Evans, Len

(1930–2006), promoter, taster, judge, consumer, teacher, and maker of wine who did more to advance the cause of wine in australia than any other individual. Born in Felixstowe, England, he was an architect manqué, like his friend Michael broadbent, but in Evans’s case the distraction was professional golf rather than wine. He emigrated to New Zealand in 1953 and arrived in Sydney, Australia, two years later, where his stepping stone into what was to become a lifetime’s immersion in wine was working for the new Chevron Hilton Hotel. His energetic enthusiasm for wine was such that by 1965 he was the first National Promotions Executive for the Australian Wine Board. Evans was one of the few to see that the future lay in table wine rather than in the sweet fortified drinks in which Australia then specialized. A natural performer and publicist, Evans caused such a stir that Australians were apparently convinced that real men could indeed drink table wine, and since then table wine has become increasingly important to Australia’s social life and economy.