Interview with David Tolley [transcript] Interviewer: Rob Linn

David Tolley was born in Adelaide on 21 July 1923. He studied at Hope Valley School then at St Peters College as a boarder. His parents were Len and Ann and his father was a winemaker and chairman of Tolley, Scott and Tolley. He worked with his brother Tim and they made brandy at St Peters and then moved to the Barossa. They later made wine called Tollana. His brothers Reg and Peter formed Pedare Wines (Pe - Peter, Da - David, Re - Reg). David left school at 18 and joined the navy. He married in 1945 and at the end of the war he worked for his father who had vineyards at Modbury, Tea Tree Gully and Hope Valley. David looked after the vineyards and by the 1970s they had 250 acres of premium wines in the Barossa. In the early 1950s they bought 100 acres of land at Qualco in the Riverland and planted a variety of grapes. In the 1950s their winemaker was Reg Tolley. Each vineyard had its own manager. The Adelaide vineyards were compulsorily acquired by the government for housing in the 1960s so they bought additional grapes from the Riverland and the Barossa. In 1971 he planted cuttings of new varieties - Gewurstraminer, Sylvaner and Pinot Noir- in the Barossa. His grandfather Douglas Tolley bought bulk wine from the Coonawarra in the 1920s. In 1989 he bought 100 acres at Padthaway and planted premium grapes. The biggest change in the industry was refrigeration and controlled fermentation. After 4 generations of Tolleys they were taken over by Mildara Blass in 1995

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