David Morris
STAYING POWER
David Morris is a fifth-generation winemaker in one of Australia’s oldest winemaking families, skillfully fermenting and blending to create great wines of the world.
Flush with cash from the goldfields, David’s great-great-grandfather, George Francis Morris, established a vineyard and winery in 1859 in Rutherglen. Less than 30 years later, he was the biggest wine producer in the Southern Hemisphere, renowned for fortified wines. Today the winery is on a different property, but the winemaking tradition continues. As the current custodian, David has taken wine quality to a new level, producing everything from vibrant sparkling styles to rich fortified wines.
At the forefront of fortified wine
With four generations of winemakers before him, winemaking is in David’s blood. He had other interests when he was young, but “somehow the magnetic force of the wine industry kept pulling me to it,” he says.
David has been chief winemaker of Morris Wines in Rutherglen since his father retired in the early 1990s. He’s become known as one of the world’s best fortified winemakers, building his name on his remarkable wines, including Muscat, Topaque and Tawny.
“The Topaque’s are not really made anywhere else in the world in the style that we make them,” says David. “With the Muscat’s, our styles seem to have more freshness than I’ve seen from other styles around the world.”
What makes these wines so special is their age and David’s skill in blending. They’re typically a blend of new and old wine, and some have been aged for many decades.
“In the fortified game in particular, you’re working with a lot of wines that past generations have made,” says David. “You’ve got to blend theirs in judiciously because there’s not a lot left. But by the same token, I’ve got to look after and leave wines that the following generations can use to make great wines of the world hopefully.”
David’s winemaking extends beyond fortified, and he says visitors are surprised by the diversity at Morris Wines and in the Rutherglen wine region more broadly. He also produces sparkling and tables wines – including Durif, a full-flavoured red that Morris Wines helped pioneer in Australia in the early 1900s.
Now, with David’s son Madden an up-and-coming winemaker, the family tradition is set to continue for a sixth generation.
“I inherited a cellar full of great wines, and I just hope that my legacy can be a cellar full of great wines for the next generation to use,” says David.
“I’ve got to look after and leave wines that the following generations can use to make great wines of the world hopefully.” – David Morris
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