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 During judging at MundusVini International Wine Competition in Germany in 2007, I think, I met a young, tall and beautiful woman named Kate Hardy. She was working as the Manager-legal department with OIV and since MundusVini was then conducted under the aegis of OIV, she represented them at the competition and was also a fellow judge. She was from the well-known Hardy winemaking family in Australia. So why would she not be in the family-named business, I asked her. ‘Our family business has been sold and anyway we have too many Hardys as stakeholders. It didn’t make any sense for me to remain there, so I came to Paris and joined OIV,’ said Kate.
Fast Forward to August 28, 2015 when I met William Hardy at the ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotel during the second Master Class! Later in the evening I was again chatting with Bill as he is happier being addressed, sitting next to me at the table at the wine dinner organised by me for the Delhi Wine Club with Hardys wines. I asked him if he knew one Kate Hardy. ‘She is our daughter!’ he shrieked with excitement; it’s so nice to know that you know her.’
Not All in the Family
 Explaining what Kate had meant, he said that he was the 5th generation winemaker of the family winery started in 1853 by his great- great- grandfather Thomas Hardy who had travelled from Europe to Australia. There had been around 30 Hardy family members including several uncles, brothers and cousins who were all partners in the company when the family decided to go public in 1992 in order to have a better administrative control. But they ended up selling the business in 2002 to Constellation Brands which then sold it to the Private Equity firm Champs. Eventually, after re-organisation, the wine arm became Accolade wines. So now he owns a small stake in the conglomerate and after working for 40 years in the winery and handling 26 vintages he is now the Brand Ambassador of Accolade.
Thomas Hardy-the Founder who has been considered as the Father of South Australian wine industry, has his name kept alive for all these generations by each generation naming the eldest son of the family as Thomas. Then, there is also a wine range called Thomas Hardy that has nothing to do with Hardys but propelled by the brother Thomas. Bill has 2 daughters-Katy is the elder on; Alix is the younger one who is involved in the business.
William Hardy Launched
 There is a little bit of Bordeaux in Bill, being the first Australian to have studied in Bordeaux where he went shortly after interning as a winemaker in 1972. At the University of Bordeaux, he also studied under the famous Prof. Emile Peynaud. After working for 40 years in the winery, a new label William Hardys was launched in 2012 after his name. As Bill explains, in every generation one person who has contributed the most to enhance the name of Hardys Wines gets the privilege of having a wine named after one of the generation. Bill laughs as he says, ‘there were not too many in the 5th generation, so it was easier for me to have it named as William Hardy’.
It was unofficially launched at the Delhi Wine Club dinner where William Hardy Chardonnay and a Syrah were uncorked. Both were loved by everyone present, especially with the rack of lamb which made a heavenly combination with the elegant Shiraz with good fruit and balance. It is likely to succeed with connoisseurs who watch their pocket being the potential customers, when distributed in the market.
The label named after a family member also ensures higher quality standards for that label, despite the number of bottles produced. In fact, when I ask Bill whether the company has ever thought of coming out with a wine that can compete with Penfold’s Grange, he is quite categorical that their Eileen Shiraz, named after her grandmother Eileen Hardy, is a top end wines that’s rated very highly by critics though the market has not necessarily valued its high quality yet; it’s available for $100-120-at one sixth the price of Grange, making it a fabulous value for money high quality wine.
The 160-year company has won many accolades, he says. During the past decade, it has won around 3000 medals- Hardys is on record for having won  medals at the famous Bordeaux competition of 1882. But to him it’s a matter of joy that around 2 million glasses of their wine are drunk every day throughout the world with 120 countries importing the label. Although the label has been popular in India, thanks to Sula Selections importing the wines for a decade or so, his great grandfather had started sending samples to India from South Australia first in the 1970s! Technically, the winery was the first one to have exported wine to UK since the founder exported a couple of barrels of his wine to his hometown Devon in UK from Thomas Hardy had started his journey to an unknown land with merely £20 in his pocket.
The existing label Hardys Stamp that is exported to India is a notch higher than the entry level wine VR-the varietal range and is a notch lower than the Notting Hills range. Considered as one of the leading labels in UK and Australia, the 150-million bottles (12.5 million cases)- a- year company has decided to reinforce its presence in India where its distributor Sula sold around 100,000 bottles. Hoping to reach 19,000 cases this year, it has implicitly announced its policy of fighting the competition against the compatriot competitor Jacob’s Creek, the imported wine label which is miles ahead.
William Hardy has been a very successful winemaker. Now on the wicket as the Brand Ambassador he has been scoring even better for his Team Hardy. He thoroughly charmed the DWC club members at the dinner as he talked about the wines with pride and gusto.
Subhash Arora |