Brian McGuigan

Brian McGuigan was born in Newcastle in 1943. His father was the winemaker at Penfolds Dalwood. Brian started as a trainee winemaker; worked at Magill for Max Schubert and Ray Beckwith; went to the Hunter Valley in the 1960s as a winemaker at Dalwood; moved to Wybong in 1966 to a new development; post World War II immigration led to more wine production; Barossa Pearl; Australia's first commercial vineyard was Kirton in the Hunter Valley; first independents were Max Lake and Wolf Blass; Brian moved to Wyndham Estate in 1970 and bought it with Digby Matheson and Tim Allen; developed Traminer Riesling and a large range of new products; company taken over by Orlando in 1990; in 1992 he developed Brian McGuigan Wines; now a large business exports 45% of its product; lived and worked in the USA, UK, to establish their business; talks about innovations