QHA_Sep-2020_Online

WINE with John Rosentals
Colin Richardson: a giant of a man.
JOHN ROZENTALS LAMENTS
A LOSS OF REGIONALITY IN
AN OTHERWISE GREAT RED
QHA REVIEW | 60
I remember writing about the Blue Pyrenees
2012 Shiraz and referring to the district’s hallmark
pepperiness and of being almost able to taste the
gumtrees that dominate the landscape in its region of
origin.
Those signs of regionality are gone from both the BPE
2018 Richardson Shiraz and the BPE 2017 Shiraz,
gone presumably with the global warming and climate
change that are affecting so many of Australia’s
viticultural areas.
Not that they are bad wines because of the loss of
regionality, far from it, especially in the case of the 2018
Richardson which is a ball-tearer of a red with plenty of
berry-fruit richness to tantalise the tastebuds.
Shortly after Colin Richardson died, a couple of
decades ago, Blue Pyrenees Estate released a very
special merlot in his honour and vowed to release
the best red of every subsquent vintage as a mark of
respect for one of their most significant employees.
Now there are two wines — the aforementioned shiraz
and a cabernet from the same vintage.
Colin Richardson was a giant of a man, a very friendly,
softly spoken giant of a man.
He was gigantic in girth, no doubt largely through overconsumption
of the food and wine he loved so much.
But he wasn’t always that way, I was assured by a good
friend who had fought with Colin in Vietnam. There he
had apparently been light enough, agile enough and
brave enough to be a ‘tunnel rat’, chasing Viet Cong
soldiers in the most cramped conditions, armed with a
pistol in hand and a knife held between his teeth.
But Colin was also gigantic by intellect and attitude
to others. He held a senior position in the Australian
division of the French liquor giant Remy, which had
originally established Blue Pyrenees Estate vineyard and
winery in central Victoria.
The position involved much educational work, and he
loved nothing more, outside his family, than to pass on
his vast knowledge and inspire young professionals in
the wine, food and spirits industries.