Taste the passion that goes into every drop from this unique terroir

‘FATHER OF QUEENSLAND WINE’

ANGELO Puglisi had a dream.

His dream was to develop a viable and sustainable commercial wine industry in the Granite Belt, southwest of Brisbane.

That dream had its genesis long before he planted the first block of Shiraz vines with his bride Mary on their Ballandean farm in 1968. Even as a teenager, Angelo believed in himself. He believed in the soil of his surrounds. And he had a few points to prove: he knew Australians one day would enjoy drinking wine as much as their beloved beer; and he knew that the Granite Belt had the potential to create great drops.

Ever the storyteller, and with a captive audience of travel writers and local identities during a ‘long lunch’ at Adam Penberthy’s Dear Vincent Winery, Angelo goes back in time. ‘New Australians’, such as his grandfather, journeyed halfway around the world to give themselves and their families a better life after war. They were not afraid of hard work or getting their hands dirty. In non-politically correct Australia in the early 1920s-’60s, Italians were considered ‘different’ – how they looked, their traditions and way of doing things.

Angelo Puglisi

Many ‘established’ Aussies of British and Irish heritage called these Italians ‘wogs’, ‘dagos’ and ‘eye-ties’ – and not always as terms of endearment.

Stanthorpe and the greater Granite Belt was one of the areas they gravitated to for farm and fruit-harvest work each November to March: the off-season to sugarcane. Catholic parish priest Father Jerome Davadi had planted the first wine grapes in the Granite Belt in the 1860s, and new-settler Italian families grew vines to make wine for their own enjoyment.

“All the old Italians and all the Europeans who were here were already making wine,” Angelo tells us.

“After the farmer had gone through and picked all the best ones (grapes) for market – the first grade – anything overripe, underripe, bird-eaten, hail-marked, not fit for human consumption, we went around and salvaged it and turned it into wine.

“Those old people used to drink one or two bottles a day of that rough red and rough white. It was cloudy, it was thick. It was just crushed, pressed, fermented. It was still fermenting and they drank it. If it was cloudy, it meant they got a feed and a drink – not just a drink.”

Like most Europeans, young and old Italians consumed a glass or two of wine at every meal – an oddity in the eyes of other Australians but one that had its benefits, as Angelo discovered.

“All the memorial halls used to have these country dances,” he recounts.

“Those of us of Italian descent, we didn’t have to bring any girls because all the Aussie boys would bring their girlfriends, dump them in the hall, then go outside behind the boot of the car and get stuck into the grog.

“Their only opportunity to get drunk was on a Saturday night because at home, they weren’t allowed to drink (unlike us).

“So, we danced with the girls. And you know, we made a lot of girlfriends.”

But often, well before midnight at these dances, the Aussie males would run out of beer and ask Angelo to “go and try to pinch a couple of flagons of plonk from your father’s shed”. These were the same blokes who were adamant: “This is Australia, mate. Only wogs and dagos drink plonk. We drink beer.”

“My dream was to create a wine industry and to get Aussie people to drink wine breakfast, lunch and dinner,”  Angelo says.

“It might not happen, and I know it is hard for some people to drink it for breakfast if you are in a town or city.

“But if you’re out in the country, and you’re working bloody hard and you’ve been out in the paddock since 5 o’clock in the morning and you come home at 7 or 8 o’clock – yeah, you’re pretty thirsty. Just a glass of milk doesn’t help. So, I had this dream. I started to put the dream together.”

Angelo planted his first commercial wine grapes, Shiraz, in 1968, soon  followed by his inaugural Semillon and Rhine Riesling.

“From ‘only wogs drink wine’ to ‘all of us drink wine’ has been my dream.

“My dream has been achieved and to tell you the truth, half a dozen guys used to criticise me and laughed at me for trying to produce wine. ’Why are you making wine? Do you think you’re going to make a living out of wine? How do you think you’re going to live?’. That’s what I got told over and over. Some of them were my schoolmates. In the last 10 years, most of those have sold their vineyards to a winery. Hasn’t the wheel turned.”

Considered by many to be ‘the Father of Queensland Wine’, Angela is the founder of the state’s oldest family-run winery and this month celebrates his own 82nd ‘vintage’. From humble beginnings, producing wine since 1932 and opening a cellar door in 1970, Ballandean Estate boasts five generations of the Italian winemaking family. It has become a multi-million-dollar business, with Angelo and Mary’s daughters Robyn and Leeanne now at the forefront.

But the man who has lived and breathed all things grapes and wine for nearly 60 years says he is ready to hang up the farm clothes.

“My dream came true and it might surprise you but Ballandean Estate is now on the market,” he says.

“People want to know why. Well, this vintage has been the best vintage ever. The quality has been amazing. When would you sell a business? When it’s up on a high or when you’re down in the dumps?

“Why do we have to hang around? We can and go live a bit better life. We should get enough to pay the bills and buy a bottle of champagne or two.”

And knowing Angelo, when the time comes, he will be partaking of that celebratory champagne … at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Ballandean Estate is at 354 Road, Ballandean. Visit ballandeanestate.com

Mike Hayes

WINEMAKING WITH HEART

BALANCING Heart winemaker Mike Hayes is on a mission to take the snobbery out of wine appreciation.

With 40 years’ experience in viticulture and winemaking, the 2017 Australian Winemaker of the Year aims to educate more people about grapes and what it takes to create a quality drop.

A true trailblazer in his field, he champions sustainability in this era of climate change and is raising the profile of underrated Granite Belt winemaking by planting, nurturing and turning alternative (or emerging) varieties of grapes into small-batch hero vintages.

Australia’s highest elevated wine region produces elegant, cool-climate drops.

Shiraz and Chardonnay dominate the 15 or so mainstream grape varieties.

But more than 40 non-signature grapes – from Arneis in the whites to Zinfandel in the reds – are the point of difference that is really putting the Granite Belt Wine Country on the map and distinguishing it from other regions around Australia.

Known as ‘Strange Birds’, these alternative varieties are rare: each makes up less than 1 per cent of Australia’s total bearing vines.

Italian/Mediterranean grape varieties, such as Malbec, Saperavi, Tempranillo and Fiano love the altitude and thrive in the unique terroir with its longer growing season and deep granitic gravels.

The boutique-sized production  means that the cellar doors of these small wineries are usually the only place the wines will be found.

Mike encourages everyone, including families, to visit Granite Belt wineries to be better educated about the vineyard-to-bottle production and gain an appreciation for the wines through tastings.

Talking to the vineyard owner or winemaker at the cellar door helps to demystify the grape-growing and winemaking process while soaking up the ambience of the surrounds.

In addition, Balancing Heart now has a free, self-guided vineyard walk that takes about 15 minutes, with an information board at nine different spots.

Mike suggests taking the stroll with a glass in hand as a five-senses treat.

Drink in information about each variety of grape and where it comes from, and learn about the textural building blocks of nature over the past 250 million years that have gone into every vintage.

On one such sunset vineyard walk towards the Balancing Heart natural rock formation, Mike can barely hold his enthusiasm as we stop beside a block of grapes that is extremely rare in Australia.

“This is called Carménère and this is one of our flagship varieties,” he tells us, grabbing a cluster of grapes.

“Carménère is an ancient variety that the French have claimed, but it’s not actually French.

“Its parent is Cabernet Franc and another variety called Gros (Cabernet).

“DNA has now proven that Cabernet Franc comes from the Pais Vasco region in the Basque Mountains.

“Gros Cabernet is a natural cross in the wild between Hondarrabi Beltza and Fer Servadou, also Basque Mountain varieties.

“So, Fer Servadou and Hondarrabi Beltza crossed to give us Gros Cabernet, then Gros Cabernet and Cabernet Franc crossed to give us Carménère.

“It was taken by the conquistadors to Chile, and they’d been selling it as Merlot for 200 or 300 years.

“In Chile (today), they make an absolute fortune out of selling it as Carménère, and it’s now their premium wine with exuberant prices. Some of them are over $1000 a bottle.”

Mike has been experimenting with growing Carménère for many years at Balancing Heart – and it is about to pay off.

“I’ve got three combinations of pruning that I’ve been trialling to get it to fruiting,

“It worked. We’ve had up to 300 kilos off these five rows. But now, the last couple of years, I’m getting two tonne, which gives me enough to make wine out of and do something commercial. We’re opening up our canopies here. As you can see, we’re letting more air flow through and more sunlight onto the vines. We let Mother Nature make the wine here, and I am the mere gatekeeper in the winery.”

 Balancing Heart Vineyard is at 221 Old Wallangarra Road, Wyberba. Visit balancingheart.com.au

Download the free Southern Downs and Granite Belt App (southerndownsandgranitebelt.com.au/official-visitor-app/)

THE Granite Belt is less than three hours’ drive from Brisbane or Caloundra. Here’s seven good reasons to visit.

1. See the epic boulders that Granite Belt Wine Country (and especially Girraween National Park) is famous for. parks.desi.qld.gov.au/parks/girraween
2. Pick your own in-season apples and sunflowers at Nicoletti Orchards’ harvest experience. nicolettiorchards.com.au
3. Stanthorpe Holiday Park has added a Bath Haus, Sauna Retreat and Cedar Chalets. stanthorpeholidaypark.com.au
4. Try an intimate tasting at the Rokkwell cellar with co-owner and the winemaker Dawn Walker. rokkwell.com.au
5. Take an elevated perspective from View Wine’s new ‘Big Red Shed’ Grape 2 Glass Centre. viewwine.au
6. Ballandean Pub is a great place to meet the locals. ballandeanpub.com.au
7. Take a heritage train ride on the Downs Explorer between Ballandean and Stanthorpe. downsexplorer.org.au