The Auswine Forum

I was at an absolutely superb tasting over in HK on Friday, and was tasting at Leoville Barton. One of the Barton family was pouring, and we got chatting. She gave me an amazing wine trivia fact, perhaps we should adopt Leoville-Barton as an Aussie wine!!!

Trivia Fact Number One:
The great grandfather of Anthony Barton, the current proprietor of Leoville-Barton actually wrote the song "Waltzing Matilda"

Thought it might be interesting to start a thread on wine trivia.

BTW, the 2015 and 2016 Leoville Barton are both super wines.

Banjo Patterson from memory

Felix/Nick, think 'Banjo' was a nickname eminating from his real name, Barton.

yep, just googled it.
Indeed it's true:

Andrew Barton Patterson 1864-1941

His descendants still live at Chateau Leoville-Barton.

OK, so we gotta be patriotic now and go out and buy a case!!!

According to Wikipedia Andrew Barton Patterson wrote for a literary journal called The Bulletin under the pseudonym of "The Banjo" which was the name of his favourite horse.

Mahmoud.

I have a feeling that the relationship between Banjo Patterson and Anthony Barton of Leoville Barton is not direct but might be linked at the grandfather or great grandfather level. Banjo Patterson's mother was a Barton born in Australia and her father was a Barton who came from Ireland. Therefore it is likely that it is this Barton (Banjo Patterson's grandfather), or his father that might be linked to Anthony Barton's family.

According to Wkipedia Banjo Patterson had two childen, Grace who was born in 1904, and Hugh who was born in 1906. Meanwhile Anthony Barton was born in Ireland in 1930. At most Banjo Patterson could only be a grandfather to Anthony Barton and for that to happen one of his children would have to have gone to Ireland. It couln't have been the son Hugh for then Anthony Barton would be a Patterson. Therefore the only possibilty would be Grace Patterson. She would have had to go to Ireland in the 1920s and marry Anthony Barton's father.

Anthony Barton was born in Ireland in 1930 and his father was named Derick. For there to be a direct link between Banjo Patterson and Anthony Barton, Derick Barton would have to marry Grace Patterson from Australia. She would have been 26 at the time Anthony was born. Derick left Straffan House, now a hotel and golf course, to the older son Christopher, while Anthony Barton would inherit Chateau Leoville Barton from his uncle Ronald Barton. I cannot as yet establish a link between Derick Barton and Grace Patterson.

Cheers .......... Mahmoud.

well, Mahmoud, it seems google can indeed establish the relationship
as I said in the first post, the relationship is at "great-grandfather" level. So, I guess you are just repeating what I said.

felixp21 wrote:well, Mahmoud, it seems google can indeed establish the relationship
as I said in the first post, the relationship is at "great-grandfather" level. So, I guess you are just repeating what I said.

Not to be a stickler but I'm not really repeating what you said.

In your first post you said that the lady in Hong Kong said "The great grandfather of Anthony Barton, the current proprietor of Leoville-Barton actually wrote the song "Waltzing Matilda"". Subsequently, based on a Google search, you said that "His descendants still live at Chateau Leoville-Barton". My reading of the information that I found on the internet was that neither of these assertions was likely to be correct. There there was a chance that Banjo Patterson could be a grandfather, but certainly not a great grandfather, only if his daughter had returned to Ireland and married Anthony Barton's father. There was only 26 years between the birth of Banjo Patterson's daughter Grace (1904) and the birth of Anthony Barton (1930), not enough time for another generation to make him a great grandfather descendant.

The great grandfather theory only works if there was an indirect link, that Anthony Barton's great grandfather might somehow be related to Banjo Patterson's maternal grandfather. Despite not finding any information establishing this connection I assumed this might be correct because of the Barton family member who mentioned a relationship to you in Hong Kong. However nothing in my seach establish this link.

Please don't misunderstand, I have a deep interest in Bordeaux because many of my initial purchases for cellaring were Bordeaux wines and I also read the article in Decanter when Anthony Barton was made Decanter magazine's Man of the Year in 2007. That is why when I first read your post I said to my other half (she is an Aussie) that I did not feel that it was correct because, as I told her, Anthony Barton's family came from Ireland and it did not seem correct that he could be a descent of someone from Australia. If you're interested here is a link to the Decanter article by Steven Brook on the Man of the Year:

https://www.decanter.com/features/man-of-the ... on-247472/

By the way, I discovered that Anthony Barton had an affair with Princess Margaret (and no, it is not mentioned in the Decanter article). Apparently Lord Snowdon and Anthony Barton were school mates and at one time Lord Snowdon is supposed to have said to Barton "I wish to hell she'd take a lover and leave me in peace". According to a biography of Lord Snowdon:

Then, one evening, with no preliminaries, Margaret said to Barton: 'Let's go to bed.'

Startled, he replied: 'No, I think our relationship's not that.' She edged closer and said: 'Well, I think you could be a bit more cuddly.'

Few men could have resisted her, and Barton did not, though his conscience troubled him. He felt there was more than a hint of revenge in her enthusiasm for him. An affair with one of her husband's oldest and closest friends was a classic way for a neglected wife to strike back.

As you can see I quite enjoyed the research.

Mahmoud.

I guess we will just agree to disagree, and leave it at that.
Plenty of articles stating exactly what I was told, and what I wrote. But, whatever. zzzzzz

Hey, don't go to sleep, send me the links to those articles. I really want to know. Honestly.

Yeah the great-grandfather claim doesn't appear to be true - they seem to have a common ancestor, William Barton, but it splits out quite a bit from there;

William Barton 1723-1793
Hugh Barton 1766-1854
Nathaniel Barton 1799-1867
Bertram Francis Barton 1830-1904
Bertram Hugh Barton 1858-1927
Derick Barton 1900-1993
Anthony Barton 1930-

William Barton 1723-1793
Charles Barton 1760-1819
Robert Barton 1809-1863
Rose Isabella Barton 1844-1893
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson 1864-1941

yep, I got around to reading google again.
Banjo's great-grandfather, not the ladies great grandfather as I thought she said, was Thomas Barton, the founder of Leoville-Barton.
(Didn't realise the Bartons also own the K-Club, where the Ryder Cup was a few years ago.)

Still the connection is tight, Banjo indeed directly related to Leoville-Barton.
So I guess it's pretty much Australia's best Cabernet

(well, we have always claimed Russel Crowe and Crowded House as Aussie, so why not a Bordeaux Chateau??)

Hugh Barton bought/founded Leoville-Barton in 1826 and was the brother of Banjo's great-grandfather Charles - Banjo's great-great uncle I guess?

Thomas would have been Banjo's great-great-great Grandfather and was in the wine trade (notably forming Barton which turned into Barton & Guestier) but passed away before Hugh bought Leoville-Barton.

camw wrote:Yeah the great-grandfather claim doesn't appear to be true - they seem to have a common ancestor, William Barton, but it splits out quite a bit from there;

William Barton 1723-1793
Hugh Barton 1766-1854
Nathaniel Barton 1799-1867
Bertram Francis Barton 1830-1904
Bertram Hugh Barton 1858-1927
Derick Barton 1900-1993
Anthony Barton 1930-

William Barton 1723-1793
Charles Barton 1760-1819
Robert Barton 1809-1863
Rose Isabella Barton 1844-1893
Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson 1864-1941

Well done Cam!

So the link is at Banjo Patterson's maternal great, great grandfather and Anthony Barton's great, great, great, great, grandfather level. Hardly the "tight" family connection but no doubt a very interesting bit of trivia.

Mahmoud.

Do we really need an excuse to drink Ch. Leoville Barton?

grhm1961 wrote:Do we really need an excuse to drink Ch. Leoville Barton?

No, not at all. Well said.

camw wrote:Hugh Barton bought/founded Leoville-Barton in 1826 and was the brother of Banjo's great-grandfather Charles - Banjo's great-great uncle I guess?

Thomas would have been Banjo's great-great-great Grandfather and was in the wine trade (notably forming Barton which turned into Barton & Guestier) but passed away before Hugh bought Leoville-Barton.

errr, Chateau Leoville-Barton has, on it's own web-site, Thomas Barton as the founder of the Leoville-Barton wine dynasty (1722)
According to google, and please just google this, Thomas was Banjo's great grandfather. So it looks like a pretty direct family link to me!!!!!!

felixp21 wrote:

camw wrote:Hugh Barton bought/founded Leoville-Barton in 1826 and was the brother of Banjo's great-grandfather Charles - Banjo's great-great uncle I guess?

Thomas would have been Banjo's great-great-great Grandfather and was in the wine trade (notably forming Barton which turned into Barton & Guestier) but passed away before Hugh bought Leoville-Barton.

errr, Chateau Leoville-Barton has, on it's own web-site, Thomas Barton as the founder of the Leoville-Barton wine dynasty (1722)
According to google, and please just google this, Thomas was Banjo's great grandfather. So it looks like a pretty direct family link to me!!!!!!

If you read what their own website says for Hugh;

"The company did so well that he was able to purchase Château Langoa in 1821 and a plot from the Léoville domaine in 1826, which he subsequently renamed Léoville Barton."

It also says at the end of the spiel about Thomas that "His grandson, Hugh, was the first member of the family to own vineyards in Bordeaux."

As I mentioned Thomas was a very successful negociant but Leoville Barton wasn't formed until after his death, if you'd like to believe otherwise it is against what they say on their site.

I posted the lines of descendance above, you are a couple of greats off but it's fine either way.

felixp21 wrote:According to google, and please just google this, Thomas was Banjo's great grandfather. So it looks like a pretty direct family link to me!!!!!!

Please, please, please, give us the link. Until then, as far as I can see, Cam has the lineage of both Banjo Patterson and Anthony Barton and it only intersects at William Barton, four generations up from Banjo Patterson and six up from Anthony Barton.

Mahmoud.

Also, it is worth remembering that regardless of the role of Thomas Barton (who did not own any property in Bordeaux) and the lineage after him, Anthony Barotn has a slightly different lineage because though he is also a Barton, he inherited from his uncle Ronald Barton who had no children.

And why hasn't anybody remarked on the juicy gossip about Anthony Barton's affair with Princess Margaret?

Mahmoud Ali wrote:And why hasn't anybody remarked on the juicy gossip about Anthony Barton's affair with Princess Margaret?

Because her track record doesn't make that event noteworthy. She enjoyed life and hats off to her.

-- George Krashos