It's Time For The Pioneers To Wine And Shine
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 9, 2008
Grape-growing in Sydney is as old as the colony itself, writes Daniel Lewis, who traces six immigrants who helped sow the dream in 1838.
WHEN six vine dressers from Germany were brought out to work on the Macarthur family's vineyard at Camden in 1838, Sydney's wine industry was already 50 years old.Vine cuttings brought from the Cape of Good Hope and Rio de Janeiro by the First Fleet were planted at Farm Cove in 1788.One hundred and seventy years after Friedrich Seckold, Johann Justus, Johann Stein, Caspar Flick, Georg Gerhard and Johann Wenz arrived at Camden Park, their many descendants are holding a reunion, yet the Sydney basin - the cradle of Australia's vast wine industry - is not an official wine region.To get such recognition from the Geographic Indications Committee, a region needs more than a great history. There must be at least five vineyards each with more than five hectares of grapes, and Sydney only has four.New England, north of the Hunter Valley, was officially declared the state's newest wine region last month, but the marketing power of NSW regional wine branding doesn't have much effect on NSW wine drinkers.David Lowe, president of the NSW Wine Industry Association, said: "South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia are all parochial wine-drinking states. They love and support their own. To date that has not been the case in NSW."NSW wine accounts for only 13 per cent of wine sold in NSW restaurants and most wine consumers cannot name more than two to three NSW wine regions despite NSW producing 34 per cent of Australian wine."This does not make sense given NSW is home to some of Australia's icon wines, oldest family wineries and 14 diverse wine regions, each with their own regional heroes."Mr Lowe said the situation was due to the governments of other states historically doing far more to promote their wine regions and to the "cosmopolitan attitude" of NSW people."NSW tries to be like New York. It tries to look at things that aren't local. It's anti-parochial in many ways. It pursues trends and fashions more than any other state."To get Hilltops, Hastings River and Southern Highlands as well known as the Yarra Valley, the Barossa and Margaret River, a major marketing strategy and the new brand NSW Wine will be launched in Sydney next week ahead of NSW Wine Week (March 9 to 15).The aim is to build international recognition and make the domestic market aware of the NSW wine regions and its strengths like shiraz in Gundagai or riesling in New England.Julie Watt, 48, is not a wine drinker, but her great-great-great grandfather was the German vine dresser Johann Justus and she is organising the April reunion. It will include a visit to Belgenny Farm, which was part of the original Camden land grant made to John Macarthur in 1805.Belgenny has Australia's most complete and authentic set of Georgian farm buildings as well as 500 vines to mark the fact Australia's first commercial vineyard and winery operated there.Included in the rich archive Mrs Watt has compiled on the "original six" is the five-year contract signed by the Macarthurs and the Germans.Each worker was promised #15 a year and a cow. In return, they pledged "to control themselves in their lives and manners as good Christians and as honest and diligent Germans".The Polish explorer Paul Edmund Strzelecki met the Germans at Camden Park and said they were men who were "either driven there by necessity, or seduced by the hope of finding, beyond the sea, fortune, peace and happiness - perhaps justice and liberty".And it might not be long before Camden is part of an official Sydney wine region, says Jonathan Auld, who owns the historic Tizzana Winery at Ebenezer and heads the Nepean Hawkesbury Winemakers and Grape Growers Association.At Menangle, near Camden, a magic fifth landowner has been given permission to plant more than five hectares of grapes. "I imagine in two or three years we should get there," Mr Auld said.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald
