When wine came to Waite

Walking through the Waite Agricultural Research precinct is a bit like a stroll through a garden. Students flit between the world-class facilities like bees in search of pollen. There’s plenty to explore and the potential for cross-pollination of knowledge is priceless.

The 184-hectare patch is home to the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), the Waite campus library, South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the University’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, a part of which has an impressive winery (Hickinbotham Roseworthy Wine Science Laboratory).

The site has been a hive of winemaking activity since Roseworthy Agricultural College merged with the University of Adelaide in 1991, after a rationalisation of tertiary education institutions nationally. Suddenly, a short bus ride was all it took to reach science and sensory lessons at Urrbrae in Adelaide’s foothills, rather than the 50-minute drive to Roseworthy.

This longer drive is a journey Revenir winemaker and director Peter Leske remembers well.

“I literally grew up at Roseworthy,” Peter says. “My dad was an agricultural economist and was on the board of management of the Roseworthy winery. We lived in one of the staff houses. As kids, we’d ride our bicycles to the winery and explore.”

Roseworthy was established in 1883 and was the first agricultural college in Australia. By the time Peter attended as a student in 1981 (at the tender age of 17) and graduated in 1983, the facilities were starting to wear. He has fond memories of sensory lessons and the collegiate nature of Roseworthy, but says the move was ultimately positive.

“I have an emotional connection to Roseworthy because I grew up there and I loved the place, but there were several advantages to moving to the Waite campus,” Peter says. “The winery at Roseworthy was dated and needed rejuvenation, and the vineyard there was pretty ordinary.

“Moving to an urban-based location made it so much easier for more people to be involved, and as a result, they collected more students. The investment they could attract by putting it up at Waite campus was also significant, so it’s a much better facility and position to be in.”

Winemaker Louisa Rose agrees. The head of sustainability and brand ambassador for Hill Smith Family Wines completed her degree in 1992, after straddling subjects in both Roseworthy and Waite.

“Waite had much more of a community feel to it,” Louise says. “Being in beautiful old buildings they turned into our sensory space was an absolute treat. My recollections of tastings in the first year at Roseworthy was doing them in science labs.”

The new facilities were also enjoyed by Peter’s daughter, Georgina Leske, who followed in her father’s footsteps and graduated in 2022.

“The facilities at Waite are amazing,” she says.

“They’ve got three or four different red fermenters you can use for your wine project. I’d never heard of a rotofermenter before. I saw so many things there for the first time. It’s a good spot to be able to learn because there’s a lot of amazing research being done there, and the teachers all put a lot of extra time and effort in.”

These teachers include Associate Professors Sue Bastian and Paul Grbin. Paul is the Head Winemaker at the Hickinbotham Roseworthy Wine Science Laboratory. He graduated from Roseworthy in 1990 and joined the team at Waite as a staff member in 2001.

“I was essentially in their last real, proper cohort before the merger happened,” he says. “The post-grad program has changed considerably. There’s more hands-on winemaking in our postgraduate program now. There was very little when I went through. Winemaking is a complex process and there are lots of scientific disciplines in there. We try to cover all of that.

“You’ve got to learn the practicalities of winemaking as well, which is what this building is all about – picking grapes, processing them, and getting them into a tank.”

Among the crucial but simple advantages of Waite was its square footage.

“The setup at Roseworthy was all there but it was quite tight in space. We’re more hands on than we used to be at Roseworthy because there are more facilities,” Paul says.

“We certainly wouldn’t have been able to cope with the number of students that we have now. We had our largest ever cohort in the winery in 2023. It was more than 100.”

It’s all good news for students.

“The industry has grown in terms of product availability,” Paul says. “There’s more variety. When I went through my education, no one was really doing Sauvignon Blanc; it was all about super oaky Chardonnay. The grape varieties and wine styles of today make it more exciting.”

Graduates of Waite will tell you Paul and his peers are an essential part of the oenology program’s success.

“They’re not just great scientists, they’ll do anything for students,” Louise says. “That’s one of the key things about Waite, just how above and beyond academics go to make students feel special and make sure they’re getting what they need.”

And their support doesn’t stop when a student’s final year ends.

“Wine networks come out of it for alumni,” Louise says. “It’s much more than a job for them. They put their whole heart into it, and it rubs off all over the world.

International and interstate students return to where they came from and pollinate the rest of the world.”

Written by Katie Spain

Photography by University of Adelaide Archives and Kelsey Zafiridis