BOB ROWE
Born 1929, Trained as baker at Barmera. Was aged 27 at his start at Berri in 1956. Retired at 65 years of age in 1994. 38 years service
Bob started in 1956 in the main Cellar with Bonny Maitland as Foreman and Jack Sharpe was in charge of dispatch. During the 1956 had experience in No. 1 Cellar. He remembers his first day in No. 1. Took a whole hour for lunch and Jack Sharpe could not find him.
Recollections from Bob
Two 25,000 gallon tanks were in the centre cellar, known as 114 east and 117 west. Following year built the other 4.
Remembered the flood of juice and skins that flooded into the stalk wash tank which was a big job to clean out. We then used a long bolt to control door opening. Bob remembered they had to take care sealing the door and the method was to sit in front of the door and push evenly with feet and secure bolts. Otherwise the seal rubber would be seat properly and would leak on flling. That would create all sorts of problems with the other operations.
Bert Berriman did the Baume and temperatures of runoff tanks and made sulphur dioxide additions to both these and the skin tanks.
Val Rice and George Tresinski were on the Chillers from 1956 when the first real effort was made to improve and develop the quality of the table wines.
Bill Westley was in charge of the Bottling Hall. This was in the warehouse building to the south of Block 417-32. Check timing with BJB
Bert Solly, cement gang foreman. On the eastern wall of the main cellar between Tanks 301 and 302 was nailed a box with a folding down lid. Bob asked Bert Berriman if that was where they kept the wine bottles. Bert Berriman said no, that was Bert Solly’s medicine cabinet. Bert was a compulsive worrier regards his health. Bert Berriman recounted the story how he was on duty in New Guinea in 1945 and he came out of the jungle to see Bert Solly down the track. Bert said ”What the hell are you doing here Bert, I didn’t think the Army would pass you as being fit for the service”.
Johnnie Jackson was truck driver and coopering in the barrel-washing shed.
Uptons tankers carried all Lindemans wines. Apparently one day Doug. Collett had a call from Ron Prince; manager at Lindemans Corowa, to say the tanker was not filled. Bob eventually worked out that the person filling the tanker used the dipstick upside down.
One vintage Doug. Collett came racing to see Bob and asked him how I read the Baume hydrometer. That was OK and the Vintage Oenology student was reading it upside down. All of the port wines to date were not to specification. I would assume the Baume level was too low and the spirit content too high.
Arnie Hoffman, a Berri butcher, used to cart quantities of fresh stalks to feed his pigs until he found all the pigs were stumbling around under the influence caused by them consuming the fermenting juice on the stalks.
Brian Barry made up special batch of dry red for local solicitor, Peter Sowry. The quantity was excess to Peter’s needs and the balance was stored in the passageway underneath the N0. 4 Cellar overhead fermenters. The excess was eventually sold of and Bob purchased a quantity for a houseboat trip with some of his mates. A good drop and the first night on the boat Bob was the only red drinker. By the end of the week all hands on board were enjoying the wine and they ran short of supply. Was bargain buying at fifty cents per bottle.
Brian Barry complained to Bob that the transfer rate from No. 1 Cellar to the winery was very slow or very nearly nonexistent. I assume this was pumping to No. 4 Cellar, or to Block 6, or the Stainless Steel 50,000 gallon tanks was virtually nil. On checking it was that the impellor was so badly worn by sand and would not perform. Sand was an inherent problem throughout the whole plant.
Bob was pumping out from an overhead group of barrels and nothing seemed to be happening. On taking the beagle out of the cask he found the suction blocked with a mass of strings. These strings were attached small barrel shaped glass jars that originally contained “Dinagong” fish paste. A popular lunch spread. The jars fitted through the cask bunghole and the boys used to get a quick snort during the day. If anybody were coming they would just release the string. See also comment about yo-yo’s in Block 5 tank.
Len Maitland used to climb into an empty wine tank and play the mouth organ.
Geoff Neighbour used to operate a crusher during vintage and had the habit of hanging a length of cheesecloth tied onto his belt. This particular time the piece was long enough to catch on the crusher spindle and Geoff’s cries alerted a grower above who was delivering grapes. The grower raced into the cellar, found Bob who went to Geoff’s aid and switched of the crusher. The lad had a sore stomach for a few days.
Bottling operation moved from original area to the warehouse at the rear of Main Cellar. Bill Westley still in charge.
Arthur, John and Stan Simos. Not sure, but I think it was John, placed a can of food in the lunchroom electric stove and did not pierce the lid. The stove also contained other lunches and the resulting explosion spread the stove’s contents far and wide in the lunchroom.
Karl Nieding was a baker by trade before becoming the painter. See Karl’s notes. Bob recalls how Karl at the Roadside Sales would collect all the remnants of the dessert wines in various bottles at the end of the day and mix into one or two bottles. The next day he would offer prospective customers a taste of the blend. More often than not the customers would say, “That’s very nice and could I have a bottle of that please”. Karl would reply that it was the last bottle of that particular blend and then proceed to sell them one of the other dessert wines. Karl was always the cheerful salesman.
Block 1 DM tanks. Old practice was to leave the bottoms in the tanks. Valve 18 inches above floor. Fresh juice would be pumped in and allow to ferment. This again repeated and eventually there was a layer of lees in the bottom of the tank, which was undergoing breakdown of the yeast and producing some very unpleasant odours. Bert Berriman remembers having to clean out this lees material and one day after knockoff he had showered and redressed in work clothes and went to the Barmera Hotel for a beer and could not understand why everyone gave him a wide berth.
Bonny Maitland told the story how one Saturday during vintage a truckload of bags of cement arrived. No cement gang personnel were on duty and the store man Bill Strother contacted Bonny to help unload the truck. Bonny and Frank Kennedy went around to the store and unloaded the bags into the store while Bill sat in his office. Bonny was ropeable. Some time later Ray Harrip sent an instruction to Bonny to clean out the rainwater tanks outside the store. Remembering the cement episode Bonny wrote an instruction to Bill Strother to clean out the tanks and sent Frank Kennedy around to the store with the note. Frank came back in a very distressed state.
1956 Flood
Berri was selling large volumes of wine to Lindemans. With the Renmark/Paringa road underwater the wine was filled into hogsheads, loaded into 3 railway trucks at the Karoom siding and then taken over the bridge to Paringa. A pump, hoses and 3 reels of cable were taken. A 3 phase outlet was installed on a pole on the Murtho road corner. # Upton tankers would be waiting and it was a full days work. Bob had to fill out all the dockets etc. He said there was a lot of wine transferred during the flood period.
More recollections from Bob
Rail trucks to Paringa in 1956 flood.
3 trucks, two with 52 casks on end and one with 50 casks on end and a transfer pump. Wine hoses on top of casks. 154x65 gallons=10,010 Galls.
Herman Wierenga made a sliding platform with legs and pump moved onto this so a cask be laid down to pump out the wine. Had much trouble with the bung-puller screws. Had to file each side of screw to fit recess in the bung-puller.
The crew would leave the winery in the morning and travel to the Paringa siding where the road tankers were waiting. The extension reels from the cement gang were used to connect to the power outlet on an ETSA pole.
It was full days work leaving the winery, traveling to Renmark, boarding the trucks to cross the river to Paringa. Next was the setting up the equipment and then the pumping of the wine from the barrels to the two tankers and then recording all the details of the day and the crew would arrive back at the winery often in the dark. Two Road Tankers each week! 10,000 gallons (45,000 litres).
Bob recalls that it was a week's work to prepare each shipment of three rail trucks. Question is for how many weeks did this occur!!!!
Barrels to be washed, sterilised, stencilled and tare weighed. Barrels then filled and left overnight to check for any leaks. Then weighed, stencilled and transported over the Sturt Highway to the Karoom Siding. Bob cannot recall how many trips and I will have to research.
No. 1 Cellar in 1956. Jack Sharpe foreman with Val Rice and Bert Berriman. Bert did the additions to the skin tanks and runoff tanks.
Bill Strother in store. Thought Bill Kidman may have spent some time assisting Bill S.
Dudley Milton took over from Bill S.. Uncle of Ian McKenzie. Ron Poulton followed after Dudley Milton.
No. 9 Crusher had been installed and one day they heard this noise and found that the crusher was operating. "Will have get Jack Grgic to check this out" said Bob. Some 30-40 minutes after this they heard the crusher operating again. They then established my eldest son Randall was sneaking over and switching on the crusher.
Bob made a suggestion to Ian McKenzie to leave the drained Gordo marc overnight in the Miller drainers that were operating for the 1976 vintage. This partially fermented overnight and then could establish a core in short barreled press. Bob also suggested they pump direct to the Rosenblad Spiraflow (supplied by Alfa-Laval) heat exchanger rather than via skin tanks to save the manual mixing task. That system was succesful for the heat treating of
Grenache and Mataro grapes for grape juice production.
Bob also was in charge of the bottling operation in the Warehouse behind Block 4 and 5.
Johnie Jackson was the truck driver and also the cooper.
Trevor Becker and Wally Stegman were 12 hour shift operators on the Westphalia SAM centrifuge. Bonny Maitland decide to train Mick Ireland as a relief operator. Wally blew his top with Bonny because he thought they would reduce from 12 to 8 hour shifts and he would lose his overtime. Bonny took pity on Wally instead of firing him, since the Stegmans' had 3 young children. Bonny was a very kind person who always looked at end result.
At the time the new Wine Sales outlet was being planned for the lawned area in front of Block 7. Bert Solly had sawn of a lower western limb of the Lemon Scented gum and Bert and Bonny heatedly discussed the situation and the Sales Outlet was moved to the west and the tree is there today in full splendour.
Steven Rowe, Bob's son started at 16 Years(now 40 years) and worked in the Bottling Room 1978-1988.
Other son Bill Rowe took charge of the Bottling Room after Lyle Berry retired. Check with Trevor Clark who is still there.
Bob Rowe retired in July 1992 aged 65.
|
