Allan Watson

Allan Watson became involved with the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) through his father, the famous Jimmy Watson. Jimmy was a wine connoisseur and operated a wine bar in Carlton. He strove to encourage a love of wine among the Australian public and worked hard to change the image of wine bars from places frequented by drunks and pensioners to a place of good food, good drink and good company. As his son Allan recalls:

In those days wine was 'plonk' and table wines weren't used very much. Dad educated a lot of people into the use of table wines.

Jimmy developed a relationship with RASV during the Royal Melbourne Show when he would purchase the wine exhibited during the Show and cellar it in his wine bar. When Jimmy passed away in 1962, his friends and family wanted a fitting way to recognise him. Given his connection with the Royal Melbourne Show, someone suggested a prize – much like the Garryowen – to remember Jimmy and honour his dedication to winemaking in Australia. Allan remembers hearing about the idea at the time:

Everybody thought it was marvellous, and some contributed, and we just made up a packet and gave it to the Show and said, "It's for posterity, it's a Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy". In those days we had Andor Meszaros, who was a sculptor, and he made these medallions for us, so when somebody wins the Jimmy Watson he gets one of these medallions, which is very nice.

Today, the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy is the most highly sought-after prize in the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards. Given to the best one or two-year-old red, the Jimmy Watson award has put wineries on the map and been a big contributor to the success of the Australian wine industry. While his son Allan thinks that his father would be ‘rather embarrassed’ by all the fuss, it seems there could have been no better tribute to such a pioneer of Australian wine culture.