Ian Bell’s Departure & Who Will Do What Now?

Ian Bell’s Departure

Well, after many years of great service, Senior Winemaker Ian Bell has resigned from the Moss Wood team to concentrate on his own winemaking activities at Glenmore. Those with good memories will recall that Ian first joined Moss Wood as a casual grape picker for the 1985 vintage. Clare and Keith thought he looked a likely lad for that type of work, or indeed any kind of physical work really. For those who don’t know him, he stands at 6 feet 5 inches in the old currency. Even with these attributes it was an inauspicious start, although not his fault. Ian will tell anyone who’s prepared to listen about his first day on the job when it took all day to pick 2 tonnes of Chardonnay, something we should have accomplished in about an hour!

He stuck with the grape picking and then came back and helped with pruning and then came and helped with shoot positioning and so things developed. We managed to wean him off BIG tractors and broad acre farming for the subtleties of grape growing, so much so that he went off to Roseworthy College in 1987 to study viticulture. Over time, as Moss Wood grew little by little, Clare and Keith would offer Ian more responsibility and he was happy to keep taking it until he was managing all our production operations as Senior Winemaker.

Meanwhile, Ian had been a very busy bloke, working hard at home to develop his own vineyard. His first plantings were made in 1990 and he began selling his grapes to Moss Wood with the 1997. This vintage was released as the first “Glenmore Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon, the later vintages of which have become “Amy’s” Cabernet Sauvignon. The reason for the name change was that since the 2000 vintage, Ian has been producing his own “Glenmore” Cabernet Sauvignon and Clare and Keith did not want any confusion between the wines. These Glenmore wines are now out in the market place and Ian is currently selling his 2001 vintage.

Just to add to his busy lifestyle, Ian built his own winery, making his first vintage at home in 2005. He also does contract winemaking for various Margaret River clients.

With all this going on, he finally reached the point where he realised there are only 24 hours in every day and it was time to resign and go back to the farm and concentrate his efforts. Clare and Keith accepted his resignation with sadness, although being the dedicated fellow he is, he gave 9 months notice to ensure we had a proper handover! What else can we say except everyone at Moss Wood thanks Ian for his hard work and friendship and wishes “the Big Fella” all the best.

Who will do what now?

With Ian’s departure come some staff moves but it will be business as usual. Josh Bahen moves from the vineyard back to the winery in the Senior Winemaker role. Steve Clarke, currently in the grip of his viticulture studies at Charles Sturt University, steps up to the Vineyard Manager’s role. Jarod Bawden, also with his head in the viticulture books at Charles Sturt, fills Steve’s job as Assistant Vineyard Manager. Meanwhile in the winery, Amanda Shepherdson continues in her Winemaker role and Ed Bugden continues as Cellar Foreman. Everyone is looking forward to their new challenges and are keen to get on with the job.