The value of ‘crude pigheadedness’
Bill Pannell, another doctor-winemaker, had been interested in wine for years before he and his wife Sandra were able to start the second of Margaret River’s vineyards Moss Wood.
“When I was doing fifth-year medicine in 1965, my paediatrics lecturer, Professor Bill McDonald, used to take is on outings at Houghton’s in the Swan Valley. That was my introduction to understanding something about wine.
“By 1964, I had met Jack Mann, the Houghton winemaker, who talked about the potential for southern areas for wine production, and I can remember talking about winegrowing with Tom Cullity at a dinner in 1966. In 1967, I spent a year in the Eastern States with the RAAF and managed to meet Max Lake in the Hunter Valley and Ross Heinze at Seppelt’s at Drumborg, near Portland in Victoria.
“When I came back to WA, I went on a soil survey between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin, hopping over fences with a shovel, digging holes, looking at the dirt. We didn’t have much money; we had a family, but were determined to start a vineyard.
At one point, I thought about going to be the doctor in Margaret River (the one that were there had left) but I was advised against it. People said the place was too backward and that the hospital would soon close down. It’s hard to imagine what the South West was like then. When we first moved to Busselton in 1970 there was nothing, literally nothing, to do in the evening. Not so long after our arrival, Caves Road was a gravel track. The local lads used to roar up and down it with spotlights and rifles, shooting kangaroos. It wasn’t safe to be in the vicinity.”
Asked to define the qualities needed to start a vineyard, Bill Pannell laughed and nominated “crude pigheadedness.” Whether it was that or more visionary qualities, the Pannells acquired 26 acres of land at the end of a block owned by Jack Guthrie and in 1969 started planting vines. They had two children and another on the way.
“The kids spent days in the shed while we worked on the vines.”
One day he was driving a tractor and Sandra, seven months pregnant, was working the machine that sprayed stuff to kill black beetles (which kills vines, as they do lawn, by eating the roots).
“A hose burst and she was drenched in this insecticide. I’ll never forget the sight of her hurdling the fence and throwing herself into the creek to wash it off.”
The first grapes were handled in a traditional bucket press. They made tanks, now high technology stainless steel with huge capacities, by simpler methods.
“We’d stand a four foot section of a Humes concrete pipe, 4ft in diameter, on a smooth surface, and pour concrete into the bottom to make a floor. Then we’d fill the pipe with sand and carefully smooth the top into a dome-shape. Using a bath as a mould, we made lids to fit in the middle of the top. We’d put a lid in the middle of the sand, then concrete round it to form the dome-shaped top of the tank. We got the children to dig the sand out. Once the concrete was complete, we went inside with wax and a flame gun and coated the inside of it to take the wine. Quite simple really.”
Bill went on working as a doctor. In 1970, he began to share a practice in Busselton with Kevin Cullen but would also do locums in other places and travel to act as an anaesthetist in Bunbury. Quite often, Sandra was left to do what had to be done. Because a freight system in the area was non-existent, she would hand-load 16kg cases of wine (a forklift was still in the future), into a ute and drive it to the railhead in Busselton, where railway employees would watch while she moved the cases again into the railway wagon.
The wine that was produced was labeled by hand (you had to wet the labels and get them straight). But in 1976 came outstanding success. A Moss Wood cabernet sauvignon wine three gold medals and two silvers at the Perth Royal Show.
The name got out.
“We were down there working one day in 1976 when there was this almighty clatter and a Navy helicopter suddenly appeared over the trees, hovered a bit and then landed in a clearing. We were completely baffled – until an officer got out, took off his helmet and explained he had come from an Australian ship offshore to buy some Moss Wood wine. They’d heard it was good. They loaded it on board, sent the dust flying and took off. It was a good sale.”
However, the 1978 vintage was difficult, due to a problem with yeast used to ferment the wine and by 1979, the strain of being in several places and at least two occupations was beginning to tell on Bill Pannell.
That year, a young man named Keith Mugford, aged 21, was about to graduate from the ‘wine university’ of Roseworthy College in South Australia. Keith had grown up in South Australia, the part of Australia’s richest wine history.
“Half the kids in my primary school were from families which owned wineries, grew grapes or did other work among the vines,” said Keith.
“The training at Roseworthy then was mostly about growing grapes in South Australia’s warm climate, though the renaissance of cool climate viticulture had begun.
“While I was still doing the course – I was in the same year as Mike Peterkin of Pierro – I wrote to maybe half a dozen wineries looking for a job. One of the replies was from Lindeman’s at Karadoc in Victoria, so I could have started with a big, long established company. But another was from Dr Bill Pannell. I knew Margaret River was an emerging wine region; I’d actually seen a Semillon made at Moss Wood. And I was a keen surfer.
“In 1979 Bill Pannell was, perhaps, running a little low on enthusiasm and needed help but he was intensely passionate and determined. He would not give in. None of them would. When they started they couldn’t have known what Margaret River’s potential was, but they were lucky to have picked on it. It was the right place and we have the right people to make wine in it.
So, in 1979, the partnership began. Bill Pannell remembered an interesting wine sale.
“Keith and I were working out in the vineyard and Sandra was at the wineries when there was the roaring of engines and a whole mob of about 20 bikies swept in. We got up there as quickly as possible, fearing the worst, then found they were from the Ducati Club (named after a specialised Italian motorbike) and were some of the most knowledgeable and pleasant customers we had had for ages.”
As early as 1983-4, they were discussing the idea that Keith and wife Claire might lease Moss Wood. That happened in 1984 but only weeks later, there were talking about how they could buy the place. Bill Pannell helped with the finance and at the age of 27, the Mugfords took on a vineyard which covered 21 acres and produced almost 48,000 bottles of wine a year. Many would have quailed but Keith said “I couldn’t see anything but success.”
The vineyard has not grown much in area (it is now 25 acres) but increased productivity means it now produces 60,000 bottles a year.
Its reputation in Australia, and elsewhere, is impressive. The Queen drank Moss Wood Semillon during a visit to Australia in 1977.
Following practices set by Bill Pannell, Moss Wood is still a ‘purist’ winery. There is no restaurant, no holiday accommodation, souvenir shop, picnic area. The vineyard on Metricup Road is hardly visible. Tasting is by appointment only.
“The ideal tasting situation is one-on-one, tasting and winemaker, you don’t want busloads,” said Bill Pannell.
