CONSTELLATION RAPE HITS JESUS BOX

BECAUSE THE McLAREN VALE WINEMAKERS MANDARINS HAVE SHEWN NOT A SKERRICK OF INTEREST, OR HAVE BEEN HIDING FROM THE MIGHTY TRANSNATIONAL, CONSTELLATION, I THOUGHT I MIGHT JUST AS WELL POST A BAROSSA PHOTOGRAPH HERE, IN PLACE OF THE SACRED HEART OF McLAREN VALE, THE 1838 CHATEAU REYNELLA, WHICH I RECKON IS ABOUT TO GO ANYWAY. THIS IS BAROSSA WINEMAKER ROLF BINDER, LEFT, WITH THE AUTHOR IN HIS BARONS' FROCK AND CEREMONIAL SILVER ASHTRAY, CHRIS 'RINGERS' RINGLAND, OF THE "R" WINE CORPORATION, AND MICHAEL WAUGH OF GREENOCK CREEK VINEYARDS AND CELLARS, HAVING TAKEN THEIR AWARDS AS BAROSSA BARONS VITICULTURER AND WINEMAKERS OF THE YEAR BACK WHEN I WORE A PONY TAIL. CLICK ON PHOTO FOR FREE TV SHOW! pic: Leo Davis

Reynella Uproot Hits The Tube
Dimbo Vinepullers Get Famous
PR Victory For Small Good Folks
by PHILIP WHITE

South Australia's most wine-aware general news journalist, Channel Nine's Kelly Clappis, has done a very clean job of reporting the disastrous Constellation plan to remove one of Australia's oldest and most significant vineyards from McLaren Vale, South Australia.

There was no help from the local winemakers' association, which appears to be so close to undead it calls itself MVGWTA. Which is, actually - and I think this is a first - it's an abbreviation of an acronym, which is, in turn, a marketer's record-breaking horror. If they were honest, it'd be MCVGWATA, which at least sounds kinda African.

One of these days, these confounding and arcane bodies will hire a smart writer, and realise that being called the McLaren Vale Grape Wine And Tourism Association is a long way from Coke, which appears to be a slightly more successful brand.

So enjoy the Barossa photograph above, and then realise we're not in the Barossa, but we're going back to the deep south, to that king-hell rival of the Barossa, MVGWTA, a.k.a McLaren Vale, to watch the current Constellation state of play, or lack thereof, in that peculiarly humid and beautifully Mediterranean-mellow neck of the woods.

As this scandal undressed itself, it became more and more obvious that the main reason the Vales winemakers would not speak out was their callow hope that Constellation would continue to buy their grapes. They're scared. An enormous amount of the Vales crop is sold to big refineries for amorphous blends that leave most wine enthusiasts nonplussed.

This is not a fair reflection on the potential and quality of the region's better fruit. Traditionally, McLaren Vale reds have provided what was called "the middle palate of Australia", not to mention most of the wine that was sold in New South Wales as Hunter Valley. McLaren Vale is much better than this, but needs to be increasingly vigilant, and throw much more energy into sub-regional terroir-driven wines of higher quality than the leviathan megaswill plonkmongers will, or can, ever manage.

It cannot be long, for example, before Fosters closes its Rosemount refinery on the site of Jim Ingoldby's old Ryecroft winery, which provided Burge & Wilson with their Jimmy Watson Trophy winner in the late 'seventies.

At the same time, there are revered Vales vineyards which always go into Grange, and beautiful facets of wonder like the Oliver's tempranillo which makes 100% of Penfolds stunning forthcoming Cellar Reserve tempranillo, which I think is the best version of this variety yet made in Australia.

Many vineyards are in the wrong places, planted for the wrong reasons, by the wrong people.

But there are many treasures, and these must eventually win wide recognition.

Click on my tastevin above, and you get to see Kelly's neat TV reportage of something which is not at all funny.

Wake up, McLaren Vale!

The comments are flooding in. You can post through the comments box below of hurl 'em at my facebook.

Dear Phil,

Firstly, many thanks for sending this story through.....indeed, it will be fascinating to see how things develop!

Is it true that the vines are diseased, and can this “disease” be eradicated?

Hoping that this message finds you well and I look forward to being in touch with you again soon.

Regards Stoppa.

Grant said:

Clearly they need to remove the 'TA' from their appalling acronym, because tourism is certainly something that doesn't appear to be part of their current action plan.

That would make it 'MVGWA', or if they used the vaguely African sounding version that you propose, 'MCVGWA', which is probably an African word for sellout.

Keep up the good fight.

ben said:

Phillip,

MLC David Winderlich asked a question about this in Parliament on Tuesday

So at least there is some question being asked about this disgraceful issue.

This is all part of a broader disregard that the Labor SA Government has for heritage, local communities' representation or anything that stands in the way of developers having carte blanche to do whatever they like.

Just look at the (closer to town) issues of Glenside redevelopment, Searle's Boatyards, Urban Infill, Cheltenham Racecourse, developer donations, Residential Development Bill, etc etc

Cheers

Ben

http://davidwinderlich.net/2009/06/02/stony-hill-vineyard-question/

Legislative Council - Tuesday 2nd June 2009

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations, representing the Minister for Environment and Conservation, questions about the impending bulldozing of South Australia’s oldest commercial vineyard, Stony Hill at Old Reynella.

Leave granted.

The Hon. DAVID WINDERLICH: The Sunday Mail of 31 May reported that Stony Hill at Old Reynella is set to be bulldozed to enable the construction of just 41 homes. Stony Hill was established in 1839 by John Reynell and was planted with 32 hectares of cabernet sauvignon vines. Only two hectares of this vineyard remain.

According to Onkaparinga council, the vineyard was removed from the state heritage list by the Department for Environment and Heritage. This is a very strange decision, because the vineyard clearly meets at least three of the seven criteria for listing under the state’s Heritage Places Act: it demonstrates important aspects of the evolution or pattern of the state’s history; it is an outstanding representative of a particular class of places of cultural significance; and it has a special association with the life or work of a person or organisation or an event of historical importance.

To delist such an important part of our history for such a small gain, 41 homes—we are not talking about this vineyard blocking the development of Roxby, for example—raises the concern that nothing is safe. It also raises questions about the integrity of the heritage listing process. My questions are:

1. Why was the Stony Hill vineyard taken off the state heritage register?

2. Was the minister aware that the Department for Environment and Heritage had removed Stony Hill from the state heritage register?

3. If the minister was not aware, will he undertake an investigation as to why the Department for Environment and Heritage made this bizarre decision?

4. Will the minister step in and prevent the bulldozing of the Stony Hill vineyard until he has completed an investigation as to the reason for its removal from the state heritage register?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy): I thank the honourable member for his important questions. I will refer them to the Minister for Environment and Conservation in another place and bring back a response.
June 4, 2009 9:49 AM

Peter made a comment about your link:

i am greatful that someone is keen to save the wine heritage of this state, your efforts will be appreciated in years to come.

being a former west aussie i am scared what the same company will do to the Gingin blocks houghtons sourced its moondah brook chardonnays from for years. i know in these tough times the company has deserted the growers it pushed to plant in this region.

like the cabernet at reynella, many west aussie chardonnay vineyards are planted from cuttings of the original gingin block.

Hi Philip,

Been following every word of this – you came over well on telly.

Just can’t comprehend the news of so much apathy from MVG TWAT or whatever they are called.

Keep at 'em mate, many of us are with you, though I still haven’t joined facebook...

Cheers

Harold, Adelaide

Whitey,

How did they remove the heritage listing? Gov? Council?

Cheers,

JD (Barossa)

It's an outrage!

Hope the program stirs some ire and passion in the people.

What else can be done? I'm sure you and others are working on it.

Thanks for sending the info on ... I missed the current affair program, yet knew it was on, due to their promos earlier in the week.

Keep stirring the pot, Whitey.

Cheers,

Annabelle (Langhorne Creek)

Whitey,

I wanted to buy Stony Hill from Rothmans in 1980 - not for the history, but because it was always the best Cabernet in the cellar - Reynella, McLaren Vale or Coonawarra.

Hack (Adelaide)

Greedy, insensitive bastards. We live in an unfair country.

Michael (Adelaide)

Not Good. No point having somewhere to live if you have nothing to drink.

Tony Ford (Port Lincoln)

Whitey,

Can you believe these arseholes?

Cheers Ox (Adelaide Hills)

Great job …. “Yuppy Ghetto” …. “Clap Trap”…. Lovin’ your work man.

Seriously, good work and keep up the fight.

Paul (McLaren Vale)


If you'd like to add your steam, use the comment box below or get to me on youtube. Meanwhile, there's plenty of background argument on this fiasco if you have the time to read on ... first up comes Geoff Hardy refuting Constellation's claims that the famous Reynella Selection cabernet did not come from the block they intend to convert to a yuppie ghetto.

HARDY WIZ BLASTS OLD CLONE THEORIES

THE NEW HARDY MOB WILL BE MAKING HERITAGE; NOT BUTCHERING IT ... GEOFF HARDY'S KIDS: BEC, HANNAH, JESS AND SEB. CLICK ON 'EM TO LEARN ABOUT CREATING THE FUTURE ... APOLOGIES FOR USING THE SAME PHOTOGRAPH TWICE, BUT GEOFF WOULD RATHER HAVE THESE STAUNCH VISIONARIES SNAPPED THAN BE RE-RUNNING HIS DETERMINED VISAGE. THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT CLONES!

Geoff Hardy: It's Not A Clone!
All Theories Total Codswallop
Stelzer Unfoxed By Fluffmonger


COMMENT by GEOFF HARDY:

"Noel Chapman was the architect of the current Reynell selection (not clone) which he told me was a process of elimination through three generations of plantings and he told me it was most recently from about 7 separate mother vines. We know that at least one of these is quite virus affected but I suspect it is two, without having done the testing. I understand the ‘current’ Reynell selection is the older Stony Hill planting (1968?) and this is where I have sourced perhaps 400 acres of planting material from, propagated or distributed through my own nursery business and this is the tip of the iceberg in an Australian sense.

"As regards naming the Stony Hill block I think Noey told me this was his doing because of the limestone in the higher part but my memory is very vague on this. Apparently there’s no mention of Stony Hill’s existence in Margaret Hopton’s significant writings on the Reynell family.

"David O’Leary mentioned a year or so ago that Noey is still alive so I may be able to find out a little more.

"The block has produced some great wine that I know of but I lost contact with its quality ratings in the late eighties.

"It certainly has a lot of history and is in the wrong hands at the moment."

(GEOFF HARDY'S FAMILY BUILT THE THOMAS HARDY & SONS WINE COMPANY, WHICH PURCHASED AND RESTORED CHATEAU REYNELLA BEFORE BECOMING BRL-HARDY WHICH WAS EVENTUALLY SWALLOWED BY CONSTELLATION WINES.)

COMMENT by TYSON STELZER:

"As you suggest in your response in your blog to my Spectator piece, it’s important that we get our facts right, but you have accused me of “regurgitating standard Constellation PR fluff” when the point that you refer to was not suggested to me by Constellation at all.

"If it turns out the clone did originate from the vineyard in question, I will be eager to report this. Constellation has been unable to confirm this to date, and I have not found evidence elsewhere to support the assertion.

"As stated in the article, "The Stony Hill vineyard at Old Reynella in McLaren Vale was first planted to Cabernet Sauvignon in 1838 by the district's first settler, John Reynell." Not the mid-1840s, as suggested elsewhere.

"One reason for the assertion that "It's more likely that the clone originated from the nearby Reynella vineyard, planted by Reynell shortly after Stony Hill" is that the clone was only brought into the country in 1838 and into McLaren Vale in 1844. It is more likely, then, from a vineyard planted after Stony Hill.

"This information was not provided to me by Constellation or by Sheralee Davies, although I have made a point of speaking with her about these matters."

TYSON STELZER IS REACTING TO MY CRITICISM IN THE PIECE BELOW

CONSTELLATION PR CONS YOUNG HACKS

TYSON STELZER: REGURGITATING STANDARD CONSTELLATION PR FLUFF TO ITS MAJOR MARKET, THE USA, IN THE REVERED PAGES OF THE WINE SPECTATOR? SURELY THERE'S TOO MUCH AT STAKE! NO?

When Did Vale Become Hill?
Propaganda War Claims Dill

by PHILIP WHITE

Constellation PR hogwash currently sloshing round the internet shows the developer desperate to convince the world the little vineyard it wants to destroy is not the source of the famous Reynella clone. Young writers have gullibly swallowed the company fluff, like Tyson Stelzer declaring, in The Wine Spectator:

“Some in the industry have suggested that the vineyard was the original source of the Reynella clone of Cabernet Sauvignon, which has since been planted across Australia. It's more likely that the clone originated from the nearby Reynella vineyard, planted by Reynell shortly after Stony Hill. Constellation has declared that it plans to continue to maintain the Reynella vineyard.”

I know the Adelaide newspaper, The Advertiser, has not been highly regarded for the quality of its wine critics (example: I wrote for it for twenty years, a large slice of its life); if there was a good one, it was surely Ebenezer Ward. After he visited Reynell in 1862, he wrote:

“In 1847 and 1848 Mr. Reynell obtained cuttings of the white sorts from the Clarendon Vineyard – viz., Pedro Ximines, Doradilla, Temprana, Palo-mino-blanco, &c.: and since then he has planted a considerable extent with the Rousillons.

“Thus his vineyard on the hilly land is chiefly confined to the Clarendon sorts, the Rousillon, and the Verdielho. The Carbonet -- a variety which, from the quality of its produce, cannot be too highly valued – Mr. Reynell has planted in another vineyard which he formed in 1848 on the flat bordering the creek, and where the soil is a black alluvial deposit on the surface, with a red loam subsoil. In this vineyard there are also Malbec and Shiraz to mix with the Carbonet, the Rousillon sorts, and (planted in 1861) Frontignac, Verdeilho, and Riesling.”

It is this creek block which is to be destroyed. Contrary to Stelzer’s claim, this appears to have been planted after the hill vineyard, but this is immaterial. Ward’s account clearly explains the hill block cabernet, where the soil was “too light” had been changed by grafting to white varieties and “the Rousillon varieties” by 1862, but the better soil of the creek block was where the cabernet grew, with the traditional blending agents of that day, as then used in Bordeaux: malbec and shiraz.

Indeed, it is this blend which impressed Ward most. He concluded his account with the critical line “his Verdielho is also remarkably good, but we thought a wine made from an admixture of Malbec and Carbonet best of all.”

Ward makes no mention of the creek block being called “Stony Hill”. To the contrary, he refers to its black alluvium over red loam. If you examine the aerial photograph below, you will notice the richness of the creek block on your left, circled, in contrast to the stony, sandy hill block around Constellation's huge Colorbond factory conveniently placed on the hill to your right. This old hack would suggest Mr. Stelzer would be safer theorising that this "Stony Hill" appellation is a later sophistication very convenient - like a little A$5 million convenient - to the prospective developer of the lucrative block in the gully.

If Ward's painstaking and scholarly account bears any weight, the feisty Constellation boss propagandist, Sheralee Davies, Group Public Relations Manager, is propagating abject nonsense.

We may never precisely discover where the Reynella clone first emerged, but if it comes down to being of vital importance, like A$5 mill clicksworth, the developer must be expected to display a little more intellectual rigour and reveal the historical sources of its increasingly breathless claims.

CONSTELLATION'S REYNELLA PLOT SICKENS

CONSTELLATION'S AUSTRALIAN HEADQUARTERS AT OLD REYNELLA. JOHN REYNELL'S PIONEER HOMESTEAD IS AMONG THE TREES, CENTRE. HIS 161 YEAR OLD VINEYARD IS CIRCLED. THIS IS THE SITE OF PIONEER HOMES' PROPOSED 41 BLOCK INTENSIVE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT: A PIONEER YUPPIE GHETTO ALREADY IN THE FESTERING STAGE...

Savvy Council Buys Time At Reynella
In Come The Heavy State Ministers
Meanwhile, Up Shit Creek With Karlene ...
by PHILIP WHITE

“The Stony Hill Vineyard is the jewel in Australia's viticultural crown,” reads the text on the back of the bottle. “Importantly, it is the birthplace of one of Australia's most famous wine houses, the oldest in South Australia, Chateau Reynella. Today Chateau Reynella, the home of John Reynell, the man who planted the first commercial vineyard in South Australia and who is recognised by many as the father of the State's industry, is again producing quality wines from Stony Hill Vineyard. Stony Hill is the first commercial vineyard planted by John Reynell on his Reynella Farm back in 1839, only one year after he founded the farm and three years after the proclamation of South Australia.”

But that was then. Here’s the latest about that same priceless vineyard from the same crass mob.

“Constellation Wines Australia (CWAU) has entered into an agreement to sell a block of land on the north west corner of Reynell and Panalatinga Roads, Reynella, opposite the main winery grounds. This site is part of the original 32 hectare area purchased by John Reynell in 1839, around 16 hectares of which was sold by John Reynell in 1854 to create the township of Reynella (now Old Reynella).

“Known as Stony Hill vineyard, this block comprises 1.24 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon vines planted in 1990 and 0.89 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon planted in 1968. These 18 to 40 year old vines are affected by leaf-roll virus and another disease known as ‘Eutypa dieback’. These grapevine diseases have compromised grape quality and reduced yields, to the point where many vines do not have bunches even though they have shoots and leaves. These diseases, combined with the inferior soils of the Stony Hill block, have resulted in poor quality grapes, compared with those grown in the vineyards located on the main winery site.

“The high quality of fruit grown on the main winery site has formed the backbone of our awarded Chateau Reynella McLaren Vale range for many years, and includes the highly valued Reynell clone of Cabernet, named in honour of John Reynell, and now widely used throughout Australia.

“The main winery site is an important part of the Reynella township heritage and highly valued for its historical significance to our company, the region and the South Australian wine industry.

“Sale of the Stony Hill block will enable further investment in the ongoing maintenance of Reynell’s heritage buildings and the surrounding landscaped gardens, which remain open to the public for self guided tours during business hours.

“Details on what is proposed for the Stony Hill block will be a matter for the new owner and the Onkaparinga Council following settlement, which is expected to occur in the next few weeks.”

This statement is from Sheralee Davies, Group Public Relations Manager, 0407 004 959.

The Onkaparinga Council, now beset by complaints about this plan, bought itself some time at Thursday night’s meeting by insisting it needed more advice and information from Pioneer Homes, the developer.

BIGNELL
Leon “Biggles” Bignell, the ace Labour Member for Mawson, the adjacent parliamentary seat, told DRINKSTER “Whitey, do you realise this is History Week? You know what these people are doing? Like Constellation, Pioneer and the Onkaparinga Council? They’re making history history!”

Biggles has written to Patch Conlon, a dead serious wine lover, and Minister for Transport, Energy and Infrastructure, explaining:

“Last night Onkaparinga Council deferred a decision on the subdivision application pending approval by DTEI of a full range of access from Reynell Road to the new development; i.e. left and right access in and out.

CONLON

“I would like you and officers within DTEI to be fully aware of the large community opposition to this proposal and call on DTEI not to grant approval for any access.”

Biggles will meet Planning Minister Paul Holloway on his return from overseas on Tuesday. Holloway promised in November that there would be no more significant housing developments in the Barossa Valley or McLaren Vale. Reynella is within the official McLaren Vale Geographical Indicator.

“Because they’re wine regions, also significant tourism regions, it would not make sense to have urban encroachment to a significant extent into those areas,” he said. “So we’ll avoid those areas and the areas that we’ll be looking at for future expansion are those areas where there’ll be less impact on the important tourism and economic areas ... why would you want to encroach on areas that are important to the economy because of the significant contribution that they make to the state’s economy through the wine industry and the tourism industry? Clearly that would be put at threat if we allowed rampant urban development within those areas."

HOLLOWAY

As for Cunstellation’s claim that the vineyard’s sick, well. Deary me. The biggest premium wine company on Earth can’t keep one of Australia’s most significant historical vineyards healthy? How can they be trusted to keep the rest of Reynell’s magnificent estate shipshape? Is Eutypa dieback – aka Dead Arm – the end of the world? Chester Osborne has made a healthy profit and a great deal of public favour from his lovely d'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz. How many of the oldest McLaren Vale vineyards don’t have some dead arm in them? Duh.

As for the insinuation that the vineyard has no historical significance because it has been replanted? The poppies of Flanders Fields are sacred and revered, not because they're the same ones that were there a century ago, but because of what happened there. And what happened at this sacred site of Australian viticulture, this site which has been under vine for 161 years, makes it absolutely essential that it should remain a vineyard.

SHARLEY
Which leads me to the little matter of Banrock Station. That's the “Help Us Help The Earth – Supporting Global Conservation” Constellation property up the buggered River Murray. Years ago I warned David Woods, CEO of BRL-Hardy before the Constellation invasion, that Banrock was a deadly PR trap unless the vineyard itself was an environmental triumph, and the vineyard most certainly was not, as it was your basic high-tonnage arid land petro-chem sprayed speculation watered by saline water from a River which was obviously not going to last.

Mysteriously, suddenly, Constellation last week “let go” Tony Sharley, the brilliant research scientist and conservationist who managed the swamps below the vineyard.

MAYWALD

The Riverland is abuzz with rumours about Sharley’s relationship with Karlene Maywald, the Minister for the River Murray and Water Security. If these have substance, it should be very good for South Australia and the River, as Sharely will be much more influential advising Ms Maywald than he ever could have been working for the retreating Constellation.

And, believe me, Karlene needs better advice than any she's had so far.

It's just a pity that Constellation hasn't taken better counsel. The four or five million bucks it might get for this act of barefaced vandalism is peanuts compared to the permanent international disgrace this whole thing has brought down.

Help us help the Earth, indeed. Support global conservation? Yes, please! And Banrock Station? Isn't that up shit creek?

Click on George Grainger Aldridge's cartoon for the ancient history:

CONSTELLATION MUST NEED QUICK BUCKS

AUSTRALIAN WINE PIONEER JOHN REYNELL (1809 - 1873) WHOSE LAST SURVIVING VINEYARD BLOCK IS ABOUT TO BE SUBDIVIDED BY PIONEER HOMES (!) THANKS TO THE TRANSNATIONAL CONSTELLATION WINES, THE BIGGEST WINE COMPANY ON EARTH.




World’s Biggest Fine Wine Company Hard Up?
Cash Lust To Kill Historic Reynella Vineyard
by PHILIP WHITE

The cash-strapped Constellation wine company, owner of the conglomerate South Australian winemakers Berri-Renmano, Stanley, Leasingham, Thomas Hardy & Son, and Chateau Reynella, has announced plans to replace one of South Australia’s most historic vineyards with extremely high-density housing.

This conflicts directly with Labor government promises to put an end to housing in the McLaren Vale vignoble.

The 2 hectare vineyard was the source of the famous pre-phylloxera Reynella clone of Cabernet sauvignon – a clone which has spread all over Australia and is revered for its flavour.

John Reynell first planted grapes on this block in the early 1840s. It is immediately opposite the Australian headquarters of Constellation, which is housed in Reynell's old homestead and the grand winery buildings he established. Rumours suggesting Constellation plans to develop the whole site, as the Kent Town Brewery in Rundle Street Kent Town, Adelaide, was developed, are already rife.

Constellation has sold the vineyard, in the heart of the heritage village of Old Reynella, to the developer Pioneer Homes, as part of a greedy scheme to build 41 ticky-tacky houses. That’s 22 x 22 metres per block. Constellation hardly needs the neighbours as workers: it’s been closing wineries and putting people off for years. Now it’s put off the whole suburb, and wine-lovers everywhere.

Local Mitchell MP Kris Hanna, chairman of the Reynell Business and Tourism Association, told the local paper the development would “wreck the place”.

“The site has been used continuously as vineyards since about 1840 and we’d like to see it preserved as vineyards as a tribute to our early history ... there’s a growing feeling among residents that the senior management at Constellation aren’t concerned with the history of the area or the locals,” he said.

Constellation’s PR flak Sheralee Davies told press that keeping the vineyard was difficult to justify from a financial or historical perspective.

The vineyard is the historic heart of the McLaren Vale wine district and is well within the McLaren Vale GIC – the official government boundary.

The move is, to put it mildy, audacious and hubristic. South Australian Planning Minister, Paul Holloway, has promised there would be no further urban encroachment in the vignobles of Barossa and McLaren Vale.

“Because the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale are important economic areas of the state,” he promised last November, “because they’re wine regions, also significant tourism regions, it would not make sense to have urban encroachment to a significant extent into those areas. So we’ll avoid those areas and the areas that we’ll be looking at for future expansion are those areas where there’ll be less impact on the important tourism and economic areas. So yes we do recognise those areas but look it’s simple common sense: why would you want to encroach on areas that are important to the economy because of the significant contribution that they make to the state’s economy through the wine industry and the tourism industry? Clearly that would be put at threat if we allowed rampant urban development within those areas.”


Holloway was recently persuaded by Cabinet to keep this promise and prevent the University of Adelaide from breaking its deed, which precluded development on nearby Glenthorne Farm, so we shall see whether he can stand up to a shrinking transnational plonkmonger and a housing development company named after the very sorts of pioneers that John Reynell exemplified.

Old Reynella is in the state parliamentary seat of Mitchell, which the governing Labor Party lost to the Independent Chris Hanna at the last election. Hanna, a former Labor man, is firmly opposed to the development.

Labor Member for the traditionally conservative seat of Mawson, which includes McLaren Vale proper, to the south of the Hanna's Mitchell electorate, is the increasingly popular Leon Bignell, a dairy farmer's son and former journalist, whom many voters felt should have been given the Agriculture Ministry in the recent Cabinet reshuffle. Through arcane Labor factional bullshit, the job went a bloke who is obviously new to agriculture, Paul Caica.

Bignell, affectionately known as Biggles, is peeved and alarmed at the thought of another sacred vineyard site tumbling.

"This vital historic vineyard is symbolic of the whole district", he said. "Gutter to gutter housing is something that belongs in the inner city suburbs where people want to live like that, close to the parklands and the city amenities and the high-rise offices where they're happy to work.

"It's like sub-dividing The Grange," he said. "Putting this sort of development on John Reynell's old block is like putting multi-storey flats on the site of the Old Gum Tree at Glenelg, or like crushing the first FJ Holden for scrap. We've already lost too much beautiful grape-growing land to tupperware Tuscany housing. And that's a special piece of soil, Reynell's last block: if you read your history you'll see that ground is perfect for premium vineyard and the unique flavours those soils give, which is why Reynell planted there in the first place. It's a dumb move, and while it's not in my electorate, I'll do whatever I can to stop it."

There will a state election in March.

Reynella Farm
The residence of Mr. John Reynell
by Ebenezer Ward, The Advertiser , 1862

CHATEAU REYNELLA A CENTURY AGO: A TRUE PIONEER HOMESTEAD, NOW THE AUSTRALIAN HEADQUARTERS OF CONSTELLATION WINES AND A TOURISM SITE EQUAL TO THE GRANGE AT MAGILL ... HAS THE TRANSNATIONAL PLONKMOGER SPOKEN TO THE CYNICALLY-NAMED PIONEER HOMES ABOUT SUBDIVIDING/REDEVELOPING THE ENTIRE HISTORIC PRECINCT? THE CASH-STRAPPED CONSTELLATION COULD GO ANYWHERE... AND DOES...

THE township of Reynella is about 13 miles from Adelaide, on the Great South-road. The section on which the Crown hostelrie, the Reynella Mills, store &c., now stand was originally taken up by Mr. Reynell in 1838, and he has resided in the locality ever since. His present residence is barely a quarter of mile south-east of the township, on a slight eminence rising from Peel’s Creek. He has now about 450 acres of land in his possession, and in its management he aims at a combination of vine-growing, grazing and farming. He has 15 acres of vines, 2 of orchard and garden, about 100 under crop, and the remainder of the estate is fenced off for grazing.

Mr. Reynell commenced planting 21 years ago, when a considerable portion of the present orchard was formed. A few vine-cuttings from Tasmania were planted at the same time, and three years afterwards wine was made from them. The vineyard proper dates from 1844, when half an acre was planted with cuttings from Mr. Anstey’s. In the following season four-and-a-half acres were planted with cuttings obtained from the Macarthurs, of New South Wales, and the sorts recommended in “Maro’s” letters – viz., the Verdielho, Carbonet, Malbec, Pineau Gris, and Gouais. The situation, however, was too dry, and the soil too light, for most of these varieties to bear largely there, and a number of them have been already superseded. One acre of Pineau Gris has been grubbed up, the Rousillon varieties have been previously planted alternately with the rows of Pineau, and the Rousillon have also been grafted on the Carbonet. In 1847 and 1848 Mr. Reynell obtained cuttings of the white sorts from the Clarendon Vineyard – viz., Pedro Ximines, Doradilla, Temprana, Palo-mino-blanco, &c.: and since then he has planted a considerable extent with the Rousillons.

Thus his vineyard on the hilly land is chiefly confined to the Clarendon sorts, the Rousillon, and the Verdielho. The Carbonet -- a variety which, from the quality of its produce, cannot be too highly valued – Mr. Reynell has planted in another vineyard which he formed in 1848 on the flat bordering the creek, and where the soil is a black alluvial deposit on the surface, with a red loam subsoil. In this vineyard there are also Malbec and Shiraz to mix with the Carbonet, the Rousillon sorts, and (planted in 1861) Frontignac, Verdeilho, and Riesling. None of Mr. Reynell’s vines are either staked or trellised, and the Rousillon sorts appear very well able to support themselves. The Verdielho have a more straggling growth, but Mr. Reynell thinks the cost of staking is greatly in excess of the advantage to be gained. Throughout the vineyard the rows are 6 feet apart, and the vines at from 4 to 5 feet in the rows. The vineyard has a northern to north-eastern aspect, and is well sheltered on the south and west. The ground between the rows is stirred with horse-hoe or plough two or three times every season, and is flanked with rows of almond trees planted for shelter. On the highest point of the hill the soil is very sandy; but on the lower slopes it is a good red loam on the surface, with a sprinkling of ironstone intermixed, and the subsoil is chiefly composed of friable limestone. Mr. Reynell has about 40 acres of this kind of land at a sufficient elevation above the creek to be secure from frosts, but he unwilling to increase his vineyard very largely until there is a prospect of our wines being admitted to the Melbourne markets without an import duty. We certainly hope the day is not far distant when our friends across the border will be wise and magnanimous enough to reduce very much, or altogether remove, the present impost. The apple- and pear-trees in the orchard are some of the largest we have seen in the colony. We noticed there a tree of the indiarubber variety, which was obtained from Sydney 20 years ago, and has grown to great size. It is an evergreen, and the foliage has an elegant appearance. A few orange-trees have been planted near the creek. Several years ago Mr. Reynell made a pure wine from the Pineau Gris. It is now perfectly matured, and has been highly spoken of by connoisseurs. His Verdielho is also remarkably good, but we thought a wine made from an admixture of Malbec and Carbonet best of all. - transcribed by Philip White from Ebenezer Ward’s Vineyards & Orchards Of South Australia 1862.

Reynella
By Ernest Whitington, The Register, 1903

The cellars here are the property of Mr. Walter Reynell, who has always taken a keen interest in the wine industry. I believe one of his missions on his present trip to England is to see if he cannot do something to find increased markets for our wine. All vignerons pray that he might be successful. Mr. Reynell’s oldest son was superintending vintage operations when I arrived. The make this year was expected to be between 80,000 and 85,000 gallons. In the winery there are 28 fermenting tanks, each of a capacity of 1,500 gallons. The water for cooling is run down from an underground tank on the top of the hill. After passing through the coils in the fermenting tanks the water is run over eight canvas trays, which have a fan playing on them, and then down into the well, the source whence it first came. The canvas cooling machine cools the water to 60 degrees. There are two gable-roofed storage cellars running parallel to one another, and when the occasion arises the space between will be covered in and converted into a cellar. In the first cellar there are 16 3,000 gallon jarrah vats, and in the second 20 similar receptacles, as well as 300-gallon casks and hogsheads. Altogether there is 170,000 gallons in store. The old cellar, which is 40 years old, is right under the ground. The roof is of logs and earth overgrown with grass, and presents a very picturesque appearance. M. Reynell has 150 acres in bearing at Reynella and 120 acres at Riverton and Magill. The grapes from these vineyards are treated at Reynella, while Mr. Reynell buys from 15 or 16 growers in the district. - transcribed by Philip White from The South Australian Vintage 1903, by Ernest Whitington

So? When Constellation's boss propagandist Sheralee Davies says that keeping the vineyard was difficult to justify from a financial perspective, we might believe her, given the parlous state of the shrinking, retreating Constellation transnational and its past blunders. But difficult to justify from a HISTORICAL perspective? Who the hell are these people? Who the hell do they think WE are? Do they think history will forgive them?

They gotta be kidding. Vote with your wallet. Stop buying their wines. To see the full list, click HERE.

OBITUARY FOR JIM ROBINSON, RAPTOR MAN

NONAMI, THE TARONGA ZOO'S NEWEST WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE. ALL THESE PORTRAITS OF HER ARE BY MARK KOLBE. THE WEDGE-TAIL IS AQUILA AUDAX, OR, IN THE ADNYAMATHANHA, WILDU.


Bird Man Flies
by PHILIP WHITE 13 AUG 03
a version of this story appeared in The Advertiser

Jim Robinson, the Raptor Man, died of cancer last weekend. He was one of the last of our falconers: one of the very special blokes I’ve found on my rounds of the lost edges of the wine industry. He spent his gentle life fixing and rehabilitating birds of prey, or raptors, that had damaged themselves, often by smashing their wings on trellis wires whilst pursuing smaller grape-eating birds through vineyards.

If we had a proper balance of raptors in our vineyards, there’d be much less problem with frustrated grape farmers resorting to bird scarers to deter marauding birds. The imbalance brought our exports close to crisis when government relaxed the laws on shooting native rosellas and parrots in vineyards, which sufficiently disgusted nature-loving wine drinkers in California and London to suddenly drink only French. As if the French were more sympathetic to wee berrudies.

In gastronomy, as in politics, all things are connected to everything else. Mulling over Jim’s life, I had an overwhelming desire to eat pigeons. Cooked with juniper berries, in good red. Raptors eat pigeons, and now, without Jim around to fix them, there’ll be fewer raptors, more pigeons, and more gas guns.

The falcons, eagles, buzzards, kestrels, and hawks exist at the far extreme of the food chain, living on meat that grew up eating everything else, where all the poisons from the dining environment end up, concentrated. They’re the first to go when things go wrong, like during the ’seventies DDT fashion, when their egg shells wouldn’t harden.

These days, we have plastic inflatable raptors flopping around on stupid little poles like fishing rods. They never seem to scare anything, because they never straighten up and fly right, like the rulers of the sky which they dumbly, lifelessly emulate. There’s no evidence at all that their inventors ever looked a raptor in the eye, like I’ve done at Jim Robinson’s.

THIS IS NOT NONAMI'S FOOT. THIS ONE, COMPLETE WITH RADIO TRANSMITTER ON THE JESS, BELONGS ON THE ANKLE OF AN HEBRIDEAN HARRIS HAWK. LOVE THOSE NAILS!

Not too close, mind you. Get too close, touch them for a few seconds too many, especially whilst they’re weak and wounded, and raptors lose the arrogant psychological edge it takes to stoop like lightning through the sky and drive their talons through the flesh of others for a feed. The sky is their restaurant.

But while a brown falcon, for example, can thrash through the leafiest bit of a red gum, in starving pursuit of a smaller bird to eat, it has learned in recent decades to avoid pursuing them through vineyards, because vineyards have something that red gums do not have: those deadly, invisible wires, stretched tight.

There’s a posh, multi-storey, heritage-listed dovecote in the vineyard near the main gate of Chateau Reynella. It houses, without rent, hundreds of pigeons. Jim was one of the few who really knew what that dovecote was for. Pigeons don’t eat grapes. But raptors regard pigeons as aerial chocolate truffles, and they’d sweep through that vineyard to guts themselves on the bits of the pigeon with the most sugar: the pumping heart and the brain. During the chase, they’d frighten all the grape-eating birds away. The grape crop survived, at the expense of the pigeons.

When Gough Whitlam introduced equal pay for women, the old wine families that owned the wine business refused to pay pickers and pruners men’s wages. Most of the pickers and pruners were women. This forced the rapid development of the grape harvesting machine, and the machine-pruning devices. These both worked more efficiently with hedged vinerows. Gradually, one humble fruiting wire became two or three, in pursuit of higher tonnages, and the wires killed the raptors.

Observing Jim mending the wing bones of the broken ones with plastic drinking straw splints, and replacing broken feathers with good ones plucked from his collections of raptors in the deep freeze, was to witness an incredible healing ritual that came from the dawn of time and was all over before anybody knew it, least of all the bird. First of all, if the bird was irreparable, he'd kill it immediately and put it in the fridge. If at any stage his repairs weren't working to his rigorous expectations, he'd kill the bird. If the bird had been handled too much before he got it, he'd kill it. He hated vets, who couldn't resist handling the wounded, to investigate their damages. If a bird had been in the warm hands of a vet, he'd usually kill it.

He’d keep the wounded ones roosting on his bed head with all the blinds drawn, observing them over a day or so, until they’d fall asleep from exhaustion and pain. He’d learn about their ailment by watching, then while the bird was drooping, suddenly grasp their broken bits and feel the damage, so he could then plan a subsequent rapid attack to make the repairs. Then came a long season of retraining: teaching the partly broken bird to be wild again, to fly, hover and stoop to kill. So it could be released.

Hovering was the biggest test. Hovering is very difficult. If you haven't got your wings working evenly, and you can't hover, Jim wouldn't trust you to survive.


Which leads me to the matter of pigeons. If you’re squeamish about dressing your own, you can order them through Angelakis Brothers in the Central Market. Don’t let anyone sell you homeless punks from the street: skyrats that grew up eating cigarette butts taste like ashtrays and take a lot longer to cook. Ensure they’ve come from a cage with plenty of organic corn and hempseed. I dry them with salt and pepper, and stuff them with coarsely-chopped walnuts, smoked bacon fat, black olives and brandy. I wrap them with thinly-sliced Schulz’s or Linke’s bacon, tie them, and brown them in my iron griddle with butter.

Once I’ve put the birds aside, I brown baby beetroot, fresh shiitake mushrooms and little onions in the same griddle with some chopped bacon and fresh herbs. Then I glug in half a bottle of woody shiraz with a cup of chook stock and a dozen juniper berries, and reduce the whole glorious potage by half before putting it in a covered casserole with the pigeons, in an oven already set at 230 degrees C. (Don't put the shiitake in til late.) You can see when your pigeons are done: your nose will tell you. Before serving them in bowls, I take the bacon off them, chop it up, and add it to the hot stock and veg before dousing the birds with it.

A bottle of Mitchell’s delicious screw-capped Clare shiraz 2001, and a stack of mash, and I’m back at the contemplation of dear sweet Jim – a very special, sensitive and clever man who has taken with him all the secrets.




Falco longipennis

What maddened verse gives raptors the rhythm
To thrash through shrubbage and scrub
Risking wings to get at the tucker
And peck the brains from pigeon, parrot, and bat?

I just looked an Australian hobby in the eyes.
She’d done a wing on a vineyard wire,
Humping through the trellis to get the wee birdies
The vigneron erected plastic falcons to scare.

Her falconer had set her up well,
Never holding her down like the dreaded vet,
Keeping her weight up, earning her trust
’Til she up and off, one crook wing tip hanging just

Enough to attract that peregrine that
Drilled a shocked silent hole in the sky,
Smashing all sound of bird into nothing:
A sudden feather-free vacuum of death.

But she came back, that broken one,
Now setting herself on her ground crew’s glove,
Staring black and yellow to my soul, as if to say
“You thought I was fucked then didn’t you”.


Philip White
1 April 2002



Wildu – Aquila audax

Slow to leave the roo somebody’d hit last night,
a wedge-tailed eagle wobbles starving into the up and
lurches to stare from sixty metres off as we draw to a halt.
“There’s another one dead over there” you say.

His gizzards unrolling in the sun, talons locked open.
I pull feathers to freshen my dead brother’s hat.
The highway kills its carrion addicts,
and these wingtips are worn half way through

from years of mothy heaving ’gainst the tarmac to escape.
He’d lost his grasp of air, finally rising so slow
he got splattered with his beak full. Too easy to miss.
Now the female’s twitching to resume her feast.

Can she know? Does she feel it go?
They found the hat in a place like this.


Philip White
24 Sep 07