Interview with Grant Burge [transcript] Interviewer: Rob Linn

Grant Burge is the fifth generation of the Burge family from Lyndoch and nephew of Noel Burge another of the interviewees for this series. Grant provided the family history from its beginnings in the Barossa Valley and noted that Wilsford Wines is named after the Wiltshire village from where the family originated. Grant never joined the family business, partly because fortified wines were dying out in the 1970s. After secondary school at St. Peter's College, Grant spent one year at Roseworthy, an unhappy experience for someone who had always wanted to be a winemaker. After nine months as a cellar hand at Glenloth, Grant was appointed as a laboratory technician to the newly established Southern Vales Co-operative in McLaren Vale. He considers that his virtual apprenticeship there kept him more in touch with public taste and ensured his later commercial success. He learnt much from the older winemakers, such as Jack Kilgour. Grant was involved in the full range of winemaking, including making fortified wines, no longer taught. Southern Vales Co-operative had great success in the mid 1970s wine shows which combined quality grapes and winemakers skills. From an overseas wine study tour in 1975, Grant Burge decided that Australia could enter the export market, but he still wanted his own business. In 1977, Grant Burge and Ian Wilson started South Australian Vintners with facilities provided by Jim Ingoldby, and the growers and builders who were prepared to wait for payment. Their Krondorf label was so successful that Mildara bought them out. In 1988, Grant Burge started Grant Burge Wines and in 1999 bought back the Krondorf site in the Barossa Valley where he also had vineyards with his father. His export business is expanding but his aim is to 'have an international global business where I am a respected winemaker..' Grant Burge believes that Australians have been forced to adopt new technology, for example mechanisation of vineyards because of high labour costs. He now respects European winemakers who often work under atrocious conditions. The strength of this interview is Grant Burge's determination to tell particular stories within a wider context

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