Plant and Equipment (CONT)

Moving east was the original cellar (No. 3) and at the east end were the steam generators or boilers as they were known in these days. There were two Cornish type boilers and a Babcock and Willcox water tube boiler. The Cornish boilers were fired with a mixture of lengths of whip-stick mallee and depending on stocks it could be dried timber or a mixture of dry and freshly cut timber or plain fresh timber. Naturally the drier timber gave the best steam generating efficiency. With the Babcock and Wilcox boiler the preference was to use mallee stumps since the fire grid was much shorter than that of the Cornish. The loggers dictated the length of the average mallee branch and it would take another cut to suit the B&W grid. I still remember spending some time stoking the boilers and some of those Mallee stumps with odd roots in various dispositions used fire the Babcock and Wilcox boiler demanded a real art and strength to manipulate them through the fire door. The expert at this was big Bob Whittingham.

After the busy steam demand operations had slowed down, the water-side of the Cornish boiler surfaces had built up a layer of water soluble salts and clay (scale) and this had to be removed by a chipping/scraping method. To do this you entered the water space and with an electric light lead and a scraper/ chipper you removed the layer of scale. Once this was completed the cleaned surface was painted with a protective solution called "Apexior". I had my few days learning the technique. The Babcock and Wilcox boiler cleaning was less arduous. A U-tube bend system on pairs of water tubes could be removed and the deposit that had been softened by a chemical solution could be removed by a wire brush fixed to a long rod to traverse the length of the tube.

The still-house was immediately on the south side of the boiler room. There were three pot rectifier's, a spare brandy column, the "Blair" continuous still and next door the "Old" continuous still. This was the first still to be installed in 1918. It was of a cast bronze construction and Ray Harrip said it was designed by a chap called "Engelbrecht".

The still-house was crammed inside with copper spirit and feints receivers with a system of pipe-work from all of the try-safes so the distiller could direct the distilled products to finished spirit and/or brandy, or to feints which would be redistilled at a later stage. Explain this in detail later.

Distillation wine is supplied to the stills via a number of tanks known as wine chargers. In 1951 there were Sugar-loafs 1-5 and 16-19 each holding 9,000 gallons and Wine Chargers 6-9 each holding 20,000 gallons. The tanks were supplied from Block 1 where the distillation wines were fermented. A sieve device was hung in each tank to collect the skins and seeds which would cause blockages in the wine feed flowrator. Quite often the sieves would block if the operator was not vigilant. Prior to distillation the particular tank would be dipped to determine the number of gallons; the alcoholic content would be determined. The amount of alcohol in the vessel would then be calculated and the various particulars of Wine Charger No., Variety, and the amount of liquid and alcohol content would be entered into a charge book. The tank would then be secured by locking shut the bottom valve plus barring and locking the manhole lid. Before my time the excise officer would have to be present to unlock the bottom valve to allow the distiller to open the valve and pump the wine to the still. This was changed and the bottom valve left unlocked in order to save calling out an Excise officer.

I must return to the laboratory and associated events.

The building consisted of three main rooms. One office, south-east for Alec Kelly, the room to the south west for Howard Penrhyn and Roy Wilden who recorded costs of the winemaking and wine analyses and movements of the various wines. The northern room was laboratory/winemaking domain. In my time Doug. Collett had his desk next to east side entrance door and my desk was toward the west end of the room. North and east walls had benches of approximately 1250 mm high. Check now for an earlier description of equipment etc.

Along the north wall was a three burner station that was powered by a pressure vessel fuelled by fortifying spirit. To the right was the burette of deci-normal sodium hydroxide used for the titratable acid analysis. To the right of this area was a space reserved for a multitude of items and I remember the large glass cylinder that that was filled with "chromic acid". A rather corrosive blend of sulphuric acid and potassium of di-chromate that would remove any deposits from the internal surfaces of glass, the like of pipettes, burettes etc. More importantly just left of the next fixture was the stainless steel sink with the racks above to hold the tasting glasses. These were washed very well so no odour or taint remained and were hung by the foot to dry.

My next memory relates to the various terms between Imperial and Metric terms. For example there was grams per litre, pounds per hundred gallons, parts per million etc. Having studied chemistry at high-school which was in metric units I then had to switch from one to other. I felt it was amazing that we had to think in two different regimens. Being 1951, that was the deal. Together, with these measurements, there were various compounds that were used in the winemaking process. I mention the common ones, being tartaric acid, citric acid, sulphuric acid, ascorbic acid, calcium sulphate, chlorine concentrates, bentonite clay; sulphur dioxide in both liquid and salt form, red and white tannin etc. Depending on the compound there was a recommended concentration for all of these compounds during the winemaking process.

Another duty for me was to collect samples of the wines that would needed next day to plan the blending for a range of customers of a particular wine style. So today would be dry sherry, tomorrow sweet sherry, next day dry red, next day dry white and the next day spirit or brandy. I assume Doug. Collett must have been advised by one of his mentors (probably George Fairbrother) that by 10 a.m. the palate was clear and that was the best time for the tasting and blending of wines. The selection of wines would be on the bench before knock-off time and all of the samples would be at laboratory room temperature for tasting on the dot at 10 a.m. next morning.

I believe it was in 1952 I spent a week at "Murray Cask Co." in the Berri township. This was started by "Les" and Mrs. Kassebaum to provide coopering services to the Riverland winemakers. So I learnt to drive hoops, watch the fingers and was amazed at the simple methods relating to circles and diameters that were made to look so easy. A chalk mark here, another there, a simple compass scribe and away you go. Describe the various tools.

I also remember that "Les" serviced the needs by rebuilding the shooks of casks that were used to dispatch the large contracted volumes of wine to England on behalf of the "Emu Wine Co." and "Yates Bros". One transport cask contained the components for three casks which conserved shipping space . Les and his team would come out to the winery, assemble and check all of the barrels. It was amazing how quickly the job was done.

I recall that the timbers were called Australian Oak and was sourced from Tasmania and mainland Australia. Victoria had large quantities of the Eucalypt called "Mountain Ash". Perhaps also "Stringy Bark" was used. These casks needed to be coated with an inner coat of wax to prevent the wine from absorbing the eucalypt characters. I do stand to be corrected!

To get on with the "Story" was that Les Kassebaum, with Graeme and Roger would assemble these hogsheads which then would be picked up by 'Johnnie" Jackson and brought back to the winery. If there were leakage problems the team would appear and fix the problem. They provided a great service that was never realised and appreciated in those days.