Richard Haselgrove

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BiographyRichard Haselgrove was born at Renmark on 15 October 1936. His parents were Harry Ronald Hazelgrove and Elsie Janet Wigan; grandfather was mayor of Kadina; and the family had several city hardware shops. His father studied at Roseworthy and became an analytical chemist. He did the vintage at Renmano in 1921. His father paid for him to go to Europe for two years and he went to Cognac, Montpellier, Switzerland, Spain and London learning and studying wine. This was in 1924/25. He returned to Australia, married and moved to Angove at Renmark. He improved their brandy and then became a consultant to the Mildura Winery. He talks about the history of the winery. His father moved to the Mildura Winery in 1936. Richard talks about viticultural politics, travelling between Renmark and Merbein properties, wine becoming more popular after World War II when beer and spirits were not available. From the age of 13 he began working in the winery in the school holidays. He was intrigued by the industry from an early age because of his father. His uncle Colin was also heavily involved and became Managing Director of Reynella. Richard became a shareholder in Reynella at 16 and later became a Director. He talks about the beginning of the Coonawarra reds. Richard always knew he would be involved in the wine industry. He studied science and French and left school in 1954 to go to Adelaide University and Waite. He studied with John Fornachon. He started working at Merbein after graduating; married in 1959 and they left for Europe in 1960. He studied in Switzerland, France, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Germany, London, Scotland, and Italy and did two Bordeaux vintages. Mildara wines began to excel in the 1960s. He talks about the role of the Mildura Air Base in World War II. From 1961 he went to the Hunter Valley every year to buy wine. Supreme sherry was their best seller and was exported to London. It was first marketed in 1946. 8 May 2003 interview. Richard returned from Europe in 1960 and Mildara was starting to make table wines. Bottled the first Cabernet Shiraz Yellow labels. For the next twenty years he was responsible for finding wines. He did Golden Bower from 1957 to 1978. He began developing a Bordeaux type red with wines from several regions. He talks about Fred Liardet, a builder, and Alan Matthews, a surveyor. He became a technical expert at Mildara and in 1963 he went onto the Board as a technical Director. There was no such thing as a "wine maker" until Wolf Blass used the term. They were famous for sherry and brandy. He learned about distillation and wrote the instruction manual for their still. He also wrote a book on brandy that was published by the Wine Board. He talks about Wolf Blass and German wine makers, and the brewing industry in Sydney. Gollin & Co were their distributors and there was no sales or marketing organisation. His father was Chairman of the Board. In 1971 he went to staff college at Mount Eliza and learned about sales and marketing. He wanted to move from bulk wine making to controlling their own label. It took 15 years - until 1984 to achieve this. Gollins went under in 1975 and they did not sell any wine for two months. It took ten years to fully recover from Gollins failure. David Grant who created Glenfiddich whisky proposed a deal to take over 40% of Mildura Wines and they would be the Australian distributor for Grants Products. The company was restructured and a new managing director put in. The business was renamed Haselgroves after his father. After three years Ray King took over as Managing Director and later as CEO. Richard was Chairman for five years, then stepped aside and Oscar Meyer took over. Peter North came after him but he failed so Richard returned as Chairman for another five years. The company was taken over eventually by Fosters. The company had 250 staff at the time. 20 May 2003 interview. While studying at Adelaide University he began his involvement with the Australian Wine Research Institute. His father and uncle had been founding members. It was run by John Fornachon and was located at the Waite Campus. He talks about malolactic fermentation and the effect of temperature control. He talks about the committees he was involved with, his industry involvement, CSIRO research done by John Possingham, involvement at the Melbourne Show and life after retirement

Oral histories