A time for change for fourth-generation winemaker

The Purbrick family has owned Tahbilk, nestled among the naturally beautiful Goulburn River and Nagambie lakes, since 1925.

A family member running it since 1931, successfully guiding it through those challenges.

Four generations, starting with Reginald’s purchase, sight-unseen, from England in 1925, to his son Eric, who in the midst of the Great Depression gave up a law degree to run the business, John, who shifted emphasis to marketing, and then Alister, the family’s first formally trained winemaker.

For the first time in almost 100 years, though, Victoria’s oldest family-owned winery is to be led by someone other than a Purbrick.

With the resignation of Alister Purbrick as chief executive, a new surname will assume management of the group.

Former Reject Shop chief executive and Anaconda boss Ross Sudano has been appointed to oversee all group activities moving forward.

Mr Purbrick said he would have liked another generation, a fifth, of the family to replace him, but that the timing was not right.

“We’ve got a whole lot of talented next gens (in the family),” he said.

“Most of them are making their way in other industries at the moment, but there’s good crossover, regardless of what the industry is.

“They’re all very engaged, particularly with Tahbilk, and they know what’s going on.

“We meet every year and give them a full brief, the good and the bad, and the beautiful, so yes, I think a number of leaders are going to emerge from that.”

Mr Purbrick’s rise to management of the group was, itself, a surprise to the family when it occurred, not least to himself.

“At the Christmas party in December of 1978, Dad (John) announced to the family, to grandfather (Eric), myself, mum, and the other staff members, who were literally sort of family as well ... so it was probably about 10 people in all Dad announced that he was moving to Sydney early in 1979 and was going to start up a sales arm,” Mr Purbrick said.

“The thing is, though, he hadn't told grandfather, he hadn't told mum, he hadn't told me, he hadn't told any of the staff, so when that message had been delivered, and there was a protracted period of silence as everyone absorbed what had been said, then our vineyard manager at the time, Ron Brian said, ‘John, if, if you're gonna go to Sydney and start up this sales operation, who’s going to run Tahbilk?’

“He just said, ‘Alister’. So I was 25 (years old). No succession planning or issues with, you know, with multi-generational family hand overs, he basically just handed it to me and off we went.”

Mr Purbrick said he had his wine-making training behind him, but in terms of business management, was a “babe in the woods”.

It forced him to draw upon the wisdom of his grandfather, Eric, to a great extent, with a strong bond growing from it.

“At that stage, he was 70-75. So very experienced, and very well known in the industry,” Mr Purbrick said.

“I ended up having, in the end, an incredibly close relationship with Grandfather, who had been a bit of a distant figure because of the style of the times in the past, so I was very lucky to have then about 12 years with him before he passed away.”

Mr Purbrick said that relationship with his grandfather was crucial to the winery still being in family hands today and a member of Australia’s First Families of Wine, a prestigious group of family-owned wineries.

“Oh, absolutely key,” Mr Purbrick said.

“I think if he, let’s say, if he passed away and wasn’t around and dad still went and did his Sydney sales jaunt, and then I was just left as a 25-year-old to do whatever I wanted to do, I don’t think this place would be Purbrick family-owned now.

“Yes, Grandfather was, really strong support and a very wise counsel.

“Oh, yes. He loved me. Yes, we formed a really close bond.”

Tahbilk’s innovation and diversity has helped the business overcome the major challenges it has faced.

Each generation of the Purbricks have made their own brave decisions, including Reginald’s purchase of the property without inspecting it.

In the 1930s, Eric shifted the business focus away from fortified wine, beer and spirits, which were commonly consumed in the colonies at that time, to European-style table wines.

In the 1970s there was John’s Sydney expansion and his decision to hand the reins to Alister.

Now a diversified business with its wine club, Wetlands View Restaurant, Indigenous flora trail and impressive historic cellars, Tahbilk is well positioned for the future challenges that lay ahead, according to Mr Purbrick, including climate change.

“All of the group companies, as of the end of next year, every company will be net zero emissions, which is great,” he said.

“You can only move on and look to the future with an eye on sustainability in the environment. You’ve got no choice.”

Who of the next Purbrick generations that major challenge falls to is unknown, but one thing is certain, they will have their own brave calls to make, and several generations that came before, not to mention the ones that follow, hoping they make the right calls.