TROTT FAMILY TROPHY AN HONOUR

EMILY TROTT, DAUGHTER OF GREG, WITH THE AUTHOR AFTER SHE AWARDED HIM THE TROTT FAMILY TROPHY 2009.

Emily Trott’s Award Speech
The Trott Family Trophy

Thankyou. It gives me pleasure to be back here again.

Having enlisted considerable help in piecing together this trophy’s history and its recipients, as Dad was not good at keeping ordered records, I learned that this trophy had its beginnings in viticulture, to even the ledger on this day of “The Winemakers’ Lunch”.

However, over the years, the trophy has deviated, meandered and weaved its way to many who have contributed to McLaren Vale, as seems natural as this area was Greg Trott’s delight. Dad would have a vision and he would subsequently weave his magic, meander his way, for example, into state parliament, and, on the odd occasion, deviate agendas to the betterment of McLaren Vale and the South Australian wine industry as a whole, and there is no better example of this than Glenthorne Farm.

Most of you know the history. Glenthorne Farm has been many things to many people. In 1839 it became known as The Lizard Lodge named so by Major Thomas O’Halloran. After that it became a horse estate; in 1913 an army property, followed by the CSIRO in 1946 and in 2001 Glenthorne Farm was passed from the CSIRO to its current guardian the University of Adelaide. Importantly, since the 1830s, Glenthorne Farm has always remained a green buffer between development and the southwest.

This land was transferred to the University on the basis that there would be no housing on the site and that the land would be used for viticulture, research and winemaking. However, this year the University of Adelaide wanted to sell 63 hectares of the farm for housing to cover the cost of returning the rest of the land to its pre-colonial bush state or native woodland.

With contributions from politicians, significant petitions from Friends of Glenthorne Farm, and through sheer persistence, on the 24th March 2009, the Adelaide University proposal was rejected by the state government.

Instrumental in this fight, with perpetual lobbying, and an even louder voice, and words, and then even a louder voice than before, was Philip White. He was around at the time of the original proposal by Greg Trott and was subsequently mortified with the idea that Glenthorne Farm might be earmarked for housing, as were many. He wasn’t pleased and chose to do something about it, as this was contradictory to Greg Trott’s initial vision and in total disparity to the agreement made on the existing deed.

What Philip has helped to achieve by preserving Greg Trott’s intention for Glenthorne Farm is more than protecting a great friend’s vision when he is no longer around to physically watch over it himself.

More importantly, what Philip has vehemently helped to protect, is the vital, green, ever-buffering farmland, and its practises, which, in turn, is to the benefit of all of us, and crucially, the future.

I can safely say that Dad would be pleased.

It gives me great pleasure to award the Trott Family Trophy 2009 to Mr. Philip White.

GLENTHORNE FARM ... LEO DAVIS PHOTOGRAPH ... FOR LATEST GLENTHORNE FARM NEWS, CLICK ON IMAGE

MEDIA RELEASE from McLAREN VALE GRAPE WINE AND TOURISM ASSOCIATION
2nd NOVEMBER 2009

Paul Carpenter Crowned McLaren Vale Bushing King

Paul Carpenter of Hardy’s Tintara Winery in McLaren Vale was crowned the 2009 Bushing King at the Winegrapes Australia McLaren Vale Wine Show Luncheon on Friday 30th November 2009.

Hardy’s Wines won the prestigious regional award for their 2004 Eileen Hardy Shiraz.

Paul is the winemaker* behind two trophy-winning wines at this year’s McLaren Vale Wine Show. The award winning wines consisted of the 2004 Eileen Hardy Shiraz and the 2007 Tintara Reserve Grenache which won both the Grenache Trophy and an International Judge trophy.

A tradition that has been carried out in the region since the 1970s, the Bushing King or Queen is selected from winemakers receiving trophies in the McLaren Vale Wine Show. The Bushing King or Queen award goes to the best wine of the show.

Paul and Alix Hardy undertook the ritual ‘coronation’ and were officially crowned by event sponsor Dave Wright, Chairman of Winegrapes Australia.

Paul made a passionate acceptance speech in front of the 500 strong crowd, thanking the Hardy’s team with special mention of the history and heritage of the brand which is based in McLaren Vale.

“I am very proud to accept this award on behalf of Hardy’s and has special meaning as someone who has lived the majority of my life in this wonderful community based region” Paul said.

Alix was particularly pleased to be carrying on a family tradition as her father, Bill Hardy, had been crowned Bushing King in 1988.

The Bushing King/Queen tradition was taken from medieval times when Tavern owners would place ivy bushes above their tavern doors to celebrate the arrival of the new vintage wine, or fresh mead. In the early 1970’s, McLaren Vale’s winemakers incorporated this symbol to 'ring in' the new vintage by hanging olive branches over their cellar doors.

PETER JOSEPH COOMBS, THE ADELAIDE DESIGNER AND JEWELLER WHO MAKES THE McLAREN VALE BUSHING TROPHIES AND SHIELDS

MEDIA RELEASE from McLAREN VALE GRAPE WINE AND TOURISM ASSOCIATION
23 October 2009
McLAREN VALE REDS LEAD THE WAY

The results of this year’s Winegrapes Australia McLaren Vale Wine Show confirm the region’s strength lies with red wines, however with Chardonnay making a comeback. Sixteen gold medals were awarded by the judges to red wines and three gold medals for white wines.

Chair of the Winegrapes Australia McLaren Vale Wine Show, Chris Thomas said that the number of overall gold and silver medals were in line with previous years.

“Although the region has recently experienced challenging vintages, the results show the region continues to produce some great quality wines, with white wines beginning to show great promise.”

In particular three wineries each enjoyed two gold medals, Hardy Wine Company, Leconfield and Serafino.

“In addition to Shiraz, Cabernet and Grenache, it is fantastic to see other varieties like Chenin Blanc, Rose and Tempranillo being awarded gold medals.”

The judges were impressed with the 2008 Grenache commenting that “It is a strong class with winemaking respectful of variety. This is a region where this variety should shine and does.”

2009 McLaren Vale Wine Show

Trophy Winners:
Chardonnay - 2008 Serafino Reserve Chardonnay
Single White Variety – 2009 Dowie Doole Chenin Blanc
Rose Style – 2009 S C Pannell Rose Arido
Grenache - 2008 Vinrock Grenache
Cabernet Sauvignon – 2008 Richard Hamilton Hut Block Cabernet Sauvignon
Shiraz (Less than $25) – 2008 Richard Hamilton Shiraz
Other Single Red Varieties – 2008 Gemtree Vineyards Luna Roja Tempranillo
Grenache -2007 Tintara Reserve Grenache Shiraz
Shiraz (more than $25) – 2004 Eileen Hardy Shiraz
Fortified Wine – Woodstock 500ml Very Old Fortified
Fleurieu Shiraz and Shiraz predominant blends – 2008 Lake Breeze Bullant Shiraz
Fleurieu Dry Still White Wine – 2007 Geoff Merrill Reserve Chardonnay
Fleurieu other single varietals – 2008 Bleasdale T&M

This year’s International Judge, John Livingstone Learmonth, awarded his choices to:
2007 Tintara Reserve Grenache
2008 Richard Hamilton Hut Block Cabernet Sauvignon
2006 The Old Faithful “Top of the Hill” NV Woodstock 500ml Very Old Fortified

* The Eileen Hardy Shiraz 2004 was actually vintaged by Rob Mann and Simon White.

CONSTELLATION WINS BUSHING CROWN

BUSHING QUEEN AND KING: ALIX HARDY AND PAUL CARPENTER

Consto King Takes Hardy Queen
One Trophy For Them
One Trophy For Us

BY PHILIP WHITE

I don’t know whether McLaren Vale has its own local Bacchus and Pan pulling the strings of its court, but there was some wired poltergeist at work, on somebody’s behalf, at the Bushing King crowning on Friday.

One minute I’m up there weeping, taking possession of the revered Trott Family Trophy for my efforts protecting McLaren Vale’s dwindling green belt, specifically Glenthorne Farm, and then Paul Carpenter gets up to be crowned king of McLaren Vale’s winemakers for a year. Paul’s the amiable and respected guy who played a great central role at the Grand Cru show at the Victory a few weeks ago, displaying four reds from different bits of McLaren Vale. On that day, he felt awkward, as he said, representing Constellation at a show for tiny shedsters. The irony lies in the fact that no small Vale Cru-sized winemaker could do what his giant mob could do, and bother to make small batch wines from different sub-regions.
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THE AUTHOR WITH PAUL CARPENTER AT THE VALE CRU TASTING ... LEO DAVIS PHOTOGRAPH

When he got up for his crown in front of the five hundred on Friday, Paul was regal and statesmanly in his clear appreciation and expression that he worked for Constellation. I'd give him a job straight away: he could be in charge of my palace guard. Vigilant loyalty to his employer was the trademark he left there on the air, as the applause took it all away.

But this is the company that has just uprooted John Reynell’s famous cabernet and malbec vineyard at Chateau Reynella, where Thomas Hardy got his first vineyard job. So I get a trophy for saving some vineyard land, which still has no vineyard on it, and the bloke who works for the mob who’s just ripped out an irreplaceable historical vineyard gets one too. That priceless little block that's disappearing under a ghetto as we speak made good wine for 161 years.

There’s more irony in here: nearly a decade ago, when Greg Trott was busy saving Glenthorne, and needed a big winery to agree to take its fruit, it was the pre-Constellation Hardy’s that put its huge mitt up in the name of sponsoring essential vineyard research. How times have changed!

Since it has so well and truly trashed so many of its Australian adventures, Constellation has a new morality mantra. Its army of PR flaks have “defined three areas in which all of its Corporate Social Responsibility focus will take place: sustainable business practices, philanthropy and social responsibility. From these three focus areas flow specific categories of emphasis, including our environmental impact, corporate giving, marketing and advertising codes, community involvement and much more. All of Constellation's social responsibility efforts flow directly from its values and culture.”

But there was another delicious layer of irony, as thick as whipped cream. The new King Paul was accompanied by one of the enormous Hardy tribe, a descendant of Thomas Hardy. This was Alix Hardy, whom Paul has chosen to be his queen for a year.

Now this was Friday, remember. My paper, Adelaide’s brave little Independent Weekly, that morning ran my piece examining Constellation’s new corporate mantra and strange panicky behaviour. This (see below) went round the world rather quickly, with links appearing on boozy hives like Dr. Vino. For some reason, on Sunday, Constellation felt obliged to make a statement. This contained little that was new. Basically it’s the collision of two great husks: one, the shell of Constellation Australia, rattling emptily with the remains of all the great companies and properties that leviathan has gutsed up, trying to make some sort of sicko procreative act with the great husk of Australian Vintage Limited. This latter lot, the remnants of Brian McGuigan’s third empire, had even taken his name off its flag to make things look better. To no avail. McGuigan, Simeon, Australian Vintage, Galaxy, Milky Way, Universal – doesn’t matter what it’s called. It has always spent a lot of its time in the shallow edges of wine’s gene pool.

RAZOR WIRE AT REYNELLA; THE 161-YEAR-OLD VINEYARD OPPOSITE IS THE ONE THAT'S GONE ... photo by KATE ELMES

Which is not to say these great corporations can’t make good wine, of course: Australian Vintage’s Nepenthe gets regular gongs, and Constellation, as well as the Bushing Trophy, has absolutely cleaned up at the Royal (yep, they still call them that), at the Royal wine shows of Adelaide and Perth.

So on Sunday, Constellation Brands Inc., the world’s largest winemaker, releases a statement from its CEO, Rob Sands, which says “The Australian wine industry is facing unprecedented negative operating conditions”. And suggested that if a deal could be done with Australian Vintage, where Constellation swapped some of its carcases for a substantial equity stake, but not a controlling one, the new combo “would create synergies between the two companies, better positioning the new entity for success in the current challenging operating environment”.

If a transaction results, the combined companies would operate as a stand alone wine company, which would be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, but typically, Sands also said the talks with Australian Vintage are preliminary and may not lead to a transaction. The company didn’t identify any other potential partners. But there was one pretty obvious one on the stage at the Bushing lunch, being crowned queen of Constellation’s new king.

There has been a quiet, somewhat ungainly attempt at courtship with certain branches of the Hardy family tree, with Constellation exploring the possibility of the lovely Hardys finding the money to take Chateau Reynella back off its hands.

Which would go some way to explaining why key Hardy winemen who were first aghast at the notion of Constellation uprooting the first vineyard their great founder worked in, suddenly withdrew their support from my failed campaign to save Reynell’s priceless little vinegarden.

And why not one squeak of support from the stupidly-named McLaren Vale Grape Wine And Tourism Association in my battle for the Reynella vineyard? Like why did I lose? Partly because everyone who may have been likely to voice some enragement depend upon Constellation buying their grapes. And partly because, whatever its name at the time, that association has been fed for decades by funds from the Hardy Family, from Hardy’s Reynella, from BRL-Hardy, and then Constellation. Now that money’s drying up, maybe even the McLVGWATA’s sufficiently swift to sniff the disappearing possibility of the odd pound note wafting down from the tables of whichever Hardys would be crazy and/or brave enough to have another go at what has already proved to be beyond them.

Those Hardys meanwhile, whom are serious grape-growers, must feel rather uncomfortable about just who will be buying their grapes should the remnants of their old family show finally die in bed with Australian Vintage.

Not to go on too much about the work of Constellation’s incredible PR hacks, but the last bit of their Sunday statement more or less said it all.

“This news release contains forward-looking statements”, it said. “The words ‘anticipate,’ ‘intend,’ and ‘expect,’ and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These statements may relate to Constellation's business strategy, future operations, prospects, plans and objectives of management, as well as information concerning expected actions of third parties. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in or implied by the forward-looking statements.”