I was saddened last week to hear about the death of Highfields winemaker and avid conservationist, Don McLean. Though I didn’t know Don well, he struck me as a likeable sort of bloke, happy and quick to smile, always ready to disarm someone with his cheeky sense of humour. Don was generous too. When I toured his vineyard and interviewed him for a story a couple of years ago, I came away not only brimming with knowledge about growing grapes and the winemaking process, but sporting two bottles of Highfields finest to boot. It was an unexpected gesture from a really genuine person.
In the brief time that I knew him, I learnt a few worthwhile lessons from Don. One was to care deeply about your place in the world. On one of my visits to Highfields Wines, Don took me on a tour of the property where he shared openly about his love for the land and his determination to care for it.
He told me about the indigenous history of the Cawdor district, pointing out landmarks where the first inhabitants conducted ceremonies and showing me sites on the property where artefacts had been found. Don showed me the property’s permanent creek and natural waterfall which is believed to be a campsite on one of the trails used by Aboriginal tribes travelling to the Bunya Mountains for the great bunya nut feasts. He showed me parts of the property gradually being revegetated using native plants, and we even stopped to check out a rare native crinum, blooming for the first time in years thanks to good summer rain.
Don introduced me to a little known gem of a place called Franke Scrub, a pocket of dry rainforest in a gully adjoining his property that is untouched by bushfire or the logger’s chainsaw. Franke Scrub is a remnant of the forest that covered much of the escarpment prior to suburban development and contains an unusually diverse mix of rare and endangered plants and native fauna. I was left with no doubt that Don was determined to see the scrub protected, despite plans at the time to build a new road smack through the middle of it.
Another thing I learnt from Don was the importance of looking after your soil. Highfields Wines is one of just a handful of unirrigated vineyards in Australia. When Don planted the first vines in 1998, he defied conventional practice at the time by purchasing plants grafted onto a drought resistant rootstock, planting the vines into ground that was deep ripped to half a metre, watering just once upon planting, and then covering the soil with mulch. Not a single vine from this first planting was lost. Don conceded that 1998 was wet, but suggested that ongoing success through severe drought was due to the vines’ extensive root system and the continually increasing capacity of the soil to store moisture.
This kind of careful husbandry has benefits for the winemaker and the drinker too. By growing vines without irrigation Don was able to produce fruit of intense flavour, and through the application of animal manures and blood and bone rather than synthetic urea, he managed to make what he described as “hangover free wine”. Studies have subsequently shown a link between urea, and the headaches some people get as a result of drinking wine.
A trendy word to describe Don’s approach to winemaking would be “holistic”. I think he was probably more pragmatic than that, preferring to see it simply as common sense: for the land to sustain future generations, it has to be carefully nurtured, not abused. In other words, you reap what you sow.
The final thing I learnt from Don, was that it’s okay, even necessary sometimes, to adopt a DIY approach to life. Don had a background in agricultural science, but as a winemaker, he was completely self-taught. He joked that his winemaking consultant was his partner Alison, and that he relied on old fashioned techniques like testing out his own product. “We rely on taste, smell and sight to produce our wines, not a computer,” Don told me. His approach proved to be both sustainable and successful.
I offer my sincere condolences to Don McLean’s family and friends. No doubt he will be sorely missed, and I’m thankful that I got to meet Don, and learn something from his determined approach to life.
First published in the Toowoomba Chronicle, 22nd May 2010. Photo by Justin Russell – Don in his vineyard.
