Angelo arrived with Elvis Presley sideburns and a confident swagger to silence his critics

Forty-five since his first gold medal 45 years ago, the father of the Queensland wine industry returns to the Ekka this week to present the trophy bearing his name. His passion for his craft changed Queensland’s industry and culture forever.

ANGELO and Mary Puglisi go back to the Ekka on Friday morning to where they were presented their first winemaking gold medal 45 years ago.

That triumph marked a turning point in the history of Queensland winemaking.

Ballandean wine maker Angelo and Mary Puglisi in The Courier-Mail in 1974.

An impoverished vegetable grower who survived the hard times on rabbits, had transformed himself into a vintner.

A grainy black-and-white photo published on the front page of The Courier-Mail on July 20, 1974, captured the mood.

The picture shows a suave young man with a rich crop of wavy dark hair. And he was wearing what his daughter Robyn Puglisi-Henderson said were Elvis Presley sideburns. She could detect her father’s confident swagger.

Angelo’s “attitude”, as she describes it, is shown in the tilt of his head and the victorious smirk.

Puglisi once told me that his neighbours warned him his winemaking venture would fail because only “wogs” drank wine in Queensland.

He believed otherwise.

Puglisi-Henderson said that her father had little formal training in winemaking, but he saw the possibilities after visiting German and Italian winemakers in the Barossa Valley and the Hunter Valley.

He also studied winemaking in Mildura and Griffith.

Ballandean Estate winemaker Dylan Rhymer and Robyn Puglisi-Henderson.

Our front-page pic does not show that Puglisi was sporting an adventurous mauve safari suite, one of the more bizarre fashion statements of the times.

“Sometimes I also wore bell bottoms,’’ said Puglisi, who will be 76 in two weeks. “And we went through a period where we all wore pointy toe shoes.”

Puglisi says he won’t be wearing the pointy shoes today when he presents the Angelo Puglisi Grand Champion Wine of Show.

It will be a perpetual acknowledgment to Puglisi’s influence and respect in the industry. He says it is an honour for him and his family and the Queensland winemaking fraternity.

The Royal National Association, as the Ekka is officially known, says it is a fitting honour for “the father of the Queensland wine industry”.

Angelo Puglisi with his 50-year-old Shiraz vines.

Wine fashions changed, too. Although the Puglisi family’s Ballandean Estate is anchored in traditional styles and varieties, it has had remarkable success in looking over the horizon to plant “strange bird” varietals.

Ballandean Estate now crushes 19 different varieties or grapes.

They are grown on the Sundown Road home blocks and the family’s ever-expanding Belleview vineyard 4km away in the Granite Belt high country. Belleview has been recently expanded again, with more shiraz vines planted to keep up with the booming sales to China.

It’s there that Ballandean Estate is having success with the classical southern-Italian variety Fiano, a richly textured wine with aromas of herbs and hazelnuts ahead of a palate of creamy apricot, pear and lime. The Granite Belt meets Campania in a bottle that may redefine summer quaffing in Queensland.

Puglisi-Henderson said her father showed his hand in 1971 when five 1000-gallon (3785-litre) barrels rolled down the main street of Stanthorpe on two trucks en route to Ballandean.

For a moment, the street was blocked. Townsfolk gazed in amazement.

Puglisi-Henderson said it was a declaration that her father was determined to start something big.

“He was saying, from now on, I’m doing something different.”

Vintners had previously made wine from table grapes.

The cover of Tom McSweeny's book, Angelo Puglisi: The Father of the Queensland's Wine Industry by Boolarong Press.

Puglisi’s life story is detailed in Tom McSweeny’s new book Angelo Puglisi: The Father of the Queensland Wine Industry. (Boolarong Press).

Lawrence “The Borg” Springborg spoke with affection for the Puglisi family in the forward.

“The culture, spirit and personality of the Granite Belt is perfectly personified by the character of Angelo Puglisi,” Springborg, the former LNP leader, said.

“His history is a blended tapestry of rich Italian and contemporary Australian heritage; his experiences have shaped and moulded him. These experiences of generational rich family values and the commodity of hard work and reward have made for literally, a larger than life character; someone you enjoy being around, a friendly and advisory person with a booming voice and a wit that is sharp and humorous.”

The Borg made special mention of Puglisi’s annual Opera in the Vineyard charity event.

In three months, Ballandean Estate’s chief winemaker Dylan Rhymer will release the first bottles of shiraz from vines on the Opera Block planted 50 years ago. And the winery recently released its 30 edition of its popular “classic dry white”, a blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc.

Meanwhile, another Italian varietal called malvasia (pronounced malh-vah-ZEE-ah) is selling fast.

And there are plans to release a new rose-style quaffer made entirely from cabernet franc.