I love wine but you probably figured that out by now. But it’s not just the wine itself but also the people and stories behind the wine. Basically wine is fermented grape juice but it is the people behind the wine that put a little bit of themselves into it and the wine tells their story long after the bottle is opened. It is these people and stories that add so much to the wine experience to me and I would like to share some of those stories with you.
Richmond Grove was a winery in the Barossa Valley owned by the global beverage company Pernod Ricard that started around 1993 and was closed down around 2015. They made some of my favourite wines including their Limited Release Riesling and Shiraz, some of which I have going back to the 1996 vintage.
The Riesling was made by one of the Godfathers of Australian Riesling, John Vickery using some of the best Riesling grapes in Australia from the Watervale region of the Claire Valley. Imagine a wine made from the best grapes by the best winemaker and you have a recipe for great wine. These are not your sweet Rieslings like Blue Nun made from bulk wine with added sugar but rather steely dry Rieslings with Lime, Lemon Sherbet, minerality (think the smell of west river stones) with searing acid…white wines designed to last 10 to 20 years but delicious to drink now as well with sardines or smoked salmon.
I have fond memories of a lunch at the Richmond Grove winery. The setting was a large dining room with an industrial kitchen on one side and tables scattered throughout the room. John served multiple back vintages of his Rieslings while Veronica cooked up matching dishes, the cooking smells wafting through the room.
Each dish was perfectly matched to the wines as we went back and forward through the vintages with John described the vintage conditions and how it impacted the wine. I will never forget John thrusting left over bottles of wine into our backpack as he was so eager to share the fruits of his labor. A gentlemen and truly great winemaker.
But Richmond Grove wasn’t just about Riesling they also produced excellent Shiraz under the expert care of Steve Clarkson. I remember being at the winery for one of the Barossa Vintage Festival events and Steve took us down to the concrete open-top fermenters with the fermenting grape juice and skins (called must) bubbling way with a cloud of fruit flies hanging around. You could see the colour being extracted from the skins into the juice and marveled as they pumped the juice over top of the raft of skins at the top (called the cap) to allow more oxygen for the yeast to work their magic. Later on it was amazing to try earlier vintages that had been through the same time honoured process and how clean and full of flavour they were. Once again truly excellent wine making from a generous guy.
Unfortunately Richmond Grove couldn’t find a place in Pernod Richard’s branding lineup and after failing to sell the brand they shut the Richmond Grove winery down…but that is another story for another time. The wine production facility in the Barossa Valley still exists and it is still used to produce wines for Pernod Richards other brands, including Jacobs Creek, but alas the winery and cellar door are no more. They do live on in the limited number of back vintage Richmond Grove wines we have and as each one is drunk we celebrate the people who made it possible.
If you love these stories you will love Wine Matchmaker’s events where I share personal stories of wines personally selected from some of Australia leading boutique producers. Head over to our events page for more information. We are also happy to do corporate events whether it be entertaining clients or rewarding staff where we can tailor the wine and experience to your needs and budget. Feel free to reach out to me here for an initial discussion.
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Cheers,
Antony.
