaker in the tribe. She has established a formidable arsenal of new and traditional wines which would stand their own on any table on Earth. My biggest admiration went to that crackerjack 2009 Sagratino, but the moody, glowering HJ Reserve Shiraz quartet was similarly stunning.

I took no notes, and got home real late.

A TOAST TO 170 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS VITICULTURE

THE YEARLINGS PLAYED SO SWEET OVER ALL THAT DELICIOUS WINE THAT JAMES HALLIDAY BEGAN TO THINK NICK RYAN LOOKED PRETTY GOOD ... WHILE THIS WRITER, OF COURSE, REFUSED TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED WITH HIM