Liebig’s Australian Connection: James King’s Scientific Viticulture

Abstract

The pioneering New South Wales vigneron James King (1797–1857) took a technical approach to his winemaking as he did to the pottery he established near his Hunter Valley property, ‘Irrawang'. In the 1840s he began a correspondence with the famous German chemist and prominent advocate of a scientific approach to agriculture, Justus Liebig, whose ideas he promoted locally. Liebig analysed King's wines and compared them with European varieties. The two men later became personally acquainted when King journeyed to Europe in the mid–1850s. The Liebig connection was augmented by the presence at ‘Irrawang'of two members of the Muspratt family, alkali manufacturers of Liverpool, both of whom had studied with Liebig and espoused his principles. Thus the master's influence on winemaking in colonial New South Wales was exerted indirectly through them and directly through his correspondence with King.