A VIGNERON ABROAD – TRIP TO SOUTH AFRICA

A rare 33pp. booklet, reprinted from The South Australian Register.   Written by Thomas Hardy (no relation to the novelist), the “Father of the South Australian Wine Industry” about his trip to South Africa in the late eighteen hundreds, largely to explore the Cape wine industry and then, on his way home, that of France, Tunisia and England. In the Cape he spends some time with the Cloete’s of Groot Constantia and discusses their vineyards and wines in considerable detail. An early South African and Australian wine item. Not in SABIB and the only copy that I can trace is in the National Library of Australia.

Condition: In the original printed beige paper wrappers. Some fraying and a few small chips and some minor stains with the front wrapper and the attached title page having come adrift from the rest of the booklet, but can be easily reattached.

Thomas Hardy (14 January 1830 – 10 January 1912) was a winemaker in the McLaren Vale, South Australia. He has been called the "Father of the South Australian Wine Industry". He was born in Devon, England but emigrated to Australia in 1850. In 1853 he purchased a property of 46 acres  on the River Torrens which he called "Bankside", now Underdale, near the present Hardys Road. In 1854 he planted 2 acres  of fruit trees, mainly oranges, and 0.75 acres  of Shiraz vines which he enlarged in 1856, then added an acre of Muscatel table grapes in 1861. He made his first wine in 1857 and exported two hogsheads to England in 1859, one of the first exports of wine from South Australia. By 1863 his vineyards covered 35 acres of Grenache, Mataro, Muscat, Roussillon, Shiraz and Zante grapes. He also purchased grapes from other vignerons in the Adelaide area. By 1879 his vintage had reached 27,000 gallons (100,000 litres). By 1893, his firm, Thomas Hardy and Sons was South Australia's largest wine producer. He published two books, Notes on Vineyards in America and Europe (1885) and A Vigneron Abroad, Trip to South Africa (1899). Both are rare in first edition. Only the first title has been reprinted (in 1994) and the book on offer is possibly unique in private hands. Adelaide, 1899.