Interview with Lita Brady [transcript] Interviewer: Rob Linn

Lita Brady was born in Adelaide in 1949; parents are Max and Alegra Liberman. Lita bought a property in 1974 and worked with Roly Birks for 8 years. He was a winemaker who taught her how to make wine. She studied at Charles Sturt University in Wagga from 1983. She describes Wendouree and the processes they used. They grew Shiraz, Cabernet, Malbec and Mataro and later Riesling. Initially made dry reds and fortifieds; she used to drive to hotels to sell the wine; Tim Knappstein at Stanley Wine was very helpful; a lot of comraderie in the industry. She uses a mix of original equipment and new technology; made their last vintage port in 1986; she started to have input into how things are run in 1985; she runs the picking gangs and her husband Tony does the vintage; she did the problem solving and they trialled different solutions to wine making; they use open fermentation in stainless steel, wine is held at 21'C; the vineyard is not irrigated, they get 26" of rain which is all they need for red grapes. Tim White wrote about them in the 'Financial Review' in 1995 and their sales increased as a result. They still hand pick and it takes 10 days to do 11 hectares and crush 50 tons a year. Roly died in 1988 aged 80, he had been a winemaker since 1917 and retired in 1988. They tried to continue his tradition. They no longer do cellar door sales and only sell by mail order or phone. They sell 2,000 cases and they do not export their wine

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