Colin and Margaret Ross-Smith

Colin Ross-Smith was born at Mount Pleasant in 1928, his father was Willie Ross-Smith and he was the District Clerk. His mother was Ada Dewell. Colin was educated at Mt Pleasant and Birdwood High School. He worked on the farm, for Elders and then Dalgetys. When he was 40 he went to Mildara Coonawarra as a salesman in 1978. Margaret Ross Smith worked at Dalgetys as the office manager from 1971. Jim Haselgrove was manager. Colin talks about the local wineries at the time, Ron Haselgrove and his family, and Gollins being the sole distributor. Colin covered the south east of SA and some of Victoria and sold to mainly hotels. Mildara had a reputation for quality wine, especially the fortifieds. The wine was all made at Merebein and the winemaker was Jack Schultz. As a saleman he travelled long distances. He held several tastings each weekend to increase sales and introduce people to table wines. Chardonnay was an immediate success. He worked for Mildara for 16 years then for another seven companies which were not represented in the local area. He worked for them for 7 years. The Coonawarra has changed from a farming area to mainly wine in the last 20 years. The biggest change has been mechanical harvesting and automation. The quality of wine has improved because of the blends. He was the first secretary of the Coonawarra Vignerons and Doug Balnaves was the first president. It was made up of cellar door people to do wine tastings