“I admire almost all areas of endeavour. I think that in the areas I find rewarding, I have actually done quite a bit of work. It is rarely an instant attainment.”
Philip Moorhouse is the tutor of Wine Appreciation. He obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree (University of Melbourne) and has been involved with various commercial enterprises since then.
Philip is semi-retired. He is the founder and director of ‘The Collecting Bug’, a webbased collection management system for small museums and dedicated collectors.
Philip joined U3APP 3 years ago. He became a tutor 2 years ago when he set up the Wine Appreciation group which runs on a monthly basis.
What led you to join U3APP? Well, I have had a life-long interest in philosophy and was impressed that U3APP offered 3 courses in philosophy! It was so enjoyable to have the opportunity to sit in a room, and to be able to converse with like-minded members about various philosophical approaches. Such as, free-will versus determinism. I found it to be “so much fun,” as we debated the finer points, led ably by Douglas Adeney.
Where did you spend your childhood years? My 4 siblings and I grew up in Ballarat where my father was a GP.
Were there any specific influences that may have motivated you to pursue the course your career and working life has taken? Nothing specific, but as a family we were always permitted and encouraged to follow our own particular interests. Sitting around the dinner table, here was no shortage of interesting things to talk about. To the extent that we all ended up pursuing quite different careers. (laughing) In later years my mother did reveal that she often felt nxious about “some chemical experiments going on in the bathroom, or homemade fireworks!”
My father was a General Practitioner. He was an unassuming and kind man and in hindsight, I can see how much his patients loved him. For instance, a dozen eggs would arrive mysteriously on the front doorstep. Or a gift of smoked eel or rabbits would be dropped off. This was pre Medicare and many patients could not afford to pay, so they left gifts for my father. He was much loved in the community.
Interests pursued at school? I was interested in graphic art but also science and maths, so I had broad interests. I later chose to obtain a degree in Commerce at Melbourne University, as I wanted to learn about the process of managing and operating a business. Particularly a small business where you need to involve yourself in marketing, sales, imports and exports.
What followed next? Well, after some years working in various businesses such as transport and car rental/leasing, an opportunity arose to take over an existing small business. This was a wholesale, hair and fashion accessories company, which I managed for the next 20 plus years. I became the owner and manager of Promenade Trading and worked with commission agents, Australia wide.
Your wife is also a member of U3APP? Yes, Michele joined after me. She had talked about getting back into drawing and painting and U3APP offered her this opportunity. She is a member of the Portrait Costume and Life Drawing Class. We have 3 children. Our youngest son Matthew has Down Syndrome. He is 26, and he lives with us.
Would you like to talk about that? Yes. Within the community of U3APP members there will undoubtedly be carers of disabled children, or perhaps a family member. Matthew attends a Day Centre, he is picked up daily by bus service. I think that having a disabled child or family member in a way, changes families. You
become very attuned to their individual personality attributes, as well as their needs. And although it is very much better than years ago, it is still not really part of the “mainstream narrative.”
The Collecting Bug, what inspired you to come up with this concept and set up your website? I am one of very few collectors of old letterpress wood type in Australia. In the United States however there are many collectors of letterpress wood type.
Wood type-what is that? Yes, I thought you may not know, so I have brought along some posters to show you what wood type looks like.
It is beautiful. So, is this the old way printing was done, using wood type letterpress? Yes, and they are now of interest to letterpress printers who make their own posters. For example, if you want a very fancy wedding invitation you can get them printed on a letterpress printing press.
What led you into taking up this specialised interest? Well specifically, I have always had an interest in fonts and typography. But in fact, it was my wife who first introduced me to an acquaintance of hers, an older gentleman who was a printer. It was my birthday, and she said, “I’ve got a special treat for you.” She took me to meet him. He invited me to the back of his work place where there was a big bench and a cardboard box containing wooden letters in different shapes and colours. He told me to pick out the letters of my name. It was a very messy collection of letters but “glorious.” So, I picked out the letters of my name which were then printed. I recall exclaiming, “this is wonderful, where can I get wood type letters? I was told that most printers had thrown them out or destroyed them.
I was so impressed that I decided I wanted to acquire my own wood type letters. However, in Australia they were as “scarce as hen’s teeth.”
(Philip continues humorously) And then, this new invention called the Internet arrived and one of the new innovations was eBay! This enabled me to access the American eBay and I was able to purchase wooden letters. They hold wood type conferences in the United States, there is also a famous wood type museum. In 2010 I went to America and met with other collectors. They were impressed with
photos of my work and so I thought, well, I could make my own website, show my collection and also that of other collectors, worldwide. So, that was the genesis of ‘The Collecting Bug.’
It is an impressive website. Yes, initially it attracted keen collectors to display and showcase their collections but over time it has become used by small museums, historical societies, the RSL, military groups and more.
When did your interest in wine develop? Well for me wine has always been of interest.
Philip expanded on his lifelong passion for seeking out information on a subject of interest to him.
It seems to me that the way to develop a subject of interest, as opposed to just repeating the same knowledge over and over again, is to be deliberate about that progression of knowledge. So, initially I participated in various short wine courses.
I enjoy learning about almost any subject matter. At first it may seem “huge and amorphous and you think, how can I ever wrap my mind around this?” But as soon as you learn what the basic structures are, whether it is philosophy, or wine, or cooking, or any area of science, then you can build on them in a more constructive
and systematic way and you make progress.
So, 15 years ago I formed a wine group with some friends, and “we haven’t run out of topics yet.” To start with, wine comes from many countries, so you have a wide variety of wines and different vintages. Then there is the actual wine tasting itself. A tiny minority of people are able to pick up a glass of wine and go, “Okay, this is probably a
Bordeaux, probably Left Bank.” This is an enormous skill as they will have tasted thousands of wines, but to be able to pick up those nuances, you first need a structure such as “what is the acidity, the
level of fruit or what is the level of alcohol?”
I am not trying to make it mysterious. In fact, eliminating that mystery is one of the things I aim to achieve with the U3APP course, by talking about (and tasting) these elements. There seems to be this huge mystique, that in some way perhaps the wine industry is happy to perpetuate. The French were amazingly good at creating that “aura” and to this day they still are.
In Australia, our wine culture has developed more recently although we have always known that we had suitable land areas. We were growing vines in the 1830’s, in the Hunter Valley, South Australia, the Barossa Valley. Australia has some of the oldest existing vines in the world. We have a wonderful wine history. France has been growing grapes for 2,000 years but regarding actual vines themselves, we have some of the oldest in the world.
Does an older vine produce a different type of wine? Well, older vines are not as productive, but their roots go deep and the wine they produce is very concentrated in flavour. They are not cheap because of the low yields, but they make premium wines.
Is it also the social context that attracts people to drink wine together? Well, perhaps like any area of interest, whether it is a book club or some other group, it gives you the opportunity to mix with other like-minded people. If there is sufficient depth in that particular area of interest, you are never going to run out of subjects to talk about.
I don’t see wine tasting as being unique. It is just one of the many interests that people like to share together. Whether it be bush walking or learning how to play the ukulele. That is one of the marvels of U3A.
What led you to set up the Wine Appreciation course at U3APP? Well, while I had no
intention of tutoring a class, I went along to the new members’ day, as I had enrolled in the philosophy class. Sheila Quairney, then President of U3APP introduced herself to the new members. Although I did not realise this at the time, apart from welcoming us, she was seeking additional information about the new members. Sheila asked me, “what is your area of interest Philip?”
Amongst other information I added, ”Oh I am a member of a wine tasting group.” We conversed for a while. Sheila then addressed the group of new members, saying how she was impressed by the range of areas of expertise and included “wine tasting.”
Later a couple of members approached me, “are you the wine tasting guy?” And so, that is how the initiative to start a wine tasting group was triggered. I received valuable help and support from the Course Coordinator. The course has now been running for over 2 years.
How do you run this group? I have seen you set up tables, wine and food veryenticingly, on the 1st Thursday of the month.
This is one of the few U3APP groups that charge an appropriate fee. This means that we can actually afford to drink various wines, as opposed to just talking about them. The structure I tend to follow is that each session has a theme, such as Pinot Noir, or alternatives to Chardonnay, or sparkling wines.
Last year we had an Aussie versus America “taste off”. These were “masked wines.” That means the bottles are wrapped in a brown paper bag to avoid preconceptions. So for instance, two chardonnays from California or Margaret River, but you don’t know which is which, “what is your honest impression?”
Another recent theme was “Thrice the Price.” Again, this was masked. We knew that one bottle was 3 times the price of the other one. I asked, “which one is more expensive, and why?”
How did that work out? Accurately. Generally, members could tell the difference. But it wasn’t always the case that they preferred the more expensive wine. I think it is a mistake to think that cheaper wine is somehow terrible. We are very lucky in Australia that very few “poor wines” are actually sold here.
You also provide cheese and nibbles? Yes, I think that wine and food should, where possible, be linked. But there is also another aspect, in that your level of appreciation of a wine may change when you have some food with it. For example, some wines may taste a bit acidic, but then if you have it with cheese, you may find that now it cuts through the cheese beautifully. Or maybe now the wine now tastes a bit bland. You have a lovely partnership going on. We also talk about
the history of some wines, interspersed with amusing anecdotes.
What inspires you to continue to manage The Collecting Bug website? The Collecting Bug website offers small museums, clubs, and collectors the opportunity to display their collections on the website. For instance, they may be passionate about collecting cosmetic boxes. Or they may love Wedgewood pottery, or have
been collecting football cards from the 1950’s or 60’s. You can get “swept up” in their passion, it is always interesting, whether stamp collecting or an unusual collection.
I am now semi-retired, but over the past few months, I have helped various well known clubs Australia wide set up their archives and collections. There is the technical side which I find interesting, as well as the collecting side and then of course there are interesting conversations with various collectors. I think you develop expertise through familiarity, as well as finding a structure to work with, as I
mentioned before.
You have a very inspiring and creative attitude. Well, there are wonders everywhere, if you open your eyes to what is going on around you. Whether it is just a walk down the street, looking at the buildings as they are now and imagining perhaps what they looked like 100 years ago. Or walking along the beach, looking at the natural habitat or perhaps some migratory birds, or noticing how the sand is eroding from one side to another. Or you are tasting wine, and you are thinking, what is special about this taste? There are marvels to be had everywhere.
“I admire almost all areas of endeavour. I think that in the areas I find rewarding, I have actually done quite a bit of work. It is rarely an instant attainment.”
Felicity May interviewed Philip Moorhouse