JAMES I love the history here at Langmeil;
you can touch it and resurrect it — that’s what
we’ve done with the old buildings — and it gives
you a sense of that generational thing. I’m 48,
a couple of years younger than Paul, and we are
the sixth generation in the Barossa. The original
Lindner was Silesian, from what was part of
Prussia, and one of the reasons he ended up
in Langmeil was for freedom of religion.
My parents decided to move back to the
Barossa when I was about four. Dad was cellar
door manager at Seppeltsfield, then he became
general manager at Rockford Wines and started
thinking about getting back into wine.
When I left school Istarted out at Linke’s
Bakery, and six months later got a job on the
bottling line at Orlando Wines — my first job in
the wine industry. I worked a vintage at Yalumba,
and talked to some of the management about
what I had to do to have a career in wine. They
encouraged me to do wine education courses,
and because Iwas very persistent — or very
annoying — they gave me a job in their cellar
door, and later selling wine in Adelaide.
In 1996 I quit my job, bought my own little
bit of land and planted some vines. [James now
lives in Angaston with his partner Georgina and
children Mia, four, and William, two.] My parents
bought an old vineyard at Lyndoch and in 1998
Ibegan helping to resurrect it, then Iwas brought
into Langmeil for the 1999 harvest.
In the 1980s there was quite a depression in
the Australian wine industry and farmers were
paid a lot of money to pull vines out. We were
fortunate that there were people in the Barossa
who believed in the old vines and how rare they
were in the world of wine: a lot of the old vines
in Europe were decimated by a bug called
phylloxera. So in South Australia the amazing
old vines that survived are some of the oldest
in the world. When we purchased Langmeil,
the vines had been neglected for such a long
time, it took about five years to prune them
back to get the best out of them.
We wanted to send a message about how
important we feel old vines are by saving
another old patch of vines [next door] that
were destined to be bulldozed for housing.
We dug up each one and moved the whole
vineyard — which was originally planted back
in the 1860s — to our property and resettled
them. We call them Orphan Bank because we
adopted them. They’ve been here for 10 years
now, and we think they could be here another
100 years. Just saving history, really.ABOVE, FROM LEFT A bottle
of Langmeil’s Orphan Bank
shiraz; “In a family business
everyone treats you like family.
In other words, if you’ve got
something to say, you say it,”
says James (right) of working
with his older brother. FACING
PAGE The Freedom Cellar,
housed in the old Langmeil
village cobbler’s shop, hosts
private tastings and functions.
Bookings are essential for this
exclusive experience.