Interview with Brother John Lawrence May [transcript] Interviewer: Rob Linn

Brother John May was born in Sydney on 10 August 1929. His father was a fitter and turner. He was educated at Christian Brothers at Chatswood and Paddington and did a technical course to become an apprentice carpenter and joiner in 1945 in Sydney. He joined the Jesuits in 1949 in Melbourne at Watsonia where he became a handyman. He transferred to Sevenhill in the Clare Valley in 1963 with no background in the wine industry and was a non-drinker. He had his first glass of wine with Jim Barry. Sevenhill made altar wine which was a sweet sherry. They made their first dry white in 1968. They used their own grapes. Original 97 acres increased to 135 acres and in 1965 he built a new fermenting cellar. In 1972 he became a winemaker and was given a lot of help from Jim Barry and the Knappsteins. All the wines were fortified. There was a lot of friendship with people in the other wineries. In the mid 1970s he began external studies at Roseworthy and Wagga, became involved in Landcare, and had advice on cloning cuttings from the Department of Agriculture. He talks about the development of this process and the improvement in the wines. John talks about the development of the Clare Valley Winemakers, he was the first Chairman of the Clare Valley Tourist Association and the first Chairman of the Auburn Players. He was on stage for 14 years. Sevenhill has been exporting since 1968 to Indonesia, India and PNG and more recently to NZ and the UK. Biggest change has been refrigeration which came in in 1978. Money was always tight as funds were used to train priests and for Asian missions. He is now Director of Winemaking and public relations. He is the only brother in Australia who is a winemaker and Sevenhill is the only Jesuit commercial winery in the world

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