Export

In 1951-53 years, Berri exported large quantities of wine under contract to the Emu Wine Co. that was London based. There was a trade arrangement between ours and the English Government regards duty that impacted with arrangements that England had with other countries that supplied wine to the United Kingdom.

There would come an order for 100 or perhaps 200 hogsheads and the wine would be checked for Baume, alcohol and sulphur dioxide levels to match the required standards. As Noel Burge remembered the standard was 4.5° Baume and 34% Proof Spirit. The barrels would arrive, the railway trucks booked and then when all was in place the wine transferred to the hogsheads, allowed to stand overnight to see if there were any leaks. "Jack" Sharpe was in charge of the filling of the casks and nary a drop of wine was spilt. The empty hardwood waxed casks were given a warm water wash at the Barrel wash Station and then had both heads painted and then would be rolled into the filling floor, stood on end and then the agent's name and destination would be stenciled onto one end of the barrel and on the other end around the circumference was stenciled "Berri Cooperative Winery". Next the empty barrels would be weighed to give the tare weight, which stenciled on, and then rolled into neat rows with a space between the rows to allow the operator to manoeuvre the filling hose. Once filled, using a hessian or leather seal, the bung was driven in and the barrels weighed and rolled over so the bung seal would be tested overnight and any leaks would attended to the next day. The tiny pinhole stave leaks would be sealed with a pointed match driven into the borer hole and larger ones covered with a linseed filled lead patch. For a leak in the stave joints, string would be tapped in along the joint. Next morning the casks were weighed, then the liquid content in gallons would be calculated with reference to specific gravity tables for various Baume levels of the particular wine, and along with gross and tare weights, the gallon content was stenciled onto the barrel end and the cask would be rolled out onto the rickety timber trestle down to a stop and then rolled onto to the truck to be taken across the Sturt Highway to the Karoom railway siding. Here the barrels would be transferred off the tray-top truck and into the rail truck. There the barrels were stood on end and all were separated by a rope and rubber harness which absorbed any likely impact that could happen during the rail transport to Port Adelaide.

Brandy manufacture during the 1951-1953 period was carried out using the Old Continuous Still and Blair Continuous Still. There was also a Brandy ball column that could be fitted to Pot Rectifier 1, however this pot still with its rectifying column was used to produce SVR at this time.
The Old Continuous handled 300 gallons per hour of wine producing some 55 proof gallon of brandy and a "heads cut" of 10 proof per hour. This is based on the distillation wine at 20% proof spirit. This still was only used to produce brandy spirit.

The Blair Still usually ran at 1250 gallons per hour of wine and produced about 230 proof gallons of brandy, 15 proof gallons of "heads" and 5 proof gallons of "fusel oil" per hour. The Blair Still was used to to produce SVR as well as brandy and in the vintage period had to cater for the fortified wine make. Once sufficient stocks of SVR was on hand the still would commence with brandy production.

Once the vintage proper commenced the distillation plant would usually run 24 hours 5 days a week or, if required, 24 hours for 7 days per week and would possibly operate until sometime in August until all of the distillation wine was distilled.

Brandy spirit concentration was usually 135% proof spirit. The upper limit was 140%. Above that concentaration it was deemed fortifying spirit.
The exstill brandy spirit was then stored in large timber vats until maturation space was freed up by sales and the brandy would be "broken down"(diluted) with rain water which was stored in galvanised rain water tanks in various parts of the premises. These tanks had been used to store fortifying spirit in earlier times.

The normal storage strength was 110% proof and other additions at this time were 5 lbs of caramel and 5 lbs of sucrose per 1000 liquid gallons. The brandy would then be used to fill quartercasks, or hogsheads or puncheons as and when these were emptied. The brandy spirit had to be matured in wood for a minimum of 2 years. Ideally the maturation was done in these small oak casks.

During the 1952 and 1953 vintages my time was spent in the laboratory and in No.1 Cellar learning how to operate the crushers, doing the twice day testing of the skin-tanks and run-off tanks. As well as this I used to transfer fermenting material to the main cellar. This was during the lunch break. Jack Sharpe the foreman didn't seem to mind and I would read the instructions, lay the delivery line to the main cellar tank, flush the appropriate drain and pump with water and wait for the pump to cavitate and then open the bottom valve on the designated tank. Then I would race off and catch the water at the end of the line and once the product was there i would throw the delivery hose into the tank. With the transfer completed I then had to chase the must through with water by returning to No. Cellar and flushing the pipeline with water. The proximity of the tanks were Block 3,4, 6 and 7 and I always made it in time having to sprint fairly quickly from the No.1 Cellar to the Main Cellar, up stairs and along gang-planks. All good fun!

I spent quite a period in the bottling/sales room. One of my most enduring memories was the effort of filtering the wine and then have to insert the cork stopper. The fortified wines were a section of cork affixed with a plastic top. These were hammered in and that was that. On the other hand the table wine corks had to be soaked in an acidified potassium bi-sulphite solution. Then drained as dry as possible and then inserted into the filled bottle of wine. The corking machine compressed the cork which was then driven into the mouth of the bottle. Always a trace of cork dust plus the sterilising/softening solution and the clarity was spoilt. I will speak about that problem when I reach the late 1960's. The other frustration concerned the labels. We had two types, one that curled horizontally and the other that curved vertically. The former would always curl after application so were never perfect. The latter were never a problem. This was fixed towards the end of the 1960's when the company introduced a new range of labels and the label manufacturer's had solved the problem.

A vacuum filling machine was used to bottle all wines and spirits.

Alec Kelly spent 10 weeks in California during September- December 1951

And so these were my first days of wine.