Southern Vineyards Sketchbook by Bill Walls and V. M. Branson

Southern Vineyards Sketchbook

Drawings by Bill Walls

Text by V. M. Branson

Rigby, 1976, [First Edition], ISBN 0727001221, black and white drawings throughout, landscape hardcover, dustjacket

Very Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, dustjacket shows edge and shelf wear with rubbing, bumping, chipping, tears and small parts missing, (see photographs)

“Connoisseurs of wine both inside and outside Australia have enjoyed wines from the Southern Vineyards of South Australia for well over a century.  Some of Australia’s earliest wines were pressed from grapes matured in the rich soils and climate of these rolling downs.  The vineyards established by such men as Thomas Hardy, known as the father of the South Australian wine industry, have now become living history.  Their cool cellars, redolent with the aroma of decades of fine vintages, their neat long-established rows of vines, and their fine buildings of local stone are memorials to generations of winegrowers.  Charles Kelly, John and Walter Reynell, and many others founded wineries of which some are still run by their descendants.  Other wineries were taken over and have prospered under different management, and in recent years a number of European settlers have added their traditional skills to the expertise of local winemakers.  The flow of fine wines from the serenely beautiful countryside has increased steadily during the past quarter-century and the produce of the Southern Vales is acclaimed throughout Australia.  In this book V. M. Branson tells the colourful stories of the establishment and development of a number of the wineries both old and new.  His text is illustrated by twenty-nine splendid full-page drawings specially commissioned from the local artist Bill Walls.”