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1931
Friday January 16th 1931, page 28
Bill Rump on his return from London commented that finance was short with the depression and South African wines were selling 6d/gallon below our wines. Enquiries with possible sales to the Continent indicated a lack of markets.
Friday February 27th 1931, page 100
Karl Weidenhofer gave a lecture on his recent visit to Europe
Friday October 16th 1931, page 387
The Winery decided to enter in the Adelaide Royal Show and had entries in four classes and was awarded two seconds and a very highly commended. In the fourth class, export full bodied fruity ruby or dark was disqualified due to excess Baume
1932
Friday April 1st 1932, page 108
Grape prices for the 1932 vintage were published and those winemakers producing export wine will pay 4/3 per proof gallon of fortifying spirit rather than 5/3 per proof gallon. Stocks of spirit are estimated to stand at 1,900,000 proof gallons. The other change was that an interest rate of 6% per annumshould be paid to growerson the selling price of all grapes not paid for by May 31st. The winemakers welcomed the average reduction of 10/- per ton.
River Murray Districts
| Variety |
Baume |
Price per Ton |
| Winemaking purposes................. |
| Doradillo |
12 |
£4 15 0 |
| Gordo Blanco-winemaking only |
14 |
£6 10 0 |
| Gordo Blanco-distillation only |
| Grenache |
15 |
£7 00 0 |
| Hermitage, White |
14 |
£6 00 0 |
| Mataro |
14 |
£6 00 0 |
| Malaga |
14 |
£6 05 0 |
| Muscatel |
14 |
£6 10 0 |
| Pedro Ximenes |
13 |
£610 0 |
| Shiraz |
15 |
£8 05 0 |
| Sultana |
14 |
£8 10 0 |
| Zante currant |
14 |
£8 10 0 |
| Dried grapes |
|
| Substandard |
£14 00 0 |
| Buck Currants |
£14 00 0 |
| Dried Doradillo |
£14 00 0 |
| Unspecified |
£18 10 0 |
Thursday July 23rd 1932, page 250
Praise from Mr. Oscar Seppelt of B. Seppelt and Sons Ltd for Berri Winery achieving what they had done in 10 years. The Chairman Mr. J. C. Cheriton assured Mr. Seppelt that the shareholders were very grateful that Seppelt's had purchsed up to £100,000 worth of fortifying spirit in one year.
Thursday December 1st 1932, page 401
in two years the the distillery had been awarded 7 awards in open competition.
Currently there are 540 shareholders and £500 of wages is paid fortnightly. 40 employees rise to 70 for vintage.
Cost to build to date is £181,000 and shareholders reserves and capital total £63,000
600 tons of grapes have been handled in one day
Tons crushed in 1932 was 13,000, in 1931 15,500 tons and 1930 19,400 tons
Mr. Rump has tasted 200 bottles in one day.
Mr. Cherito said "If I want to know a good wine from bad I watch Rump's face as he "twists" a taste round his mouth.
1933
Thursday March 9th 1933, page 76
Annual General Meeting held at Glossop on Monday 6th March resulted in the 4 retiring members being defeated, viz, Mr. J. C. Cheriton who had been Chairman for 10 years, Mr. H. M. Dalzeil, Mr. F. H. Nixon, and Mr. L. H. Maddern.
The board now comprised of Messrs A. C. Ingerson, M. W. Nicholas, K. G. Feige, E. W. Williams, J. B. Anderson, W, H. Lister, and W. N. Ellis and at the board meeting on Wednesday 8th March it was decided to appoint a manager to control the commercial and safe end of the business and this position to be distinct from that of work's manager and winemaker.
Mr. W. N. Ellis was elected Chairman and Mr. W. H. Lister
Thursday March 16th 1933, page 87
The following table was presented the Annual General Meeting held on Monday 6th March.
| Our Shipments to London |
Gallons |
| May 1932 |
70,000 |
| June 1932 |
85,000 |
| July 1932 |
36,000 |
| Transfer of london Stocks |
123,000 |
| December 1932 |
30,000 |
| January 1933 |
114,000 |
| February1933 |
70,000 |
| March 1933 |
22,000 |
| Total |
550,000 |
Thursday May 4th 1933, page 1498
Mr.F. E. Wilson of Clare was appointed assistant winemaker and he was address solving the oversupply of Doradillo grapes..
Mr Ellis was queried by a Pioneer representative about the company underselling in London and gave a strong denial.
Quotas on Doradillo intake were lifted for a few days and 400 tons per day were being crushed.
Thursday October 12th 1933, page 247
Adelaide Show awards were second and highly commended for ruby or dark sweet red, second and very highly recommended for tawny port, highly commended for the neutral sweet white and the sweet muscat was highly commended.
Thursday November 9th 1933, page 332
Feelings that the S. A. Government has been pouring money into the winery have been aired by the secretary of the Federal Viticultural Council which was ill-founded and disproved by the performance of the river wineries doing well on the export scene.
More discussion about the oversupply od doradillo grapes and caution is needed with wholesale removal or grafting that could see decrease in grower's income.
Another observation was that there was excess brandy in bond and with the 3 year rquirement of storage in wood, it was possible some winemakers were using brandy for fortification.
Thursday November 16th 1933, page 357
More trouble for the winery with price slashing allegations and it was felt that the South Australian Government will sort out the wheat from the chaff and censure the sources that are trying to create chaos.
Art Day won the W. A. Rump Trophy Shoot over 300 and 600 yards at Berri last weekend.
Thursday November 30th 1933, page 302
The Board have had two inspections days this year. 60-70 members of the Winkie and Glossop R. S. A. , sub-branches in conjunction with the Winkie Progress Association visited the plant on Tuesday November 14th.
Barmera and Berri Agricultural Bureaus visited on Tueday 21st November with some 80 memnbers joining the tour.
The article encouraged other groups, organisations to book for a tour.
1934
Thursday April 12th 1934, page 239
Berri Winery and Distillery Chairman's Annual Report
At end of article was following:-
Proposition.
All our efforts during the year have been devoted towards this end, namely to hasten the time when regular payments will be made to growers and without being unduly optimistic I feel that we are getting much nearer to that desired state of affairs. |
