Heard it on the grapevine: Ben Glaetzer

We all know about Max Shubert, the creator of Grange.  Most people have heard of Peter Lehmann, Vanya Cullen and their contemporaries.  But what are the names we should be watching now....

Ben Glaetzer:  There aren't many Australian winemakers who can claim to have made areni in its native homeland of Armenia. But Ben Glaetzer has. And he was only 21 at the time.

In 1999 Glaetzer was assigned to work in Armenia for about three months.  The areni was a rather ordinary variety, and he also had to cope with sub-standard conditions whilst teaching the local winemaker and workers, more accustomed to the distillery process in brandy making, about producing table wines.  He politely describes the experience as a 'challenge', particularly as he later needed body-guards with high-powered weapons for protection from the Russian mafia and other dodgy types wanting to sell their equally dodgy fruit.

These days, Glaetzer, 28, is leading a less dangerous but no less exciting life, spending up to four months year travelling the world promoting his wines, of which there are several: the impressive Glaetzer wines, including Amon-Ra, his dedication to Barossa shiraz, and Godolphin, a shiraz-cabernet blend he’s been perfecting blending for about six years; and Heartland wines.. Plus he's a director/winemaker at Barossa Vintners, best described as a mega-business with a handful of other partners.  It's exhausting just trying ton keep up with this bloke.

"The ultimate promoter, Murray Tyrrell, taught me to make whatever you want, package it well but make sure you sell it.  If you can't sell your wine then you have nothing.  I worked for him (in the late 1990s) and he knew how to run a business".  More than anything, regionality is what Glaetzer wants his legacy to be on the world's vinous stage.

"There is more to Australia than generic chardonnay, there are different regions and varieties and I want people (in overseas markets) to understand those regional differences.  That the Barossa has 25 or so sub-regions and they're all different.  It's starting to happen but it's going to take a long time."