Professor Robert Lusby (AM), to give him his full title, was a pioneering vascular surgeon based at Sydney University and Concord Hospital, Sydney. In the early nineties he and his family purchased a property on Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, Hunter Valley (Tintilla Estate) and set about producing wines in homage to the Europeans, especially the Tuscans and Burgundians, who had shown the way to integrate family, wine and food.
Now “retired”, Bob, pursues his passion for wine and food living full time in the Hunter Valley. Bob’s passion for wine is not only in the making and drinking of it, but also in the history of how Australian Wines and in particular the Hunter Valley Wines came to be and continue to be some of the best wines in the world. Bob’s Blog tells that story.
At the fireside lunch at the Hunter Resort last weekend we tasted our Tintilla Semillon from 2015 and 2006 and discussion ensued about the changes in ageing of our wines that has occurred since we moved to screw caps for closure. The 2006, a 97 points Halliday rated wine, was fresh and travelling exceptionally well-…
The Legends lunch this June featured wines from Italy, and it was a far cry from what we may have been drinking some 15 – 20 years ago from Italy. When we planted Sangiovese in the Hunter some 22 years ago it was a grape variety that was hardly known in Australia. Yet many Australians…
We have a lot to thank the Portuguese for, apart from the early discovery of Australia. In 1727 the association of Port Shippers was foundered producing an export wine with a dash of brandy added for the English market. It was thought the brandy helped the wine to travel and the English palate warmed to…
We are fortunate in Pokolbin to have a large number of winemakers and their families that are part of the wine making community. Unlike some isolated winemakers, here we are able to interact with a very engaged group of people and in turn their families who by and large live locally. There is a great…
With the “Life of Brian” coming up I thought it timely to look at the early history of Wyndham Estate, one of the oldest vineyards in the Hunter and one that has just been sold. I am grateful to Ken Bray who supplied me with a document outlining much of the early history. It is…
Emeritus Professor Robert Lusby AM Colonel RAAMC (retired) Gallipoli, Palistine, The western front, Tobruk, Crete, Kokoda, Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Afganistan, Iraq: These are the names of some of the places Australians have fought and died in the name of Freedom and our Democratic way of life. The name ANZAC was conjured up in the HQ…
With ANZAC day commemorations approaching, it occurred to me that there was one outstanding vigneron and wine maker who was also a distinguished surgeon. He was present during the Gallipoli campaign commanding the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Lemnos, the Greek Island that became the base for medical support for the wounded Anzacs. Born in…
At the recent end of harvest Legends Lunch here in Pokolbin we were all asked to bring a Hunter wine of interest so among the 13 of us gathered, there was a grand selection of old and not so old wines. Now we do tend to have palates that enjoy and can be forgiving of…
Sparkling Tintilla Blush with some Granita Syrup from the Two Fat Blokes and a day in the freezer made the welcoming Cocktail at our end of Harvest Hawaiian night. We have a long tradition of making sparkling wines in the Hunter, starting with the experiments of James King of Illawang. In 1850 he was awarded…
About 23 years ago when we were developing Tintilla vineyard we had a visit from Richard Smart, the famed viticulturist, to advise us on what we were doing . He told us of a vineyard in Victoria where they had almost trained their vines to do without irrigation when they suddenly all died! Good fruit…