Cheers! Kingaroy SHS bottles its first commercial wine

A long time ago, when the Earth was still green, the department decided that winemaking would be a great way to teach science.

The winemaking unit was established for year 12 chemistry and the gateway program linking winemaking and hospitality sent out winemaking equipment. Independently, I joined the education system after a 30-year career in international winemaking. Bureaucracy matched common sense and I was given the winemaking responsibility at Kingaroy State High School.

Early on I decided that the equipment we had would allow us to run a small commercial winery. As a school-based enterprise, the school would have many benefits.

I divided the enterprise into four areas: production, sales and marketing, art and design, and IT. Formal learning is through authority subjects and VET units, and informally through a student wine group. Our wine group has students from year 7 through to year 12. Parents are welcome members and the wider school community is involved in running workshops in specialist areas.

A most important step was to get a wine producer’s licence, allowing us to sell the wine. This required a great deal of soul searching across a number of departments. Eventually the director signed off on it. We may be only the second school in the country with a wine producer’s licence.

We will produce styles which suit the South Burnett region. Early on we ruled out big full-bodied reds and oak soaked chardonnays. Geography was against New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Ultimately we decided that we would make a couple of styles to carry our brand and each year try to turn out an experimental wine developed as a regional style.

This past weekend we bottled a lighter red style – too dark for a rose, and too light in colour for a traditional red. Made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes grown at a local vineyard, the wine is meant to be consumed cold, with frost on the glass. It is made for those warm Queensland evenings as the sun pitches orange and fades in an indigo sky. Students are developing a name and label. It will be released in early October. Sales will be via the internet from our website and wholesale through local outlets.

The winery has been a boon to the chemistry unit – the students are more involved when working on a “live” product rather than two litre bottles of juice. Keen IT students are preparing the website for internet sales. Others are planning an event to launch the wine and yet others are doing workshops in PR, event management, writing and media presentation. The wine group is gradually developing key skills. This morning, I gave a radio interview. I anticipate that in 12 months’ time it will be the students fronting radio and television to discuss our project.

A big milestone has been reached with our first wine in the bottle. There are more to come.

Ross Whiteford
Kingaroy State High School

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 122 No 6, 25 August 2017, p17