Educated at the University of Adelaide, where he was later Deputy Chancellor for eight years, and at the University of California at Davis, Brian was involved in establishing the Charles Sturt Wine Science degree in Wagga Wagga as well as many of the major Australian wine industry institutions through the 1970s and ‘80s.
Brian and Ann Croser began Petaluma in 1976 and set about exactingly matching varieties to regions and meticulously managing for 27 years the vines in Petaluma’s “Distinguished Site” vineyards in Clare, the Adelaide Hills and at Coonawarra.
Considered one of Australia’s leading exponents of terroir-driven wines, he pioneered the development of the Adelaide Hills viticultural region, planting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and establishing the Petaluma winery in the Piccadilly Valley from 1978. This was followed by Shiraz and Viognier at Mt Barker from the early ’90s.
In the mid 1980’s the purchase and renovation of the historic Bridgewater Mill provided a home for “Croser”, the eponymous premium sparkling wine made from fruit from the Piccadilly Valley, first released in 1987.
During that period, he also established, with Rollin Soles, Argyle winery in Oregon in 1985, then later the Tunkalilla Vineyard, a Riesling and Pinot Noir vineyard in the Eola Hills just north of Salem in Oregon.
He has been the President of the Winemakers Federation of Australia, a founding board member of Wine Australia, the Chairman of Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra (The National) and Perth wine shows and has received numerous awards for service to the Australian wine industry including the prestigious Maurice O’Shea award, an Honorary Doctorate from Charles Sturt University and a Doctor of the University of Adelaide in July of 2007.
In 2004 Brian was named “Man of the Year” by Decanter magazine. He also has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his contribution to research and education and for service to the Australian wine industry.
Brian loves to write, informed by his passion for his profession and is often published in leading global wine publications.
Author: Brian Croser
Source: JancisRobinson.com
Date: Feb 2025
Brian Croser of Tapanappa in the Piccadilly Hills reports on an extraordinarily early – yet promising – harvest. Above, bins of plump, just-picked Pinot Noir.
The word exceptionalism was invented to describe the USA as an economic entity, or at least to describe the way it used to be.
Now the word has morphed to apply to the whim of the weather gods for the 2025 vintage in South Australia.
» Read more about: Harvest report 2025 – South Australia exceptionalism »
Author: Luke Slattery
Source: GoodWeekend - Saturday Age
Date: Dec 2024
Grapes rotting on vines; billions of bottles’ worth of wine sitting in tank farms, wanted by no one. Australia’s inland bulk wine producers are in crisis, causing an image problem for the wider industry.
BRIAN CROSER claps a heavy hand on my shoulder and drags me in from the cold.
Author:
Source:
Date: May 2024
After 55 vintages in Australia, you might surmise I have seen it all. Hot years, cold years, wet years, drought years, big crops, small crops, no crop. In 1983, the “Ash Wednesday” fire year, the fire was followed by a tropical deluge. We harvested no grapes from Clare or Coonawarra. Piccadilly Valley was not yet in production.
Author:
Source: www.jancisrobinson.com
Date: Apr 2024
Brian Croser sends a first-hand report from Tapanappa in the Piccadilly Valley on a small but promising harvest. Above, Croser scrutinizes the Chardonnay grapes in the Tiers Vineyard.
We all know what comes in small packages, but can they be a little bigger than the 2024 vintage from our Tiers,
» Read more about: South Australia 2024 – a view from the Adelaide Hills »
Author:
Source: Wine Business Magazine
Date: Feb 2024
RESPECTED AUSTRALIAN WINEMAKERS BRIAN CROSER AND LOUISA ROSE SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON THE WORLD-RENOWNED AUSTRALIAN WINE RESEARCH INSTITUTE BEING BLED DRY BECAUSE OF EVER-DECREASING FUNDING.
The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) is 70 years old next year.
One of us has been admiring and utilising their work for more than 50 of those 70 years,
Author:
Source: WBM – Australia’s Wine Business Magazine
Date: Jan 2024
by Brian Croser
The Australian wine industry has squandered three decades being confused about the differences between premium and non-premium wine and where the opportunities really lie. Brian Croser reports.
Imagine the world without America and China. I don’t mean their geographic absence, rather imagine after the Australian wine industry’s 1990s growth spurt,
Author: Brian Croser
Source: WBM
Date: May 2023
On 11 April we were yet to begin the harvest for all but a young block of Foggy Hill Pinot Noir that was harvested on 5 April.
In an average year we would have harvested all three of our vineyards by April 11.
After 54 diverse vintages, none the same as any other,
Author: Brian Croser
Source: Jancis Robinson
Date: Apr 2023
Brian Croser of Tapanappa provides the sequel to his report on the nerve-wracking 2023 harvest. Above, the vines at Tapanappa are finally free of the netting that kept the berries safe from the birds.
It is 18 April, a gloriously typical autumn day in the Adelaide Hills.
Author: Brian Croser
Source: Jancis Robinson
Date: Apr 2023
Author: James Halliday Top 100
Source: The Australian
Date: Nov 2022
James Halliday’s Top 100 wines for 2022 have been revealed!
We are thrilled to announce our 2019 Foggy Hill Vineyard DEFINITUS Pinot Noir has made the prestigious list.
2019 Foggy Hill DEFINITUS Pinot Noir
Bramble, briar and black tea aromatics set the scene for a very complex pinot that needs encouragement to release its perfume.
» Read more about: 2019 Foggy Hill Vineyard DEFINITUS Pinot Noir has made James Halliday’s TOP 100 »
Author: Brian Croser
Source: WBM
Date: Nov 2022
WBM, September/October 2022 Issue
SAM (Southern Annular Modulation) is determined to go south again as the Australian spring arrives. In southeastern Australia that means another summer of cool south-easterly winds, generated deep in the Great Southern Ocean, that arrive on our southern shores at the top of the counterclockwise revolving high-pressure systems as they transit from west to east.
» Read more about: And it was all yellow… and green and orange and red and purple »
Author: Brian Croser
Source: WBM
Date: Aug 2022
WBM, July / August Issue
The word sustainability buzzes around the internet incessantly and now rings in my ears, replacing that persistent Leonard Cohen anthem as my new ‘ear worm’. I am about to tread in a place that better angels would avoid, but there are some things about sustainability that need saying.
First and foremost,
» Read more about: Let’s Not Forget Economic Sustainability »
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