THE Hunter Valley wine community will pay tribute on Tuesday (APRIL 26) to the late legendary winemaker Karl Stockhausen, the maker of some of Australia's greatest wines.
Karl died at the age of 92 on February 25 and was given a private funeral with a wider memorial delayed because of the 2022 Hunter vintage.
Now the wine industry will gather in his honour at 3 pm on Tuesday at the Ben Ean winery at 119 McDonalds Road, Pokolbin. It was there Karl crafted the most acclaimed Lindeman's Hunter wines, such as the shiraz-based Lindeman's 1965 Bin 3110 and Bin 3100 Hunter River burgundies and 1970 Bin 3875 Hunter River Chablis semillon white.
Born in the German city of Hamburg, he came to Australia in 1955 "just to look around" and was sent to the old Greta Migrant Camp, from where he "stumbled into winemaking" with a vineyard and cellar hand job at Ben Ean.
He quickly found he liked the Hunter, Australia and the wine industry and spent 35 years with the company as Hunter winemaker, Chateau Leonay manager in the Barossa and Sydney-based brand manager.
In retirement he kept active chairing tasting panels, rating wines for leading Australian wine companies and suppliers and giving opinions and guidance to many industry personnel.From 1990 he became a consultant for the Briar Ridge operation at Mount view and oversaw the production of the Briar Ridge Stockhausen wine range.
His special place in Hunter winemaking was recognised in 2007 when he became one of the six inaugural recipients of the Hunter Valley Wine Industry's Legends awards.
He is survived by his long-term partner, chef and restaurateur Juls Van Den Berg, and his daughter Toni, a winemaker in California.
