Australian Plonky: a guest column

Pioneering winemaker Ian Hickinbotham graduated from the Diploma of Oenology course established in 1936 at Roseworthy Agricultural College and is the first Australian oenologist elected Honorary Life Member of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture. He was wine writer for the Australian Financial Review and also "Ask the Expert" of The Age. His autobiography, Australian Plonky, is being prepared for publication under the imprint of the Barr Smith Press. This is the first in a series of occasional articles about the Australian wine industry that he will contribute to Lumen.

Dr Arthur Ray Beckwith an unsung hero

Ray Beckwith, aged 94, who lives quietly at Nuriootpa in his beloved Barossa Valley, should be ranked with Pasteur because of his contribution to oenology.

True, Pasteur really discovered micro-organisms and how yeasts are responsible for the phenomenon of fermentation, thereby dispelling the spontaneous generation concept, but Beckwith proved that for a wine to keep, its pH value, often described as the measure of active acidity, is critical.

Oenologists well know Pasteur's pronouncement that when bacteria are present in a wine, "Le mal existait", but they might equally quote Beckwith's equivalent in the Australian vernacular, "the penny dropped".

It was while sitting on a train that "the penny dropped" for Beckwith. He deduced that the pH of a wine determined whether or not certain bacteria, initially always derived from the skins of the grapes, became active.

To complicate matters, a consequence of the wonderful secondary malo-lactic fermentation--whereby bacteria convert harsh malic acid to soft-tasting lactic acid--is a rise in the pH of the wine, making it attractive for nastier bacterial activity.

In 1952, I monitored the pH of the inaugural Coonawarra Estate 1952 dry reds and as it progressively rose due to that secondary fermentation, I added tartaric acid and brought it down again.

This pioneering (perhaps for the first time in the world) was only possible because the pH meter that Beckwith introduced was also fitted with the new reliable glass electrode.

Undoubtedly because current wine consumers never see diseased wine, it is difficult to accept that 40% of the world's wine was diseased 70 years ago--the period when Beckwith made his historic research pronouncement when a cadet at Roseworthy Agricultural College.

Actually, that act was the real reason for the establishment of the first Australian oenology course, though the industry may still refute the assertion. When the first lecturers asked wineries for examples of diseased wines, not one conceded they had any, so the staff had to make their own `diseased' wines in order to study the afflictions!

This extraordinary saga was because Beckwith's discovery saved his employer, Penfolds, that 40% which was such an enormous financial contribution, the company kept the secret for obvious commercial reasons.

Unfortunately, we have no other word in English for `disease' in wine, while the worst form is only vinegar, which we enjoy as a food, but not as a beverage. During Beckwith's apprenticeship, wines were described as tasting like sickly boiled lollies, or extremely bitter (a repulsive affliction due to the development of acrolein: I encountered it in 1954).

Sadly, Beckwith has had to live to 94 before enjoying proper recognition, starting with a Doctor of the University honoris causa from the University of Adelaide, quickly followed by Honorary Life Member of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture, and recently the coveted `Maurice O'Shea Award' at a prestigious wine industry function in Sydney.

Incidentally, a corollary of this harnessing of some of the bacteria present during winemaking is the heretical assertion--Pasteur was wrong! ■

Ian Hickinbotham RDOe OAM
"AP"