Is there background on how Langton's has so many back vintages of Clarendon Hills available?
So the way it’s been told to me, it all goes back to WW2. Two young fellas — one from McLaren Vale whose family had some vines up on what’s now Clarendon Hills, and the other from Sydney, tied in with what eventually became Langton’s. They ended up serving together in New Guinea.
Their CO at the time was this bloke everyone apparently called RedBigot. He didn’t much care for either of them — reckoned they were too cheeky, didn’t follow orders to the letter. So naturally the two of them stuck together, thick as thieves. Shared rations, smokes, and even the odd dodgy bottle that found its way into camp.
Anyway, during one of the nastier pushes, one of the lads was hit pretty bad. They called for Dr Ralph but by the time he got there, there wasn’t much he could do. In his last moments, the story goes, he grabbed his mate’s hand and said something along the lines of, “If your family ever has wine to sell, promise me you’ll sell ours alongside it. Keep it flowing, no matter what.”
Fast forward a lifetime, Clarendon Hills builds up a bit of a back catalogue, fashions shift, and suddenly Langton’s is moving stacks of their wines. Some reckon it’s just stock clearance. Others know it’s that old battlefield promise being honoured, decades later, mates’ rates and all.