'White Shiraz' in New South Wales: the History and Mystery

‘White Shiraz’ in New South Wales: The History and Mystery of the Hunter Valley’s Trebbiano Plantings, Their Source, and Their Misidentification Author: Dr. Gerald Atkinson, grapevine researcher and historian. — Copyright (©) Gerald Atkinson, 2020. Introduction: What’s In A Name? In their recently published book Hunter Wine: A History1, Julie McIntyre and John Germov make the remarkable revelation that “Shiraz” (i.e. Syrah) which they explicate as the “French grape known too” in colonial Australia “as Red Hermitage” was “donated to the Botanic Gardens” in Sydney “by … Governor Brisbane”2. A little earlier in their book an image of a manuscript which appears to support this claim is printed. The relevant excerpted portion of it is this, with the ‘Shiraz’ entry on the immediate left: The source of this image is a handwritten catalogue in which all of the kinds and varieties of plants held in the colonial Sydney Botanic Gardens as of November 1827 are listed3. As Lionel Gilbert has noted, this catalogue had its origins in December 1825, [when Lord] Bathurst [Secretary of State for the Colonies] requested half-yearly reports on the Gardens, [of which] the first [of these was] to include “an accurate description of the Plants and Vegetables, which are peculiar to the climate of New South Wales, as well as those, peculiar to other Countries, which are susceptible of cultivation to any useful purpose, if introduced to the Colony.” Governor Darling responded by sending a report based on lists of ‘Fruits’ and ‘Exotic Forest Trees cultivated in the Botanic Garden’ compiled late in 1827. The lists are of great interest for they indicate not only botanical and vernacular names then current, but also the ‘state of acclimatization’ of the plants, and ‘By whom Introduced’ — for example by … Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, Colonial Secretary Alexander McLeay… as well as by overseas correspondents.4 Given its thoroughly official nature, the apparent presence of the vernacular name ‘Shiraz’ in the Gardens’ list (as per the above excerpt), cannot be taken lightly. Indeed, it struck me after first reading McIntyre and Germov’s presentation of this evidence, that here was a most remarkable and highly important revelation. For it implies that the well-documented dual imports of ‘Scyras’ and ‘Hermitage’ in James Busby’s January 1833- landed vine collection were not the first successful introduction of the Shiraz / Syrah variety to Australia, and indeed that the variety had been in the colony of New South Wales for, apparently, ten years beforehand. There had however also been two other documented would-be importations of Syrah / Shiraz / Hermitage before Busby’s, viz.: that by the Macarthurs in 1817, and a later importation, of “Red and White Hermitage” by William Dutton, on behalf of Alexander Riley, in 18305. The fate — or more to the point, failure — of both is clear enough however from the documentary evidence. In the Macarthurs’ case, and contrary to the claims made by Philip Norrie6, it is clear from William Macarthur’s remarks in his introduction to his Letters on the Culture of the Vine7, that the “Hermitage”, “Syracuse” and “Côtes Rôtie” Syrah / Shiraz cuttings that were among the collection of vine material which the Macarthurs gathered in France in 1815-16, never arrived in Sydney. They, along with most of the balance of their French collection, almost certainly were either purloined or lost by the London nursery with which the Macarthurs had entrusted their vines when in 1816 they were significantly delayed in their return to Sydney (which in fact they did not make until late 1817). Thereafter, it was not until the planted-out collection bore fruit in their vineyard that it become starkly evident that they had been defrauded of most of their vines. As William Macarthur put it, 2 probably only … two [of the varieties] had [actually] formed part of the original collection from France. We have never been able to account in any manner for the remainder of the French vines, and from the information we now possess, we know that they ought to have consisted, after making a due allowance for deaths, of from twenty to twenty-five of the most valuable varieties in France.8 Alas, all of their Syrah from Hermitage and Côtes Rôtie were among the missing vines which, fairly obviously, had been substituted for commonly-available varieties in such numbers of cuttings (or rootlings perhaps) as to make it look as though what the Macarthurs received from the London nursery really was the totality of their high-quality French collection. In short then: the Macarthurs were well and truly deceived and ripped-off and, as one of the consequences of this, none of their Syrah vines ever made it to Sydney. This being so, and aside from the apparent 1823-4 ‘Shiraz’ introduction which McIntyre and Germov have recently uncovered, we are left then with only one other documented pre-Busby importation of Syrah vines viz., as Busby himself recorded in 1830, that of Mr. Alexander Riley … [who] has … sent to the Colony … the white and red Hermitage grapes. — These were very lately brought out by Mr. Dutton, in the Lady Blackwood.9 Alexander Riley was first known in the colony through his involvement in insurance, pastoral, and banking enterprises10, and his agent in the importation of his vines, William Dutton, was apparently also a person of some standing. The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser noted his arrival in late February 1830 with his consignment of ‘White and Red hermitage’ cuttings, observing that [a]mong the passengers coming out by the Lady Blackwood, is Mr. William Dutton, formerly in-the service of the Australian Agricultural Company, who comes to take charge of Mr. [Alexander] Riley's interests in this Colony.11 Dutton’s arrival with the consignment of vines in fact signalled a second substantial change in direction, as it were, for Alexander Riley who had rather unexpectedly departed the colony 13 years earlier, in 1817. For as the online Australian Dictionary of Biography notes, after returning to London in that year, Riley was often tempted to return to New South Wales. He frequently longed for the company of colonial friends and the old ways of his Sydney life, the busy days at his warehouse in Pitt Street, his spacious home in Burwood and the exceptionally beautiful countryside of [his] Raby [estate in Liverpool, outside Sydney]. In 1824 he apparently received from the secretary of state an oral promise of a grant of 10,000 acres (4047 ha) of land, similar to that given to [John] Macarthur, as a reward for the successful importation of a new strain of merinos into the colony, and the last years of his life were devoted to agitation to secure it. Eventually he succeeded and in 1831 occupied a grant in beautiful country just beyond Yass, bordering on the limits of [then habitable] location. He called it Cavan, after the family's Irish home, and there after ten years of effort the speculation began to reap the dreamed-of rewards.12 So we can see then how Dutton’s 1830 importation of ‘Red and White Hermitage’ was surely intended to be part of the establishment of a vineyard either, or both, at Alexander Riley’s first estate at Raby in Sydney’s Liverpool district, and / or at his new estate at Cavan, near Yass in the northern Monaro. However, an extremely thorough search of newspaper reports, websites and books which discuss Alexander Riley’s post- 1830 years in New South Wales until his death in 1833, finds no mention at all of his estates or, in any other way, Riley himself, being involved in growing (let alone distributing) any Red or White ‘Hermitage’ grape vines whatsoever. All the evidence instead points to the 1830 Dutton importation on behalf of Riley being a total failure, with its imported ‘Hermitage’ cuttings entirely and rapidly fading into oblivion. Moreover, it very much needs to borne in mind that because of Busby’s calling attention to these vines’ arrival in the colony, in 3 his 1830-published Manual, it would almost inevitably follow that had they been successfully grown-on, let alone propagated and distributed, the colony’s viticultural commentators — not least William Macarthur himself, never mind Busby — would undoubtedly have recorded this fact, along no doubt with New South Wales’ very pro-colonial-vine-industry newspapers. But surely the ultimate clincher to this argument for the total failure of the Dutton importation is this, which is derived from basic vine physiology. The Dutton vine material came from the northern hemisphere of course, and upon arrival in Sydney in late February 1830, if it was still dormant, it then has a mere two months to be transported to Cavan in the Monaro and successfully grown-on so as to form viable roots and survive the onset of the cold southern tablelands winter as May arrived. Charitably, if instead the cuttings were planted at Raby in Liverpool, one might allow another two weeks — to a total of two and a half months of growth from dormancy to a self-sustaining, viable, rootling — before winter came and then all growth stopped. The reality is that in either case these cuttings, almost beyond any question at all, had far too little time to grow viable roots and make enough leaf to have sufficient carbohydrate stored for them to bud-out next spring and survive. They arrived in New South Wales far too late in its growing season, and so their total failure was close to inevitable, as a matter of basic vine physiology. It is no wonder that nothing was ever heard again of them after Dutton delivered them to Riley.

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