A lot of history behind a simple label
John made his name in the fifties and sixties, with the many fine Rieslings he made for Leo Buring and Lindemans from vineyards in the Clare and Eden Valleys. By the time the corporate raiders had finished their wholesale destruction of Lindemans in the eighties – for details see Lindemans, Death by a Thousand Cuts – Australia’s greatest Riesling maker found himself making wine for Richmond Grove.
Richmond Grove began life as a Hunter Valley winery that was swallowed by Orlando Wyndham and ended up in Pernod Ricard Australia’s big arms, with its cellar door miraculously reappearing in the Barossa Valley. John made another fine line of Rieslings under the RG label before he retired in 2005. He won some 50 trophies and 400 gold medals for his employers in over 50 years of wine making.
John Vickery is making Riesling once more under yet another label: his own. He is 82 now, the same age another Barossa Great was when he died last year – Peter Lehmann. As it happens, Peter’s youngest son Phil is helping John with the making of these new Rieslings. Phil Lehmann is the chief winemaker at WD Wines, which is owned by the Hesketh family in Adelaide.
This is the same family that financed Peter Lehmann decades ago after Saltram fell into the hands of Dalgetty. The new owners told Peter to cut Saltram’s growers loose, but he told Dalgetty to jump and started Masterson Wines which later became Peter Lehmann Wines.
The Masterson label came about because Peter was a great fan of Damon Runyon’s Guys and Dolls stories from the 1920s and 30s. They featured gangsters, gamblers and other characters of the New York underworld, and Sky Masterson was one of these: a gambler willing to bet on anything.
The final twist in this nostalgia piece is that my Dad was a mad keen fan of Damon Runyon’s stories. I loved them too, despite reading them in their German translation (I grew up in Germany). It boggles the mind how a writer can capture New York slang in a German translation but this one had succeeded. I’d love to find a copy of the book somewhere.
Kim