Schooled in the wine arts

IT all began with Russell and Dennis, two school-teacher mates who shared a taste for a good drop of red but whose financial resources didn’t match their vinous aspirations. So in 1992 the pair teamed up to make a barrel of their own Barossa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, which was bottled, proudly labelled Rusden and consumed with great gusto. Russell Gehling and Dennis Canute followed up in 1994 with a home-made Rusden Shiraz, which earned considerable local appreciation and was nicknamed “Black Guts” and “alcoholic Ribena”.