Wine is a generational thing. Being what it is – the product of vines planted on a site or sites – it changes as the vines mature, as their root systems deepen and penetrate different layers of soil and rock, and as the human factor matures as well. How often do we see that the wines made from a mature vineyard are entirely different from its early releases? All the time. Then, as we constantly see the world over, a new generation can dramatically influence the expressions of wine made in exactly the same cellars from the very same vines as their parents before them. Never under-estimate the human aspect of terroir.
With so many Australian wine brands having their origins in the 1960s and 1970s it’s little wonder that there’s an ongoing cavalcade of 40th and 50th anniversaries that will doubtlesss continue for a while yet. Next week I’m off to Coonawarra to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Redman, the company whose name has for much of this time been synonymous with the region itself. I’ve known this company, brand and family for around 34 of those 50 years, a statistic that pleases me and scares me in equal measure.
Back in the early 1980s, when as an agricultural science student at Melbourne University I first started working in South Australia’s southeast, for what was then Lindemans in Padthaway and Coonawarra, I met Owen and Edna Redman, plus their sons Bruce and Malcolm who entered the family business in 1982. While working part-time for Dan Murphy, my first mentor in wine, I used to sell bottles of the rather memorable 1969 Redman Cabernet Sauvignon from his underground cellars in Prahran. I wish I had one today.
Dan Redman, son of Bruce and Winnie, joined the business in 2008 and today shares the winemaking duties with his father. Not only a talented winemaker, who has helped bring renewed polish and finesse to his family’s wine, Dan is more than a handy cricketer who is amongst the first to be picked when I assemble my Vigerons XI for its annual battle with the Melbourne Cricket Club’s XXIX Club. Typical of many family wineries, Redman has tapped into Dan’s enthusiasm and energy – and his father’s generation has welcomed his input. That’s a big part of the secret, and why so many wine companies all over the world are hitting new heights of quality and expression. Younger generations are well placed to observe, to learn, to question and to challenge. I can but admire the previous generations who are prepared to step back to let the young blood take its chance.
Sadly, while Coonawarra is celebrating the significant achievement of one of its signature labels, it is also mourning the passing of one of its finest. The Zema family, a more recent arrival than the Redmans to the region, is a deeply loved and respected part of the community in Coonawarra and Penola. Its story in the region began with the marriage in 1959 of Demetrio and Francesca Zema in Penola, a few years after Francesca’s father arrived in Coonawarra prior to the 1953 vintage. Demetrio set up shop as the town painter in 1961, a year after the birth of his first son, Matt. His first wine, just for the fun of it, was made in 1972, a decade before the Zemas bought their first vineyard. In 1982 the Zema Estate wine company became more serious, employing former Wynns winemaker Ken Ward to oversee its early wines.
The company steadily grew over the next decade as it constructed the first of its winery buildings and as Matt and his brother Nick took over the winemaking duties in 1990. The family has since added and planted vineyards, upgraded its winemaking facilties and developed a red wine brand with national awareness. Experienced Coonawarra winemaker Greg Clayfield has guided the last decade of winemaking while Nick Zema (who retired from cricket way too early) has looked after the vineyards as well as sharing overall management duties with brother Matt. To cruelly paraphrase Matt’s other career outside winemaking, he became one of the leaders and true experts of the Australian energy system, reaching the role of CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator, the body that runs the wholesale and retail electricity and gas markets across the country.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, Matt suffered a heart attack and passed away a matter of weeks ago. He was 56. I first met Matt in 1983, when my long-term friendship with his family began. He epitomised clarity and conviction, with a self-deprecating sense of humour and a dry wit besides. He was a good man in the way that you’d wish to be described as good by those who know you well. He was a strong family man who doted on his wife Teresa and son Demetrio. All Coonawarra, much of Australia’s energy industry and all the Zemas’ many friends remain deeply in mourning.
The strength of its family and its relationships within the Coonawarra region will ensure that while it will do so without one of its brightest stars, Zema Estate will continue to thrive and prosper – although there will of course be times when the Zemas will need support.
This is where the generational strength of wine and its families – blood families and extended families – shine through. It’s happened time and again, from the extraordinary drive and success of the Widow Clicquot to today. It’s a fine thing that wine families like the Zemas and the Redmans are bound together not only by their genetics but by their profession, their cause and their pride.
All families have their successes and their challenges. Many have learned over the last fifty years just how hard it is to rely on the wine industry for their collective income and security. It can take generations to realise and deliver on the dreams of those who founded family wine companies.
So next time you pick up a wine whose brand is the name of the family who founded and still owns and operates the company, take a moment to reflect on what it has taken for the generations of this family to deliver that bottle to you – even if you choose not to buy it.
