With the recent appointment of Hamish Seabrook as winemaker for Best’s in Great Western, the name of one of Victoria’s foremost wine families lives on. The Seabrooks were traditionally wine merchants, operating their distribution business from a magnificent stone building in Lonsdale St, Melbourne, which was ultimately enveloped into the Tucker’s wine and spirit wholesale business in Sydney. Hamish’s grandfather, Doug Seabrook, was one of Australia’s most prominent merchants, judges and show chairmen, who in the 1950s also planted vines on the lower slopes of Arthur’s Seat in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Before most wineries bottled and sold their own wines directly to the public, Doug Seabrook discovered several vineyards like Birk’s Wendouree, which became household names. A native of the Barossa, Hamish Seabrook has already completed seven Australian vintages and six in the US. I wish him well as winemaker for Best’s and as custodian of some of Australia’s finest shiraz.
