VINES SYMBOLISE A 'COMING OF AGE'
Robert Turner, Busselton Margaret Times
Forty years ago, a letter published in The Busselton-Margaret River Times on Bastille Day, July 14, 1966, started a revolution.
Dr John Gladstones, the senior lecturer in agronomy at the University of WA, wrote and told the newspaper that an area "around Margaret River and northwards as far as Yallingup and
Vasse'' would be ideal to grow grapes to make "delicate dry wines of high quality''.
A few pioneers took heed of Dr Gladstones' prophecy and the Margaret River wine industry was born.
Foremost among the disciples were doctors of medicine Kevin Cullen and Tom Cullity.
Dr Cullen was a well-known general practitioner in Busselton while Dr Cullity was a prominent Perth cardiologist.
It is generally acknowledged that while Dr Cullen planted his vines first on his Caves Road, Wilyabrup, property in 1967, they died and it was the vines planted later the same year on a
neighbouring property by Dr Cullity that are credited with the birth of the Margaret River wine industry. Those near forty-year-old vines reside withinthe Vasse Felix vineyard he founded.
In a memoir published in 1986, Dr Cullity gave a taste of those early days.
"In August l967, after site and soil preparation, contouring and laying out of vine rows, about four acres of riesling, two of cabernet sauvignon, half of malbec and half of hermitage were
planted,'' he wrote.
"I spent most of my weekends and all my holidays on the place and lived in the shed. It was hard work.
"The first vintage, off four-year-old vines, was in 1971. The harvest was a disaster due to bunch-rot and silver-eyes. I will not forget the exhaustion and disappointment.''
The Margaret River Wine Industry Association will use the milestone to promote the wine region at Australia's biggest trade show Wine Australia in Sydney, starting July 14. It will be the first time the Margaret River region will stand on its own and not under the banner encompassing the WA wine industry.
