Wine - The Next Generation
The Age
Monday September 5, 1994
They are drinking well now but will get even better with age. MAX ALLEN (aged 26-and-a-half) spoke to some of the rising young stars of the wine industry.
SOME are born into wine, others have it thrust upon them, but most just end up in it. Whether they are the sons or daughters of winemaking families or just passionate wine drinkers who woke up one day and found themselves on the other side of the bottle shop counter, the wine industry is peppered with people in their 20s and early 30s who are quietly achieving big things.
The wine celebrities such as Dan Murphy, Len Evans and Wolf Blass, who represent the image of Australian wine for most people (especially overseas), have undoubtedly done, and are doing, a great deal for the industry and the wine drinker.
But this as-yet-unknown generation is biting at their heels, making, selling and promoting wine, sometimes in the shadow of their older colleagues. These are the people who are destined to shape the wines we drink and the way in which we drink them.
Restauranteur.
HOW DID a butcher's son from the south of England end up as the driving force behind Melbourne's hottest new wine and food hot spot, the Kent Hotel in Rathdowne Street, North Carlton? Gerald Diffey, 31, reckons that being an outsider in the lucky country helps. The streets are paved with gold, only sometimes the Australians can't see it. ``Young people with their heads screwed on can really go places here," he says, looking back at the snobbery of the grand English dining room as a fading memory.
In just five years in Australia, Gerald's love of wine and food has taken him through stints at the Gypsy Bar, Tansy's and Rhumba's at Southgate - a grounding that informs his creativity at the Kent.
In the bright, airy room that divides into a bar and dining room, it is possible to order fantastic food and wines from a list bursting with varied, exciting, well-priced wines. They are wines with character, often sourced directly by Gerald and sometimes exclusive to the Kent.
``I'm trying to encourage people to drink more interesting wines than the commercial labels," he says. ``The Australian wine industry hasn't had enough faith in the public to say `This is an obscure wine, but it's a good wine, so drink it!"' Wine Auctioneer.
PHILIP RICH, 31, was brought up in Melbourne by parents interested in wine and food. Little wonder, then, that while doing his arts degree, Philip supported himself by working in a bottle shop.
After university, Philip pursued an arts career for a while, but was offered the job of managing the University Hotel bottle shop in Lygon Street. It appeared that art was destined to become a hobby and wine the career.
Three years later, Philip has become the first imported wine manager for the Philip Murphy chain of wine merchants. His brief is to educate people about the growing range of new and well-known wines coming into the country.
He is one of a growing number of people in their late 20s and early 30s who are as willing to buy wine from Chile and Spain as Australia and he talks fervently about the absence of parochialism in this new generation of wine drinkers.
His self-acquired knowledge of wine is formidable and his passion is infectious.
``I don't see imported wines as an isolated area," he says.
``Imported wine and Australian wine overlaps and the fact is, there's a drain on Australian wine. I try to make people look sideways, to look at the alternatives, the synergy of wine styles."
Wine Importer.
DESPITE his smart, very English demeanor, Andrew Caillard, 34, can claim a strong link with Australian wine. He is a direct descendant of John Reynell, one of the fathers of the Australian wine industry.
All Andrew ever wanted to do was join the army, but four disastrous months of bitterly cold training in Yorkshire rapidly changed that.
Instead, Andrew drifted across to Europe and found himself working in vineyards. This wandering led him to Australia and the wine marketing course at Roseworthy.
He began working in Sydney as a wine auctioneer for the Langton's auction house in 1989, then sat the prestigious and extremely difficult Master of Wine exam. The MW is the highest qualification available in wine knowledge and tasting skills, and the international exam is passed by only a fraction of those who attempt it.
Andrew not only passed, but came away with the Bollinger award for the highest marks in the tasting.
``Getting the MW was a personal thing for me," he says. ``I really wanted to position myself as someone who cares about wine, not just as an upmarket second-hand car salesman."
Despite his qualification, or perhaps because of it, Andrew is wary of the stuffiness that often accompanies wine. ``I don't think anyone should feel intimidated about tasting wine," he says. ``After all, it's only a drink."
Winemaker.
BECOMING a wine-maker was the last thing Maryann Egan, 30, thought she would do with her life. She is the daughter of Reg Egan, the founder of the Wantirna Estate vineyard in the Yarra Valley, and remembers childhood holidays in which she was dragged around the freezing wine cellars of Europe - enough to turn any child off wine for life.
After leaving school, she completed a degree then went backpacking.
When she ran out of money in Europe, she ended up working in Burgundy during vintage. Destiny had caught up with her at last.
Reg Egan ``laughed very hard" when his daughter phoned him from France and told him she wanted to do a winemaking course. When she returned, Maryann enrolled in a course at Charles Sturt University and began working part-time at Domain Chandon in the Yarra Valley.
Part-time became full-time and now Maryann is one of a talented group of young valley wine-makers that includes Wayne Donaldson (Domain Chandon), Phil Dowell (Coldstream Hills) and Martin Williams at Tarrawarra.
© 1994 The Age