Talk:John Reynell

Unreliable History
I'm sorry, but this article has more facts wrong than right. It includes some bad guesses taken from a family history written 150 years after the events, and unreliable corporate propaganda statements by the Chateau Reynella and Hardys wine companies in the twentieth century.

John Reynell did not settle at McLaren Vale, the suburb is now named Reynella after his farm. McLaren Vale is 15km away. He certainly didn't plant the first grape vines in South Australia, commercial or otherwise. John Barton Hack, George Stevenson and Richard Hamilton all had vineyards growing before Reynell even arrived in South Australia. There is no evidence whatever that Reynell planted vines in 1839; the first mention of them in his diary is in 1841. Nor is there any evidence that he had imported cuttings in 1839, or obtained any vines from South Africa. Reynell kept detailed records of his farming activities, and these "facts" were never mentioned in his lifetime; they did not appear in the documentary record until the twentieth century. He made his first wine in 1844 in domestic backyard quantities, by which time Walter Duffield was producing wine by the hundreds of gallons. The first move to commercial wine-making was in 1845, when Reynell planted five acres of grapes. Hamilton had had five acres under grapes five years before, and by 1845, Duffield was exporting wine to England. Reynell may have been among the first dozen or so in South Australia to plant grapes on an experimental basis, and his move into commercial wine-making came in the mid-1840s, contemporary with other notable winemakers such as Hamilton and Penfolds. Thomas Hardy worked briefly for Reynell in 1850, long after these events. He was not a pioneer of the industry.

If anyone is interested in re-writing the article, this and much more information has been on the public record since 2009 at  Peter Bell (talk) 03:24, 28 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Peter,
 * The link to the PDF appears to be broken - do you have the original file? I have unearthed some data on a John Reynell between 1832 and 1834, but I'm not sure if it's THE John Reynell!
 * David GlassyEye (talk) 15:18, 3 January 2022 (UTC)

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Possible link to a John Reynell, 1832–1834
I stumbled on this page due to my own research into the glassmakers Chance Brothers (then known as British Crown Glass Co.) I have discovered that a John Reynell worked for Chances from at least 1832 until he departed in 1834. As an employee or an agent, his task was selling window glass to other European countries (he travelled as far as Bohemia) and seemingly was quite good at it - the company had plans for him to continue selling its glass in Australia, but that is where he decided otherwise and left.

Does any of this ring true? The timeline is favourable as he would be around 23 years of age when he was first employed by Chance Brothers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by GlassyEye (talk • contribs) 14:53, 3 January 2022 (UTC)