Brian Croser has been an innovator in the Australian wine industry for 40 years and most of us know him for his fabulous Pelauma and Croser wines. ,. Educated at the University of Adelaide, (of which he was Deputy Chancellor for 8 years,) and at the University of California at Davis, Croser was involved in the establishment of the Charles Sturt Wine Science degree in Wagga Wagga and in the establishment of Australian wine industry institutions through the 1970’s and 80’s.Brian and Ann Croser began Petaluma in 1976, which is recognised as Australia’s leading exponent of terroir driven wines. Croser exactingly matched varieties to regions and meticulously managed the vines in Petaluma’s “distinguished site” vineyards in Clare, the Adelaide Hills and at Coonawarra for 27 years. Croser pioneered the development of the Adelaide Hills viticultural region, planting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and establishing the Petaluma winery in the Piccadilly Valley from 1978 and Shiraz and Viognier at Mt Barker from the early 90’s. In the mid 80’s the purchase and renovation of the historic Bridgewater Mill provided a home for Croser, the eponymous premium sparkling wine made from fruit from the Piccadilly Valley, first released in 1987.The Croser family owns the original vineyard of the modern Adelaide Hills wine industry, the Tiers Vineyard, an Australian Chardonnay distinguished site now being progressively replanted on very close spacing with new Chardonnay clones on rootstocks.With Rollin Soles, Croser established Argyle winery in Oregon in 1985 and the Croser family are currently establishing Tunkalilla Vineyard, a Riesling and Pinot Noir vineyard in the Eola Hills just north of Salem in Oregon.Committed to the research and development of new “distinguished sites” for specific varieties, Croser and his family have developed a Pinot Noir Vineyard at the cool, foggy apex of the Fleurieu Peninsula at Parawa, 300 meters above and just 8 kilometres north of the Great Southern Ocean.
1) You are undoubtedly famous and perhaps best known in Australia and internationally for pioneering viticulturein the cool climate terroir of the Adelaide Hills and the establishment of the iconic brands Petaluma and Croser. How did your interest in cool climate viticulture in the Adelaide Hills come about?
In my final year of Agricultural Science in 1970, I studied malic acid metabolism in grapes. From this research paper and the many references read it was obvious most Australian wine regions of the time were challenged by their hot climates and that potentially better and different wines would be made from cooler climates in Australia. It was also obvious that early ripening varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Gewurztraminer actually required cool climates to achieve quality. These varieties were just becoming available in Australia at that time and there was much speculation about their market relevance and where they should be grown.
In 1972/73 I studied winemaking and viticulture at the University of California at Davis and my belief in cool climate superiority for fine wines was reinforced by the application of the Winkler regional temperature summation system and by the quality and style of the emerging wines from Sonoma, Carneros, Monterey and other cooler Californian sites.
On my return to Australia, my conviction that cool climates made better wines and especially from early ripening varieties was confirmed by the initial results my employer, Thomas Hardy and Sons, was achieving with Riesling, Cabernet and Shiraz in the new region of Padthaway and the continued success of Coonawarra reds at the wine shows. Rieslings from Eden Valley were much better than wines from the Barossa floor and McLaren Vale in the Siegersdorf winery where I made wine in the mid 1970’s.
