Winemaker Interview Series: Ken Helm

Winemaker Interview Series

The beginning of another series where I will have the opportunity to meet with some incredible winemakers and ask them about their experiences in the wine industry. The first in this series is a very insightful interview with Ken Helm of Helm Winery in Murrumbateman, Australia (under the Canberra Wine District).

Travel Insider

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How did you get into winemaking?

“My great, great grandparents are from the very old wine growing region of Neustadt an der Weinstraße which is just to the west of Heidelberg. After the ‘Big Revolution’ in 1834 they ended up moving to Australia, specifically to Albury (New South Wales) in 1850. They were responsible for planting the first grapevines in Rutherglen and by the 1870s they had thousand-acre vineyards and were producing massive amounts of wine, of which around 80% were being exported to the British Empire.

After this, Albury had such a large German population that the first newspaper printed there was published in German for 10 years with the first bilingual paper not being printed until around the First World War.

Unfortunately, the Australian Wine Industry collapsed around the First World War and many vineyards died out and many winemakers went into other forms of agriculture. So, my parents were in Albury working in other businesses (not the wine industry), so as a kid I used to go down to Rutherglen to relatives and friends of the family and work on the vines learning about pruning and growing grapes.

I ended up joining CSIROs (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Insectologists as a technical assistant and worked up in the Snowy Mountains for 3 years and then they moved me to Canberra in 1967 and met some wonderful people at the CSIRO, Black Mountain. They were totally different to many Australians, they weren’t bigoted, racist or biased – they spoke at least one or two other languages and appreciated the classics, food and wine.

In the early 1970s, there were three of us from CSIRO that started the Wine Industry together in Canberra, aside from myself there was John Kirk who was in Plant Physiology (established Clonakilla Winery) and Edgar Reek who was in Systematics and Entomology (established Lake George Winery).

By 1988, after 22 years I took early retirement from the CSIRO and started running this full time.”

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Do you have a standout moment from your Winemaking career?

“When you start a business one of the things you need to do is get recognition so that the consumer will buy it. So, I think one of the standout moments was when we won the Douglas Lamb Trophy at the Royal Sydney Wine Show for the Best Riesling and this was the first time that Trophy had been awarded to a wine from New South Wales and that same year the Runner Up Wine was another Riesling of ours.

Another standout moment from my last 80 years would be of Stephanie, our youngest daughter, going into the wine industry and our other two children, although not hands on, but also showing a very strong interest.”

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At Helm Wines you mainly grow Riesling, would you say that is linked to your German Heritage?

“Well probably, but I think probably unwittingly it happened. When we first planted there was a fellow of the name Graham Gregory, who was the head of the Viticultural Department in New South Wales, who I had conversations with and he said, ‘Well you’re obviously going to plant Riesling because it’s a cool area’. In Australia at this time, Riesling was the most consumed wine, but it wasn’t being made from the Riesling grape – just marketed as that. At lot of winemakers lobbied together, including myself, to get that changed and from the 1^st January 2000, a Riesling can only be made from the Riesling grape itself. Graham Gregory also suggested another variety which was new at the time in Australia, and he sent me some cuttings which I planted and do still have a couple of rows of – Chardonnay. At that time, I tasted the grapes after a year or two and I thought, no this will never go it’s a helpless variety. It’s got no flavour, so I’ll stick with the Riesling and that’s what I did.”

Helm Wines

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What was the drive behind starting the International Riesling Challenge in 2000?

“I saw an opportunity to promote Riesling because Chardonnay had basically taken over the white wine sales in Australia at the time. I started the Riesling Challenge initially as a way of promoting Riesling but also as a way of promoting Canberra Rieslings. I tried to get people like the National Capital Agricultural Society to take it on, but they weren’t interested. Then here at the Cool Climate Wine Show in Murrumbateman we proposed the idea of a Riesling Challenge to Senator David Brownhill from the Howard Government, but it was beyond their administrative capabilities at the time. Then I got talking to my good friend Jim Murphy and he said ‘Well, I don’t know why we don’t just do it ourselves’. So, we gathered a group of businesspeople around Canberra, including talking to Kate Carnell (who was Chief Minister at the time) and she thought it was a good idea. I also happened to be very good friends with the manager of the Hyatt Hotel, and he said they’ll host it and sponsor it which was amazing. My good friend suggested we needed a good prize for the winner and organised a meeting with the manager of Quantas in Canberra who said they would also like to be involved. They had organised that for the best Riesling in Australia they would get a return flight to Germany as well as a stay at the Hyatt in Mainz, Germany. We ended up expanding it outside of Australian Rieslings and introduced New Zealand Rieslings and German Rieslings. It was a great success and after that we managed to get funding and it’s been running ever since, for the past 25 years. It’s the biggest event of its type in the Southern Hemisphere and I stood back from it about four years ago now to encourage younger winemakers to get take my place and get involved.”

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You spent some time in Bordeaux; can you elaborate on your experience there?

“I’ve always also produced Cabernet Sauvignon, and we made some in the early 80s, but we were not consistent with them, and I couldn’t figure out why. I had a few connections, Led Evans (Australian Wine Promoter) and John Avery (Wine Company in Bristol, England) and they suggested that I should go to Chateau Margot in Bordeaux and that they would give me some letters of introduction. So, I went there, and it was a fantastic trip, I learned a lot about how they got their consistency in their wines and how the wines are matured in casks for long periods of up to 2 years. They make the wines quite soft and approachable, whereas in Australia our Cabernet Sauvignons tend to have a lot of tannin and people tend to drink them when they’re three to five years or older. So, I came back and adopted the techniques I had learnt, and I also have a special winery for just the Cabernets and a winery for just the Rieslings so that you are able to just focus on that wine when you’re in that winery.”

Wine Ten Questions

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To any winemakers of wine enthusiasts, would you have any advice or words of wisdom to pass onto them?

“I think it’s always to endeavour to make premium wines and that will be for success. Also, don’t be afraid to experiment, but when you do experiment don’t inflict that wine you’ve made on the public until you’ve got it right.”

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This was a fantastic interview with a very prominent Winemaker in the Australian Wine Industry, Ken brings a lot of insight into the history of winemaking in Australia and is very forward thinking. If you happen to be in Canberra a visit to Helm Winery is a must!

If any readers have any more questions you would like answered in particular, please get in touch or leave a comment below.

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