Good Living Cover Story – Huon Hooke
Sydney Morning Herald – Tuesday 28th July 2009
David Doyle in the wine room at Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney
One man’s passion for wine has resulted in a staggering $40 million private collection.
David Doyle is an understated, quietly-spoken man who dropped out of a university computer science course before going on to build a software business that made him fabulously wealthy.
Over the past 10 years, he’s spent $40 million of his fortune buying wine for a collection that must rank as one of the world’s largest in private hands.
Part of the 60,000-bottle collection is in this country. The remainder is in London, New York and southern California, where he has a commercial cellar for his own wines and room for other collectors to rent space.
“I started out with zinfandel. It goes great with pizza but it’s not a really long-keeping wine,” says the 48-year-old American, who came to Australia courtesy of a charity auction and now spends half the year here.
His collection includes some of the world’s great wines. Among them is a 1945 Romanee-Conti, one of the greatest vintages in France’s Burgundy. He bought it for $30, 100 – the most he’s paid for a bottle. As yet, it’s unopened.
Doyle grew up in a home where his father “was into food” and his parents drank wine but it was “cheap stuff in large bottles”.
He did three years of a four-year university course but quit out of boredom. “The school was way behind where the industry was,” he says.
While building his business, Quest Software, which specialised in problem-solving software, his life was all work. His outlet was to go out and have a good time. He liked fine food and wine and his formative wine experience occured in a San Diego restaurant. “The ‘75 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne was my first great wine. The sommelier there took me under his wing and showed me some great wines. One night at dinner, I was sitting next to a guy who showed me the 1970 Chateau Latour and I was hooked,” he recalls.
In 1992, he successfully bid $40,000 at a charity auction for a personal tour of Australian vineyards with wine legend Len Evans. It also led to an entry to the Single Bottle Club, probably the most exclusive wine-lovers’ club in Australia, whose dinners are eleborately constructed around the world’s greatest and rarest wines.
With his company floated for millions and a new-found love for Australia, Doyle entered another phase of his life – as a restaurateur. He owns the Rockpool Bar and Grill restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as Spice Temple in Sydney, with Trish Richards and chef Neil Perry.
Doyle’s wine collection forms the backbone of their wine lists.
The wine list at Rockpool Bar and Grill is unlike anything this country has seen before. Its depth and breadth of European wines is the equal of any other in the world and superior to some French venues with three Michelin stars. It lists 3700 wines from a cellar of 7400. Doyle has about 10,000 wines in this country and 48,000 in California.
He doesn’t blow his own trumpet but he confesses to a good memory for vintages. “Memorable wines from great years really stick with you”, he says. “It may be part of being a computer guy but I do have a memory for vintages.”
“Variety is one of the best things about wine, especially the ability to go back over vintages to see how they age.”
Purchasing a few large, private wine cellars boosted his enormous wine collection. About one third comes from auctions, including Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Acker Merrill & Condit in New York with the remainder from merchants.
“They source a lot of great stuff and steer me away from stuff that might be dodgy,” he says. “You have to have a relationship with them. I make every purchasing decision myself. I inspect bottles.
“I have never bought for investment purposes but only to share with people. You never want to open a great bottle of wine by yourself then tell other people about it. You always want to share.
“There were certain great wines I wanted to have but my spending has dropped off sharply. You can’t go on doing it endlessly.”
He aims to get through about 20 percent of the collection in his lifetime. “I’ve got lots of friends,”he says.
Expert Opinions
Wine he would like to buy 1870 Chateau Lefite magjnum. “There are probably only a dozen or so left in the world.”
On wine write Robert Parker “I’m not a Parker palate…not into high-alcohol wines. Wines all start to taste the same at high alcohols.
His greatest recent food and wine experiences “I tend to remember the wines but not so much the food. In a restaurant in Santa Monica I had the 1978 Domaine de lal Romanee-Conti Grands-Echezeaux, which was so perfect. We also had La Tache and Romanee-Conti of ‘78 but they were not quite at their pinnacle.”
Favourite Australian wines Grosset Riesling (“I’m a riesling lover”) and Mornington Peninsula pinot noirs.
Other passions? ”Music: I have more than 1000 CDs. But I just love wine.”
Best recently tasted wine 1949 d’Angerville Volnay. “It’s just a village appellation but one of the greatest wines I’ve had.”
