Rathbone winery wins ‘dream’ Jimmy Watson trophy

Businessman Doug Rathbone has won the Jimmy Watson trophy for Australia’s best young red wine.

Rathbone Wine group chairman Doug Rathbone. Picture: Aaron Francis

It’s a prize businessman Doug Rathbone never dared hope he would hold in his hands.

But yesterday the dreams of Mr Rathbone, founder and former head of multinational chemical company Nufarm, came true, when the venerated Jimmy Watson trophy for Australia’s best young red wine was awarded to a 2016 cabernet sauvignon from his West Australian winery at Margaret River Xanadu.

It’s been a long journey for Mr Rathbone and his son Darren since Rathbone Wine Group was founded in 1994 with the $4 million purchase of a small Yarra ­Valley tomato farm turned ­vineyard that most of his agribusiness friends viewed as a semi-retirement indulgence.

“I was busy at Nufarm, Darren had just got his chemical engineering degree and wanted a winery to go with our little vineyard, and I was saying, ‘slow down, this is too big to be a hobby but too small to be an agribusiness — what are we doing?’ ” a euphoric Mr Rathbone recalled yesterday.

“Then 4 acres of vines at ­(nearby) Yering Station came up for sale on what was really a cattle ­station with a strong wine ­heritage going back to the 1830s, and I could see it could be the ­beginning of building something much ­bigger.”

In the intervening 20 years, Rathbone Wine Group has grown into a serious industry player through the establishment of its Yering Station vineyard, winery and restaurant in the Yarra Valley, the acquisition of the Langi Ghiran vineyard and winery near Victoria’s Grampians in 2003, and Margaret River vineyard and winery Xanadu in 2005.

It now has 350 hectares of vineyards in two states, annual wine sales of more than $45m, sells 220,000 dozens of premium quality wine every year — 40 per cent overseas — and is growing at a rate of 10 per cent a year.

China is a fast-growing market, taking half its premium quality wine exports. Mr Rathbone is ­certain the win by Xanadu’s 2016 cabernet sauvignon will only grow his prestige brand presence.

The phone has already started ringing since the Jimmy Watson award was announced on Thursday night, with keen — and big — prospective orders for the winning Xanadu red wine, which retails for about $39 a bottle.

But given its young age, chief Xanadu winemaker Glenn Goodall said the 2016 vintage wasn’t even officially available yet. Its older sister, the 2014 black label “cab sav”, was now being released while the 2015 was still to come.

“I’m still pinching myself. It’s like winning the (AFL) Brownlow Medal,” Mr Goodall said yesterday at the traditional after-award celebration at Melbourne’s oldest wine bar, which, like the top wine award, bears the name of its owner, the legendary late Jimmy Watson.

“This is not just a win for me and Xanadu but a win for everyone who grows and makes wine in Margs (Margaret River). Personally, while it’s a very good wine, I think the 2017 is even better.”