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 Coonawarra.
Considered one of Australia’s leading proponents 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-1980s, 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 has also 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: 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 »
Author: Brian Croser
Source: WBM
Date: Jul 2022
Tapanappa Foggy Hill Vineyard, Photo by Jodie Pilgrim
A distinctive attribute of fine wine is that it endures, reposes in cellars often long after the maker and collector have sipped their last, to re-emerge at family celebrations or in more mercenary circumstance at fine wine auction.
At the auction of a bottle of aged wine,
Author: Brian Croser
Source:
Date: Jul 2022
Tapanappa, Brian Croser
Timing is the well-spring of opportunity.
My generation, the “Boomers” have enjoyed pretty good timing and I know I have, and I am grateful.
My career as a vigneron began with my training in the later 60’s and early 70’s, paralleling the birth and development of the modern Australian wine matrix.
» Read more about: Timing is the well spring of opportunity »
Author: Brian Croser
Source: WBM
Date: Jul 2022
The CSIRO has sort of announced the redundancy of at least three senior scientists, experts and researchers in grapevine genetics and physiology at the Adelaide CSIRO offices located at the Waite Research Institute.
A further number of technical support staff and rumour has it more to come, have been or will be laid off in parallel.
Author: Brian Croser
Source: WBM
Date: Jul 2022
Since 1929, a levy derived support system for the Australian wine community’s research and promotional programs has generated very large benefits.
The core rationale for these levies is that they are used to address market failure, those activities that have identifiable benefits for the whole grape and wine community and the nation, that otherwise would not be funded by enterprise.
» Read more about: Levy Reform In The Australian Wine Community »
Author: Brian Croser
Source:
Date: May 2022
Vignerons the world over, live with the caprice of nature, the weather God in particular.
The optimal result of a bountiful crop of outstanding quality grapes is a small sliver on the roulette wheel of weather dictated outcomes through a seven-month growing season, regardless of provenance.
More often the combination of a small crop of outstanding quality creates a consumer demand that can’t be met,
Author: Brian Croser
Source:
Date: Apr 2022
Image of the current harvest at Foggy Hill Vineyard by Jodie Pilgrim.
It’s 3 pm on the first of April, April Fool’s Day, but nobody anywhere in the world is in prankish mode.
In the Piccadilly Valley in the centre of the Adelaide Hills it is 17 °C, the maximum temperature of this mid-autumn day.
Author: Brian Croser
Source:
Date: Mar 2022
Veteran of 52 vintages and the varying weather they have exhibited, Brian Croser, of Tapanappa in South Australia, wonders whether they’re in for a cooler period.
For the avoidance of doubt and of a fusillade of online scorn and abuse, what I am about to describe is the beginning of a cool vintage against a backdrop of inexorably increasing temperatures.
» Read more about: A century of South Australian climate change »
Author: Anne Krebiehl MW
Source: Falstaff
Date: Feb 2022
As a pioneer of Australian cool-climate viticulture, Brian Croser was the first to plant Chardonnay in the Adelaide Hills – now his latest vintage is out.
Few people can claim pioneer status in the 21st century but Brian Croser can: he was the first to plant vines in South Australia’s Adelaide Hills in 1979 – in the Tiers Vineyard in the Piccadilly Valley.
» Read more about: Tapanappa Unveils Latest Chardonnay Vintage »
Author: Tim Atkin
Source: Tim Atkin MW
Date: Oct 2021
Listen to Brian’s live podcast “Cork Talk” with Tim Atkins MW on Brian’s thoughts about Australian fine wine and the future of fine wine world:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XSErrxRTCziVWJziLbmjw?si=57ErAnmzQRmdN3oUGtzt-A
» Read more about: Live podcast “Cork Talk” with Tim Atkins MW »
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