A toast to a man of taste

That was his initiation as a published writer; he then went on to write the widely acclaimed Cellarmaster column for the Bulletin magazine and then his witty Indulgence page for The Australian, interspersed with regular television appearances (including an ABC program he and I shared for five years with Jackie Weaver, Noelene Brown, Peter Lazar and the late Frank Hardy and Cyril Pearl called Would You Believe 30 or so years ago.

It was his sense of style, a remarkable palate, an incredible memory, a restless energy, a highly competitive streak (which was never diminished when competing with family and friends at anything from cards to croquet) and a commitment to his vision of the future that combined to make this multi-talented man such a leader.

When he first became professionally involved with wine, 46 years ago, it was as assistant beverage manager at the Chevron hotel at Kings Cross. There he developed Sydney’s best wine cellar, impressing visiting celebrities with bottles that belied Australia’s reputation for focusing on fortified wines like ports and sherries and producing indifferent table wines.

In those days Australia’s total wine production was no more than 150 million litres of which just under half was fortified. Production has now multiplied 10-fold, all due to table wine: fortifieds have been cut by two thirds. Wine has become a major export earner at more than $3 billion a year.

The role of Len Evans in this success cannot be overstated; he is recognised overseas as the Godfather of Australian wine, becoming Master of Ceremonies at the international wine showpiece in New York, the annual Wine Spectator magazine’s Wine Experience. Founding director of the Australian Wine Bureau, chairman of judging at the major Australian wine shows for many years and recognised as a world figure in wine, with leading wine institutions sending their brighter prospects to Australia to be mentored by Len Evans. This role as an educator (in which his renowned options game played such a part) was a key element in his advancing the status of Australian wine - and an appreciation of the world’s best.

But in our international trade, the latest trend has been away from quality, with the average export price per litre down from its peak of $4.76 five years ago to only $3.80, as an increasing proportion of exports is now made up of bulk wines rather than premium bottlings. This is not the sort of quality that Evans would countenance; his single bottle club dinners involved some of the world’s most historic (and expensive!) wines. This was self-indulgence with a purpose: to seek excellence and store the memory of it in order to be able to make better relative judgments about quality in the future.

Len Evans would have turned 76 next week. In the first edition in 1973 of his complete book on Australian and New Zealand wine, he said he became interested in wine, women and golf aged 14, but that now he had little time for golf. His birthdays were great excuses not just for a party, but for a spectacular celebration.

His 70th in 2000 saw Len and his wife Trish dressed as a very convincing Napoleon and Josephine; at his 75th he drank premier cru Bordeaux from the great 1929 vintage, the year in which he was (only just) conceived rather than the poor quality vintage of his birth year, 1930. Instead, next month, as the newspaper funeral notice stated, there will be a different party to celebrate his life - but a party nevertheless. It will be top quality.