Interview with Brian Barry [transcript] Interviewer: Rob Linn

Brian Barry was born in Murray Bridge on 15 February 1927. His parents were Frederick James Barry, a telephone engineer in PMG and his mother was Dorothy Barry. He left Murray Bridge when he was 10. Brother is Jim Barry a winemaker at Clare - also won the Magarey Medal for South Adelaide. Brian studied at Rostrevor College and won a scholarship to Roseworthy to study oenology. His brother was a year ahead of him. He talks about the teachers, study included a lot of practical work at wineries, including Stonyfell where he worked with the winemaker Jack Kilgour. After graduation in 1948 he went to Hamiltons at Glenelg. Syd Hamilton pioneered refrigeration with 4 x 5,000 gallon wooden vats in the 1930s. His brother was the first qualified winemaker at Clarevale Coop. His brother designed and built the winery in 1969 and in 1973 won a gold medal for Cabernet. Brian was dux of his class, went to Hamiltons, learned a lot from Syd Hamilton, made Ewell Moselle, best white in Australia, he was a chemist and would analyse the wines; supervised the grain and whisky sector. He stayed there from 1948 to 1952; went to Angoves at Berri as chemist and winemaker, it was the biggest coop in the southern hemisphere, stayed until 1976. Talks about John Fornachon at Roseworthy who helped establish the wine industry - he set up the Wine Research Institute. He started as a wine judge in 1962 and judged all over Australia - sherries were good but table wines were generally poor to start but improved greatly. Berri was mainly fortified wines when he started, made the first Cabernet in 1963, first gold medal for Riesling in 1972, mainly supplied bulk wines. His marriage broke up and he moved back to Adelaide to Stanley winery owned by the Heinz Company; won a gold medal for every wine he made. He disagreed with management and they fired him. He then went out on his own and bought land at Clare with his brother and began planting in 1977, mainly Riesling. Began to do consultancy work - Wolf Blass, Berri, Murray Tyrrell and helped them make better wine. Biggest change has been making high quality table wine instead of cheap fortified wines and multinationals taking over established wineries

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