Johann Gramp (28 August 1819 – 9 August 1903) was a

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

n-born

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

winemaker, local politician and

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...

-grower. He is best known for founding

Orlando Wines Orlando Wines is an Australian wine company, well known for Jacob's Creek wine, first released in 1976. The company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Pernod Ricard since 1989 and is now known as Pernod Ricard Winemakers. The winery stil ...

in the

Barossa Valley The Barossa Valley ( Barossa German: ''Barossa Tal'') is a valley in South Australia located northeast of Adelaide city centre. The valley is formed by the North Para River. It is notable as a major wine-producing region and tourist destinati ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, Australia.

Biography

Early life

Johann Gramp was born on 28 August 1819 in

Eichigt Eichigt is a municipality in the Vogtlandkreis district, in Saxony, Germany. References

Municipalities in Saxony Vogtlandkreis {{Vogtlandkreis-geo-stub ...

near

Kulmbach Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town is famous for Plassenburg Castle, which houses the largest tin soldier museum in the world, and for its sausages, or ''Bratwürste''. Geography Location Ku ...

,'Gramp, Johann (1819–1903)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography,

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...

, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gramp-johann-3651/text5669, published in hardcopy 1972, accessed online 8 September 2014.Tate Adams, ''The First Vines'', Macmillan Education AU, 2006, p. 28
/ref>Nicholas Faith, ''Australia's Liquid Gold'', London: Hachette, 2003, p. 192

/ref> where his father was a landowner. In 1837, he left

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

to migrate to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The journey took four months, sailing on the 'Solway' via

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

and the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

.Jacob's Creek: History
/ref> He arrived in Kingscote on

Kangaroo Island Kangaroo Island, also known as Karta Pintingga (literally 'Island of the Dead' in the language of the Kaurna people), is Australia's third-largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. It lies in the state of South Australia, southwest ...

on 16 October 1837.

Career

From 1837 to 1839, he worked for the

South Australian Company The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in London on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the So ...

on Kangaroo Island. From 1839 to 1840, he worked for the same company, but in

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

, a suburb of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

. Shortly after, he worked in a bakery in Adelaide. He started a new life as a farmer in Yatala. In 1847, he moved to the

in rural

and settled near Jacob's Creek. That same year, he planted his first vine there.Alan Hickey, Keith Conlon and Ron Kandelaars, ''Postcards: Day Trips from Adelaide'', Wakefield Press, 2003, p. 3

/ref> Three years later, in 1850, he produced an octave of wine, a Hock (wine), hock later known as ''Carte Blanche''. Later, he purchased more land to expand his vineyard and added a cellar to his estate. After ten years of living in the Barossa Valley, he was elected to serve on the Barossa East District Council in the 1860s, eventually serving as its Chairman. While serving on the council, he was a proponent of building a state school in

Rowland Flat Rowland Flat (formerly Rowland's Flat and Rowlands Flat) is a small South Australian town in the Barossa Valley, located on the Barossa Valley Highway between Lyndoch and Tanunda. The town has an elevation of 294m and is nestled at the foot of ...

for local children. He became a naturalized Australian citizen in 1872. Later he grew

citrus fruit ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is native to So ...

s in the Barossa Valley.

Personal life

He married Eleonora (Nitzschke) Gramp. They had three sons and three daughters. He was

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

Death and legacy

He died on 9 August 1903 at his estate in the Barossa Valley. His son

Gustav Gramp Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to: * Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin Art, entertainment, and media * ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film * ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short car ...

took over the vineyard, until it was inherited by his grandson, Hugo Gramp in 1920 until his death in 1938. It stayed in the Gramp family until the 1970s, when it was purchased by

Reckitt and Colman Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, trading as Reckitt, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, England. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition products. The company was formed in March 1999 by the merge ...

, and eventually by

Pernod Ricard Pernod Ricard () is a French company best known for its anise-flavoured pastis apéritifs Pernod Anise and Ricard Pastis (often referred to simply as ''Pernod'' or ''Ricard''). The world’s second-largest wine and spirits seller, it also produ ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gramp, Johann 1819 births 1903 deaths People from Vogtlandkreis Politicians from Adelaide Businesspeople from Adelaide Australian winemakers Australian farmers Citrus farmers Barossa Valley Australian Lutherans German emigrants to Australia 19th-century Lutherans