Richard Angove
AHEAD OF THE CURVE
The fifth generation in the Angove wine family, Richard Angove is continuing the family’s legacy through his passion for sustainability and thinking outside the square.
In South Australia’s dynamic McLaren Vale wine region, Angove Family Winemakers has been crafting full-flavoured wines for well over a century. But although he comes from a long line of winemakers, Richard wasn’t interested in wine. He was more passionate about working ski seasons – until he worked a vintage in a winery and realised maybe there was something to it after all.
Sustaining a legacy
After studying winemaking, Richard took flight, working as a flying winemaker around the world for eight years. In 2007 he was the top student in the Australian Wine Research Institute’s Advanced Wine assessment course and the following year he joined the family business in McLaren Vale, working in winemaking, sales and marketing.
In 2017, Richard became joint Managing Director with his older sister Victoria. His job description is a diverse one.
“One day I might be in the vineyard looking at grapes, the next day I might be on a plane going to do a wine dinner in another capital city,” he says. “That’s really the fun part about it – no day is the same.”
One of the areas Richard is most passionate about is sustainability.
“Being a fifth-generation wine family, we’re really interested in making sure that we hand the vineyards and the business to our children better than they are today,” he says. “So sustainability is important, and organic viticulture and winemaking is a component of that.”
Managing the vineyards organically means no artificial herbicides, pesticides or fertilisers. It also means coming up with some creative solutions. These include a recent trial involving a group of micro fruit bats that eat pest insects in the vineyard at night. Richard and the team are also using the services of a flock of snail-loving ducks.
“They’re beautiful Indian Runner ducks, and they eat snails like you've never seen before in your life,” says Richard. “They’ve done a fantastic job at reducing the snail population in our vineyards, so that’s been fun to see.”
With Richard and his two sisters, Victoria and Sophie, now at the helm of Angove Family Winemakers, the future’s looking bright for this long-running family business.
“I think the best wines that we’re going to make are still ahead of us,” says Richard.
“Being a fifth-generation wine family, we’re really interested in making sure that we hand the vineyards and the business to our children better than they are today.” – Richard Angove
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