This is a summary of my viticultural journey. It’s a story I repeat occasionally, so here are the details.
My first vineyard experiences came in the form of annual visits to our family friends the Pitts, who had a vineyard near Red Cliffs on the Murray River in the north-west of Victoria. I wasn’t out in the rows that much, but I have a clear memory of being fascinated with the drying racks they had for sultanas.
My first real wine experience was just after my 18th birthday in 1999. My family was driving north from Melbourne, on the way home, and for the first time that I remember, stopped at a restaurant in Malmsbury. We’d stopped 100 times before at the Malmsbury bakery, but never at the restaurant on the western side of the Coliban river, on the northern side of the road. It was an old mill. The restaurant sadly seems to be gone now. Anyway, the venue was lovely and guy who ran it was super nice. He gave me a proper wine tasting lesson. I think that this was both because I was talking about my budding interest in viticulture, and because it was my birthday-ish.
Also in 1999, as with all final year high school students, it was time to submit university preferences.
- Preference 1: Agricultural Science & Commerce at Melbourne Uni.
- Preference 2: Viticultural Science & Business at LaTrobe Uni.
- Preference 3: Viticultural Science at LaTrobe Uni.
- Preference 4: Agricultural Science at Melbourne Uni.
Note preference 3 and 4: viticultural science is above agricultural science. AgSci & Commerce was an ambitious goal and one that I wasn’t sure I’d reach. The “Commerce” part of this double-degree made the cut-off for admission very high. All the advice was that when comparing a preference that was hard to get into with a preference where there was a good chance of entry, regardless of actual preference, put the higher entry requirement one on top. The only problem with this advice was that it didn’t factor in teenagers who don’t really think things over. If the offer came in to go to a place where the prestige was, where all your friends were going, and where the party was going be, guess which offer will be accepted. So when the offer from Melbourne Uni came, Melbourne it was.
The ironic thing about accepting the offer to Melbourne Uni instead of LaTrobe Uni is that I was working in a vineyard when I made the decision. And I was really enjoying it. Three months of work training second year vines in the heat of the 1999/ 2000 summer. Living the dream.
(FYI. In Australia, a university “course” is what Europeans would call a university “Program”. A “subject” is what Europeans would call a “course”. So here, “course” = a full 4 or 5 year degree program.)
I don’t really remember where my interest for viticultural science actually came from. I grew up on sheep-wheat farm, had at this stage (middle of 1999) never worked in a vineyard, didn’t drink wine. But I do remember that one of the main reasons I was drawn to the course at LaTrobe was the numerous discussions I had with the person driving its development. I don’t remember his name, but we exchanged a lot of emails and phone calls. It was a new BSc. course that I’m pretty sure he had driven, and he was passionate. The promise was for small classes, lots of hand-on learning, and scholarships.
The 40 year old version of me might have modified the true version of this tale. I think that my summary of it still holds: I was either not mature enough or not brave enough to make the decision to move to LaTrobe. I have no idea if I would have succeeded at LaTrobe: like I said, I was probably not mature enough to be happy at a second tier university in the bush (my 2000 thinking, not my 2026 thinking), and I was definitely a bad student during my first years at Melbourne Uni.
It was actually the 41 year old version of me that decided that it was time to be brave and try to find my way back to viticulture. There was starting to be a buzz around the industry in Sweden. I was working in the same group as Sweden’s best/ only researcher in viticulture. I was able to get an allotment garden that was a couple of rows of vines. I had done a great course on horticultural plant physiology which included a lot of work on grapevines. I was trying to finish my PhD…
I’m not really being that brave – I haven’t quit my job and forced my family to move to a vineyard. But I have taken some serious steps. Here are some of things I’ve done since 2022 to become a practicing viticulturalist:
- Managed a couple of rows of vines in my allotment garden.
- Completed the Horticultural Crop Physiology and Quality course at Copenhagen University.
- Attended the summer school “NewClim: New training methods to Manage Climatic & ecological transitions in perennial fruit crops (grapes and apples).”
- Read Jamie Goode’s “The New Viticulture”, twice.
- Enrolled in the UC Davis Viticulture Certificate Program.
- Made a fair bit of kit wine.
And some things I’ve done to become a viticultural researcher:
- Had numerous discussions with Lotta Nordmark about the topic.
- Created the website: www.wineinnovation.se
- Applied for research project funding to develop the soil sampling and mapping offer to Swedish vineyards.
- Applied for research project funding to form a collaboration of researchers with an interest in Swedish viticulture.
- Had discussions with Hallåkra, Halldora, Klagshamn, Ästad, Ivögården, Långmyre, and Araslöv about the industry, potential research projects or other collaborations.
- Got my work to take the idea of Swedish viticulture seriously.