He was an Adelaide boy, she was a Kalgoorie girl. Can I make it any more obvious? Except to mention their intriguing bubbles, superb chardonnays and celebrated pinot.
Innovative pioneers pave the way, often giving their successors the opportunity to take their project to the next level. Such is the story of Delamere Vineyards, planted by Dallas and Richard Richardson in 1982 with the aim of making prestige sparkling wine, long before Tasmania made its mark on the genre. Twenty-five years later, Delamere was purchased by a young, energetic couple with their own vision of making distinctive sparkling in the style of the grower Champagne makers then finding fame in France.
Over the past 15 years, Fran Austin and Shane Holloway have doubled the 6ha vineyard and invested in modern equipment and infrastructure, polishing their sparklings and refining the quality of their table wines along the way.
How a Kalgoorlie girl meet an Adelaide boy is part of the Delamere story. In 2001, Austin (a qualified oenologist with six years’ experience) moved from Western Australia to Tasmania to take up the position of winemaker/site manager at the Hardys-owned Bay of Fires winery. With no permanent staff, it was a big job to oversee the burgeoning House of Arras sparkling program.
Meanwhile, Hardys had an understanding with Pipers Brook Vineyards to assist with staff during vintage. Holloway was a budding marine biologist undertaking post-graduate research in Tasmania. To help pay the rent, he called on an old family friend – Yalumba viticulturist, Alan Howe – who found him a cellarhand job at Pipers Brook. Instead of working at Pipers, Holloway was interviewed by the “Kalgoorlie girl”, he says, for a lab technician role at Bay of Fires. He got the job. And a romance. And a career switch, marriage and two children (Zac, now 12, and Isobelle, five).
There’s lots of detail in-between but a pivotal moment for the couple was the purchase of Delamere Vineyards in 2007. Austin and Holloway say they didn’t choose Delamere – it chose them. The site echoed the close-planted vineyards of Champagne that Austin knew so well, the aspect perfect to catch the breezes off Bass Strait with its all-important (though viticulturally frustrating) humidity.
The Richardsons had focused on sparkling wines which the Austin-Holloway team intended to pursue. The deal was done and Holloway immersed himself in the new and challenging project. It was another four years before Austin left Bay of Fires to concentrate on Delamere and its intriguing bubbles, great chardonnays in the Burgundian mould and celebrated point noir.
Speaking with the pair reveals how they work with enthusiasm and thoughtfulness in equal measure. Austin talks of “not carrying the burden of legacy” in the way that the multi-generational Champenoise may do. Holloway sets things up – then goes sailing.
Although they work hard, family is equally important, with their winemaking life flexible enough to enable them to “build a moral foundation for their children”. They had just returned from a family skiing trip to Falls Creek when I spoke with them.
Austin was the 2005 Young Winemaker of the Year and a 2009 Len Evans Tutorial scholar. She was also the recipient of the Don Martin Fellowship in 2016, with her project investigating the ‘Factors Underpinning the Grower/Producer Sector in Champagne’. The knowledge gained added to the Delamere’s sparkling wine.
“Delamere represents the opportunity to produce wines from the vineyard through to the glass, working alongside my family with some of the finest quality fruit in the country,” says Holloway. Amen.
I asked the pair if stranded on a desert island, what wine would be a must. Austin would pop the cork on an 2009 Egly Ouriet Grand Cru Millésime while Shane would sip a Bonneau Du Martray Corton Charlemagne. Unsurprisingly, they’ll share their precious bottles.
FACTS AND FIGURES
REGION | Pipers Brook, Tas
YEARS IN INDUSTRY | 27 & 20
ANNUAL CRUSH | 100 tonnes
STAND-OUT WINES | 2017 Delamere Vintage Cuvée
PHOTOGRAPHY by Jasper Da Seymour.