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Winemaker of the year 2008 finalist: Chester Osborn

Chester Osborn is one of the most creative, imaginative and charismatic winemakers in Australia. His free spirit and joie de vivre have inspired a generation of wine people. His positive energy, business acumen and dedication have propelled d’Arenberg from a sleepy flagon-wine producer to one of the most successful family wine businesses in the world. This has been achieved by building on the hard work of father d’Arry Osborn and applying innovative and thoughtful ideas to viticulture, winemaking and marketing.

Chester Osborn’s career was predestined. At age two he was told by his mother he would be an “inventive winemaker”. At seven he was asked by Len Evans what type of wine he would make. “A yummy one,” he replied. At Roseworthy College – which he describes as like “attending art school without canvas and paintbrush” – he was a motivated student, intellectual dreamer and legendary party animal. His thesis was on tannin management, about 10 years before it became a popular issue. It has been a central theme of d’Arenberg’s winemaking practice ever since.

Osborn’s frenetic travels around Europe sparked a love of flowery wines with mineral elegance, which has evolved into a lifelong pursuit. On the road, Osborn is as high-voltage as a rock star, but in the winery the tempo turns to introspection and creative thought.

Winemaking philosophy at Osborn’s d’Arenberg has developed from the traditional ideas of the 1940s and ’50s. The use of small headed-down, open fermenters has been a long-standing practice (in 1984 there were 17, now there are 160). However, almost every other technique has been modified or changed to reduce the mechanical breakdown of fruit and over-extraction of phenolics.

Floweriness, minerality and long tannins, together with subtle French oak characters, are central to the d’Arenberg house style. Osborn says: “I am particularly interested in the tannin quality as it is profoundly linked to flavour profile and the nuances of individual vineyard site. There are many different tannin characters – muscular, chalky, crunchy, iron-like, sooty and earthy. It is these elements, blended and layered, that bring a seamless and evocative soil character to our wines.”

It is a combination of the practical, technical and whimsical that makes Osborn such an interesting and highly individual winemaker. He is open to all ideas: playing with basket pressing white grapes, experimenting with stainless-steel barrels and “surfing the reductive wave” are all serious innovations to improve and differentiate d’Arenberg wines.

Osborn has also invested significantly in vineyard management and is passionate about his dry-growing philosophy. You only have to see the vineyards (many 50-120 years old) to understand how his philosophies affect the excellent physical condition of the vines.

The d’Arenberg range of wine is extraordinary and covers almost every varietal expression. The packaging and labelling with its distinctive red stripe – first designed in the late 1950s – was revolutionary at the time but is an enduring symbol of family identity. The addition of evocative nomenclature, such as The Dead Arm and The Hermit Crab, beside varietal labelling was visionary.

Osborn’s wines have an individual voice that resonates across the undulating and peaceful landscape of McLaren Vale. The Dead Arm Shiraz is a remarkable grand vin type of wine with an energy, volume, texture and fruit sweetness built for the long haul. It has deservedly become a beacon of the McLaren Vale shiraz genre. A multitude of other red and white wines – including some more recently from the Adelaide Hills – illustrate the considerable flair and generosity that is the d’Arenberg experience.

Osborn is a renaissance man. His love of people and the structural extends to architecture and figurative and abstract art. Diversity of interest, personal conviction and leadership make Chester Osborn one of our great  winemakers.

WORDS ANDREW CAILLARD PHOTOGRAPHY D'ARENBERG

This article appeared in the June/July 2008 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.