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1 June 1978
Licensed Wine Exporters For 3 Year Period Commencing 9 June 1979 New South Wales
Huntington Estate Pty Ltd P O Box 188 Mudgee 18592
Wine Producers New South Wales
Huntington Estate Pty Ltd P O Box 188 Mudgee 2850 Telephone (063) 7338253
12 December 2005
Winery sale hits chamber event
AN era has come to end. The sale of Huntington Estate winery in Mudgee, NSW, has raised questions about the future of the boutique music festival held there each year.
At the festival last weekend, patrons learned that violinist Richard Tognetti, who programs the event and whose Australian Chamber Orchestra is a festival fixture, will be taking a year off from Huntington.
On Friday Bob Roberts, Huntington's owner and Tognetti's father- in-law, announced that the winery had been sold.
New owner Tim Stevens, who runs the neighbouring Abercorn winery, says there will continue to be music amid the vines each year. "We will have something of some description, but it won't be without Richard's support and approval," he says.
Roberts and his wife Wendy planted the first vines at Huntington in 1969. Their daughter Susie, Tognetti's wife, became the estate's winemaker. The festival began in 1989 and is among the nation's most admired chamber music events. Such is its reputation for musical excellence — and convivial atmosphere — that tickets sell out in hours, without the festival advertising guest artists or repertoire.
The eclectic roll-call of guests in recent years has included singers Anne Kirkpatrick and Neil Finn, guitarist Slava Grigoryan, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey and Scottish accordionist James Crabb.
Stevens, who bought the 45ha Huntington Estate in a private sale, says he wants Roberts and Tognetti to continue organising concerts there. "It's Richard's baby," he says. "Whatever we do will only ever be done in consultation with him."
Stevens and Roberts met ACO management in Sydney last week. Roberts says it is too early to say whether next year's festival will involve the ACO or other musicians. "There certainly will be music in the winery in 2006 and it will be done in a serious way," he says4 .