Ian Loftus is not only uncle to Zanzibar Cafe co-owner, Renee Loftus but a man with an eye to a sparkling red wine.
Mr Loftus is credited with getting the Australian wine industry to change the name of sparkling Burgundy to sparkling red or sparkling shiraz 25 years ago. As a lover of sparkling red, and with a long career in the wine industry, Mr Loftus decided to breathe new life into the wine which was out of favour.
“When something is dead, it’s hard to revive it but I had the idea to give it a new identity. The French were complaining about the use of their region names to describe wines in Australia and I thought let’s get in and change it before we’re forced to.”
Some 25 years later, Mr Loftus, who lives at Bimbimbie, celebrated with a dinner at two hatted Zanzibar, owned by his niece Renee and partner Huw Jones .
“We opened a 20 year old sparkling shiraz from the Barossa. The cork was still good, the pressure was good and the cork was holding well. It wasn’t at its absolute peak but still good,” he said.
