First Vintage

Wine in Colonial New South Wales

Julie McIntyre

• Publisher: University of New South Wales Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN:
  9781742246147
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Australian & Oceanian History

Exploring the forgotten history of the early Australian wine industry, this book reveals the challenges of choosing vine stock, the battles to protect against pests and diseases, and the innovation of new technologies that assisted small-scale growers, many of whom worked in wine regions that have since vanished from the landscape and memory for much of the 20th century. Few people know that vine cuttings were brought to Australia on the First Fleet and planted in Governor Arthur Phillip's garden at Circular Quay. Or that botanist and champion of colonial development Joseph Banks encouraged plans to create a wine industry from the earliest years of the colony. In addition, before the assisted migration of German vinedressers in the 1830s, any convict or free settler with a hint of vine-growing or wine-making expertise was quickly drafted to the cause. This colorful history is the first to trace wine growing, making, and drinking in colonial New South Wales.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Copyright
• Contemporary wine regions of New South Wales
• Timeline of first plantings of wine grapes in districts across New South Wales
• Introduction
• 1. Ideas of wine on the First Fleet
• 2. British names for wine and why they mattered
• 3. Grape vines on the First Fleet
• 4. First vineyards,first vintages
• 5. Intelligent industry
• 6. Colonial wine to create sobriety
• 7. A new generation of wine growers
• 8. Wine, science and industrialisation
• 9. Taste
• 10. The rise of regionality
• 11. A splendid bouquet ... of a similar character
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Some grape variety importations into New South Wales
• APPENDIX 2: A selection of data on vines, winepresses, vignerons and wine regions
• Notes
• Introduction
• Select bibliography
• Index