text: Some 50 years later in 1950 Eric Brand (a baker by trade) and his wife Nancy Redman acquired the same 24 hectare property with just over 2 hectares of Shiraz and named it ‘The Laira’ Vineyard in honour of Captain Stentiford’s favourite Clipper, which bore the same name.
  For the next 16 years Eric worked as a ‘Blocker’ – the name given to Coonawarra landholders who sold their grapes to other wineries in the region. That is until 1966 when armed with an antique basket press, a must pump and 4 concrete fermenters, and blessed with the best Coonawarra weather of the decade, Eric produced his very first vintage under the Brand’s Laira name. Tellingly, Eric would go on to become the First Patron of Coonawarra for his contribution to the region.