A long-time director at Yalumba and now top dog at Wine Australia, Brian Walsh has proved the perfect commander to steer heritage brands and industry committees alike.
The first thing I remember when I think of Brian Walsh is the mischievous twinkle in his eye. While it betrays a great wit, it doesn’t hide the serious thinker.
An unexpected glimpse of his humour occured during a 1990s industry seminar, when he was explaining the way we taste astringency in red wines as tannins and our saliva precipitate together. He showed a photo of a rather messy spittoon at a wine show and then, invoking the reputation of a judge well-known for his tasting and drinking prowess, told us, “and here’s Mark Shield’s spit bucket”. It was empty.
Walsh was born in Adelaide when his father Martin was proprietor of the nearby Aldinga Hotel. Under subtle pressure from his mother Mary, he took a temporary job in the laboratory at Walter Reynell, later Chateau Reynella, and deferred his university enrolment in physiotherapy. He resigned his position when the company declined to support his enrolment to study winemaking at Roseworthy College, but later Reynella invited him back, temporarily, as a vintage winemaker.
In 1988, Yalumba approached him with the position of chief winemaker. In a 2003 interview*, Walsh described himself as being in awe of Yalumba and winemaker Peter Wall. “My perception was that there was something a bit mysterious about them…I was, in fact, nervous for the first five years of my work here because…I was still a little bit in awe about the systems and structures that were in place, and the degree of forward thinking.”
Yalumba gave Walsh the freedom to look at long-term planning, rather than the half-yearly demands of a publicly listed company. Here he would work with Robert Hill-Smith, Yalumba’s and Hill-Smith Family Vineyards’ owner, at that time their CEO and himself a winner of the Len Evans Award for leadership in 2008. Hill-Smith is a visionary, with an excellent understanding of international wine but also keeper of the faith and custodian of Yalumba’s 166-year history. Walsh proved to be the perfect commander to supervise both acquisition and tradition.
The moves Walsh supervised included the purchase of the Jansz vineyard and later Dalrymple in Tasmania, Redbank in Victoria, the development of the Oxford Landing and Y Series ranges and of Nautilus in Marlborough, New Zealand, which he achieved without neglecting Yalumba’s roots.
Yalumba’s red wines from the Barossa and Eden Valleys thrived under his tutelage. There is a balance and elegance in these which is unmatched elsewhere in the region, while their generosity is protected and nourished. The wines are still clearly made to be enjoyed, rather than to impress through sheer size, over-ripeness and overwhelming new oak.
Louisa Rose was Gourmet Traveller WINE’s Winemaker of the Year in 2008. Now Yalumba’s chief winemaker, she worked under Walsh for many years. “He was one of the most amazing people you could work with,” she says. “Brian has the great ability to make you think you’ve made the right decision. He’s also incredibly generous with his knowledge.”
He retired from full-time winemaking in December 2012, but still occupied industry positions that have included president of the South Australian Wine Industry Association, chair of Barossa Winemakers’ Committee and chair of the Wine Innovation Cluster at Adelaide’s Waite Campus, which includes the Australian Wine Research Institute. Rose again: “Brian cuts through the politics that can dominate committees and keeps things calm. He ignores temporary fixes and gets things right for the long-term.”
Brian Walsh now occupies the pinnacle industry position: chair of Wine Australia. Could there be a more deserving winner of the Len Evans Award for leadership? I think not.
*State Library of South Australia: OH 692/169 Interview with Brian Walsh by Rob Linn, 18 February 2003