“I don’t play with money”, grins Andrew Garret, having just dropped the news that he spent about $4 million the previous weekend. Garret is South Australia’s younger, vinous answer to Elliot and Bond, and in his own words “isn’t very good at hanging on to money”. His wife would possibly agree. Even the renovations to their Adelaide home seem to have run a second priority to the purchase of new vineyards, cellars and equipment. As a wine journalist I have trouble keeping up with the man, although he can’t keep out of the news. A few months ago his huge and historic cellars in Magill were levelled by fire, and thousands of cases of wine were destroyed. Like a phoenix in a flurry he has already begun to repair the damage, and in fact the old Seaview complex will re-emerge much better than before. Garret has also found the time and the wherewithall to buy a motel complex and a number of vineyards. The harder you hit him the stronger he gets. The acres of tin sheds at the rear of the Magill complex being replaced in keeping with the original part of the building under South Australian State Heritage conditions. The stone and glass warehouse is being renovated at a cost of $2 million. In the McLaren Vale Garret has bought the old Hazelmere winery, and has recently acquired the remainder of the property, which includes a restaurant, convention centre and 30 motel units. Like everything else they are about to be expanded by the addition of another forty. The whole affair is now called `McLarens On The Lake’. Garret crushed and fermented 120 tonnes there in 1987, and 700 in 1988, scurrying between the $1 million winery extensions which took place as the fruit arrived. New tanks were filled just moments after being dropped to the ground. As its name implies, McLarens On The Lake does contain a small lake on the property which is to become an even more important feature for tourist and music lover alike. A stage is to be built on the island in its centre, to be used for live concerts and shows. Meantime the lake is the domain of the duck family, to whom Garret is displaying an almost fetish-like degree of enthusiasm, and in whose feathery likeness the conference centre and motel are about to be decorated. The property’s logo has now sprouted feathers and a bill. Garret has now stepped down as managing director of his business, and has taken the title of `Chairman’, but don’t be misled by it. “I’m much more interested in making wine and enjoying myself”, he says. “Running the business should be the job of business people. We haven’t had any long-term plans to now. Everything has just happened.” Whoever he hires, they have a hard act to follow.
