Friday, 31 October 2025
ICC, Darling Harbour
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari gamarruwa Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura.

With these words of greeting in the language of the Gadigal, I acknowledge Gadigal custodianship of these lands and waterways and pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and future. I extend that respect to the Elders of all parts of New South Wales from which you travel today.

Despite its connection with the Governors of NSW from the outset, the wine industry in Australia had an inauspicious start.

In 1790, Captain Arthur Phillip wrote to Joseph Banks reporting that the vines brought over on the First Fleet from South Africa and planted outside First Government House at what is now Circular Quay^[1] had produced 2 good bunches of grapes—but nobody had got around to picking them^[2] and the vines themselves succumbed to rot and perished.^[3]

German colonist Philip Shaeffer^[4] in the early 1790s produced some “ninety gallons of wine”^[5] from his vineyards along the Parramatta River. But they too perished after a couple of years.^[6]

Then there were the French prisoners-of-war, Antoine Landrien and Francois de Riveau, specifically brought to the colony to advance the wine industry^[7]—their 40 gallons produced the exclamation from Governor King that—well I’ll let you imagine what he said.^[8]

John Macarthur came into the story after the Napoleanic War—visiting vineyards in France and Switzerland.

Next came James Busby and his Treatise on the Culture of the Vine in which he prophesied that NSW, not being weighed down by the traditions of French viticulture could create its own distinctive wines.^[9]

These few brief facts tell us much about the wine industry of NSW then and now—seeking out the varietals that would thrive, needing to understand the soil and the climate, and building up the expertise.

In thinking about my remarks this morning my mind turned to that other—at one time ubiquitous and uniquely Australian wine tradition—cask wine. 

Indeed, in what is always described as ‘my busy schedule’ I didn’t’ have time to duck into Dan Murphy’s to see if cask wine was even still ‘a thing’.

Without wanting to censor the groans from around the room—I think we have to acknowledge it is part of the wine story and of Australian innovation—having been invented by Tom Angove of Angove’s wines and patented in 1965.^[10]

Penfolds followed 2 years later, its mark of distinction being a ‘bag inside a round tin’.^[11]

Added to the ingenuity of the inventions were the colloquial names given to cask wine – reflecting Australians’ heritage and understanding of good wine.

The names included the very French Chateau Cardboard, the Italian Vina Collapso, there was the local version of ‘the goon bag’—a play on the last syllable of ‘Flagon’, cask wine’s immediate predecessor.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s cask wine accounted for half of all wine sales in Australia. This dropped dramatically in the early 2000’s and has remained so.

The story of cask wine is instructive for a number of reasons. It tells us something about the economic and marketing challenges of the wine industry. It tells us of its inventiveness, after all it produced a patentable invention. And, with the significant return to bottled wine from 2005 onwards, it tells us that the all-important consumer has become increasingly sophisticated.

And as we have heard, today’s luncheon is all about sophistication.

Our wines are refined and elegant and that is thanks to your expertise, ingenuity and dedication.

Chair of Judges Adam Walls has noted that the classes that continue to impress are the Chardonnay and Shiraz brackets, and as we have seen in the trophy presentations today, the Orange and Canberra regions are beginning to challenge the usual dominance of our oldest region, the Hunter.

Nevertheless, it is from the Hunter that this year’s Best in Show comes which is…

First Creek Wines 2023 Single Vineyard Wills Hills Road Chardonnay