Valmai Hankel

STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION OH 692/58 Full transcript of an interview with VALMAI HANKEL on 19 June 2002 by Rob Linn Recording available on CD Access for research: Unrestricted Right to photocopy: Copies may be made for research and study Right to quote or publish: Publication only with written permission from the State Library OH 692/58 VALMAI HANKEL NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT This transcript was donated to the State Library. It was not created by the J.D. Somerville Oral History Collection and does not necessarily conform to the Somerville Collection's policies for transcription. Readers of this oral history transcript should bear in mind that it is a record of the spoken word and reflects the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The State Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the interview, nor for the views expressed therein. As with any historical source, these are for the reader to judge. This transcript had not been proofread prior to donation to the State Library and has not yet been proofread since. Researchers are cautioned not to accept the spelling of proper names and unusual words and can expect to find typographical errors as well. 2 OH 692/58 TAPE 1 - SIDE A NATIONAL WINE CENTRE, WOLF BLASS FOUNDATION ORAL HISTORY. Interview with Valmai Hankel on 3rd May, 2001, at the State Library of South Australia. Interviewer: Rob Linn. Now, Valmai, I was thinking how to open the tape, and, well, with your love of books perhaps we’d better open on the preliminary pages and start with yourself and something of your own background. VH: Yes, I think you’ve got down here date of birth, education and work experience. Well, I thought you’d choose what you want to relay of that. VH: (Laughs) Yes, this is one that we should’ve talked a bit more about before we did all this. That’s alright. VH: Well, I was born on sixty-one years ago. The 1st May, 1940. Lucky enough to have a private school education at PGC from 1946 to 1957. My wine experience in those days was minimal. The earliest recollection that I have of wine is that my parents used to go to the great celebrations that used to be held at Hoffmann’s at Tanunda in the 1940’s, and my mother would come home late at night from these celebrations smelling of Port, and she’d bend over to give me a kiss and I’d smell these wonderful fumes, which of course I later discovered were Port fumes. So that was probably my first recollection of wine. So you were born Hankel? VH: I was born Hankel, yes. I didn’t change my name when I was married. 3 After leaving school I immediately started work at what was then called the Public Library of South Australia in the research service, which was the crème de la crème, the area of the Library that handled advanced enquiries. Which was a pretty funny place for a person straight from school to start. I was extremely lucky in that I had a most encouraging boss and I learnt a hell of a lot. And I was then moved kicking and screaming to the children’s library at the end of 1958. I did not want to go there. And there my boss was Dennis Hall, who later became my husband, and who was the person who really introduced me seriously to wine. His background (his wine background) was that his father was, I think it was, Cellar Manager (I mean he certainly wasn’t called that at Angove’s at Tea Tree Gully) for thirty-six years from 1910. Tell me a little bit about Dennis’ father’s work at Tea Tree Gully, Valmai. VH: This is actually an extract, that comes from Geoffrey Bishop’s book, Mining, Medicine and Winemaking, a history of the Angove family, which Dennis contributed about his father’s work. “His duty—Arthur Hall’s duty—was to organise and supervise all work at the cellars and in the vineyards. He kept the books, answered correspondence and directed the work of the place. An excise officer attended two or three days a week and Arthur had to use those times to ensure that wines which would be likely to be needed for sales blends were released from bond. Before each excise day the cellar foreman was given a detailed worksheet showing exactly which amounts of which wines from particular containers were to be transferred to other named vats. The excise officer arrived about 9 and left about 4. Arthur arrived between about 7.45 and 8. Cellar hands had to be ready to start work sharp at 7.15, and if the workload was heavy (and this is talking from his own experience here because Dennis actually worked at the winery for a couple of years as a young man) we went at it on the run, laying down what looked like, to an outsider, miles of crossing and re-crossing rubber pipes. 4 As a vat was pumped out the pump was turned off and the pipes drained of wine. Then water was pumped through. Then a solution of sodium hypochlorite, after which the pipes were drained again. More water pumped through, and drained again ready for the next operation. Then the vat had to be cleaned out, washed and prepared for its next wine. There were normally, at non vintage times, only three men on duty in the cellars. When two or three pumps sucked at the same time, things were lively. In the lean days of the 1930’s samples to be matched for sale were for Australian orders only four ounces. This is the interesting bit! Using that tiny sample, Arthur Hall had to match the sample exactly in character, colour, sweetness and alcoholic strength. To do this he had to make up a blend, sometimes of many wines whose constituents were such that they would show a profit at the named price. He would send for small quantities of the wines he had in mind, and then using only his nose, his palate, his eyes and simple arithmetic, he would make up the blend in miniature.” I think that’s amazing stuff. So that’s where Dennis, who did not become my husband until 1984, got something of his knowledge of, and interest in, wine. He was very interested in it, and I’ll come back to him a bit later on if I may. So this is about 1958 we’re talking about in your life. VH: Yes. And at the end of ‘58/beginning of ‘59. And in the children’s library we really worked hard. Occasionally at the end of the day (the library would close at 5.30 and we’d often stay back doing various jobs—a little small core of us) and as what you might call a reward, Dennis would produce a bottle of wine for us to share. And this was my introduction to the world of red wine, and it was always what was then called Wynn’s Coonawarra Hermitage. And I had never tasted red wine. Before then I’d had Barossa Pearl certainly, and sweet wines and so on. This was a whole new world, and I didn’t like the sweet wines particularly. That’s how I got interested in reds. 5 What was your very first memory of some of those bottles of the early Wynn’s Coonawarra vintages? Actually Redmans were making them then, weren’t they? VH: Redmans started in ‘66 under their own name. I’ve still got a bottle of the ’66. I think Redmans were making for Wynn’s at the time. VH: They could well have been. But they certainly had their own label after that. Yes. VH: I’m not sure about that. I think you could be right there, Rob. Well, I can’t remember the detail but I had never tasted red wine. And it had so much fruit. It was totally different from anything else – it got me and it was dry. And that’s one of the things that I really liked about it. I know that later on in the 60’s I started buying books about wine. I can remember the very first books on wine that I bought and read absolutely avidly, and I still regard him (the author) as one of the greatest wine writers Australia has ever had, and that’s Walter James. (Laughs) I nearly said hallelujah. (Laughs) At last! He pre-empts Max Lake - VH: Absolutely. - and Len Evans, and many of these people, by two/three decades. VH: We’re talking about the 50’s when he started writing. Yes. VH: And then went into the 60’s. I don’t think there has ever been a wine writer quite like him. I loved his essays and so on. And he had a wonderful, wonderful use of language. An ability with words. So these were your personal books, Valmai, you bought? 6 VH: I bought them myself personally. At that stage (we’re now talking about the early 60’s) I worked in the children’s library until January 1961 and then moved to the youth lending service from January ‘61 until I went overseas in April ‘64. I hope you don’t mind me rumbling all over the place here. No, this is fine. VH: But at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show dinner last October, last year— 2000—a woman came up to me, and said, ‘Are you Valmai Hankel?’ Of course I said, ‘Yes’, and she said, ‘You used to work in the children’s library, didn’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yes’.

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