Dorham Mann - A Potted History
• Working with the Dept of Agriculture project team, Dorham helped to establish cabernet vineyards in the Mt Barker and Margaret River region. This began with the first experimental vineyard established on the Pearse family property in Mt Barker –now the Forest Hill vineyard. Dorham was responsible for selection of cuttings and clones to be distributed to potential sites. This work included supporting potential producers in site selection and matching appropriate varieties to sites.
• Integral to this was management of the Swan Valley Research Station which undertook to identify suitable plant material for propagation and development of the industry and to test and review growing practises to extend and adopt to industry
• With Bill Jamieson, he provided technical support to industry on grape-growing and winemaking as a Dept of Agriculture service to industry. This program resulted in a quantum leap in wine quality during the 1960’s, primarily in the Swan Valley, but broadly across the state as the industry developed in other regions.
• In 1972, Dorham joined Sandalford as head winemaker, sourcing fruit from the Swan Valley and Sandalford’s new Great Southern and Margaret River vineyards. He was responsible for producing wine that defined regional strengths and brought these to national and international attention through show circuit success. The 1975 Mt Barker Riesling, grown on the Forest Hill property won 12 gold medals and 9 trophies on the national wine show circuit, which was the most awarded Australian table wine for over 40 years.
• Following his tenure at Sandalford, Dorham consulted independently to industry, helping many aspiring producers to achieve best practice in the vineyard and winery thereby accelerating their development as businesses. This included work with a winery based in Thailand.
• In 1989, with wife Sally, identified the new winegrape variety “Cygne Blanc” on his Swan Valley property. It was propagated to commercial quantities and in 1999, he successfully had the variety registered as a variety permitted for winemaking in Australia
• In 1988, he established Mann Winery, producing sparkling wine styles in the traditional method. He now works with daughter Anthea to produce two sparkling styles, one from cabernet sauvignon and the other from cygne blanc.
• Dorham is the son of legendary wine industry figure Jack Mann and heads a family winemaking dynasty in the Swan Valley.