One of the most written about Australian wine stories in the last decade has been about the dissolution between founder of Torbrek Wineries Dave Powell and its owner Pete Kight. While one party – Powell – pours his heart out in an open letter saying that Kight had more or less unfairly stolen his son’s inheritance, the other party remained, for the most part, silent (although he did mention that Powell’s letter was “self-induced victimhood” and that “he owned no stock in Torbrek at the time I took over from him”).

While it is not crystal clear what happened between Powell and Kight, the facts are as follows: Powell started Torbrek in 1994 in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. Inspired by his success as a winemaker for Rockfort, he began to work for free (“sweat equity”) in order to gain experience and keep a percentage of grapes for his own use. In 1997 Powell released his signature Shiraz, a 1995 RunRig. The Australian wine achieved instant critical acclaim and allowed Powell to command prices well into hundreds of Aussie dollars.

However, Powell encountered financial problems and Torbreck was sold in 2003. In 2008 Powell reacquired the estate in partnership with Peter Kight. This is where it gets complicated. Apparently, there was a clause in the contract that would force Powell out of his own vineyard that Powell was unaware of. Many legal battles followed and Powell found himself, for whatever reason, locked out of his own winery. Confused? Yes, us too.

When your parents are divorcing, it is often the children who suffer. However, when your children are the mature 2008 Laird (a Robert Parker perfect pointer) and the aforementioned RunRig, there is little to worry about. Both command well over the average price for an Australian wine on the secondary market and have shown no signs of decrease in 2017-2019. Powell himself declassified the 2007 and 2009 Laird (as well as the 2008 RunRig) as somehow the wine in barrel became spoilt and was unsaleable.