Fortified Wines
Migrating to Australia
The van Gent family tree can be traced back to 1790 and reveals a family of distillers and winemakers.
It was Johannes Hermanus van Gent (1817 to 1859) ship owner, merchant, distiller of spirits, member of the Municipal Council, Chamber of Commerce and world traveller
who influenced a long line of van Gents. He imported into Holland the grains which were sold to distillers and had some 15 sailing ships in service. He died on the way back from the Holy Land and was buried in Schiedam, Holland in 1859. 80 years later, Pieter was born in Doetinchem, Holland.
In 1958, Pieter entered the employ of exclusive wine importer owned by Robbers en van den hoogen. One of the owner's sons was the Cellar Master who was conscripted into the army and Pieter took over his job. It was mainly French wines from the top chateaus, imported in bulk, and then aged in casks in the van den underground cellars. The wines were blended where necessary and bottled.
Years later there came a law that the wines had to be bottled at the chateaus.
During this employment Pieter studied and gained a Diploma of professional skill for Retail in Strong Alcohol, Weak Alcohol and Alcohol free drinks and learned about all types of wine in France such as Bordeaux, Bourgogne, Alsace, Sauternes, Champagne, German Rhine's, Spanish Sherries, Portuguese Ports, Italian red wines and Hungarian Tokays.
In 1959 Pieter attended the wedding of his cousin Jacques van Gent in Schiedam. Jacques, had a brother Hans living in Australia and it was Jacques who said to ieter, "why don't you go to Australia, there is wine there."
Four months later Pieter arrived in Australia.