Kevin Sobels, 71, the fifth generation descendant of German immigrant winemaker Carl August Sobels, was installed as the 2014 Hunter Valley Living Legend of Wine at the Hunter Valley Wine Industry Awards dinner at Wyndham Estate.

Now in their eighth year, the awards recognise outstanding achievements within the Hunter wine industry.

The night saw Kevin Sobels join such Hunter notables as Max Drayton, John Tulloch, Karl Stockhausen, Brian Walsh, Brian and Fay McGuigan, Jay Tulloch, Bruce Tyrrell, Phil Ryan, Chris Barnes, Don McWilliam, Pat Auld and Ian Scarborough as a Living Legend.

The Sobels family saga began with Carl August, who in 1847 quit his home in the Saxony-Anhalt town of Queldinburg and migrated with his family to South Australia.

Trained in winemaking in his native Germany and in France's Champagne region, Carl August settled at Tanunda in the Barossa and in 1848 made his first Australian wines for William Jacob, the government surveyor who mapped the Barossa.

He took a major role in developing the area's winegrowing, including giving expert guidance to the Gramp family in establishing the Orlando wine venture in 1850.

Carl August planted his own vineyard and built his own winery at Tanunda and made his own wine with the help of his son - also named Carl August - who had been sent to Germany to learn winemaking.

Carl the younger took over the Tanunda wine business when his father died in 1863. He sold it, however, in 1869 when he accepted a job to finish building a new winery and make its wine at Watervale in the Clare Valley.

This later became the Quelltaler wine venture, controlled by Carl August II and succeeding generations of Sobels over the next 110 years.

Kevin Sobels' father Larry took over as Quelltaler winemaker at the age of 26 and Kevin set off on a similar path with study at the Roseworthy wine school.

Kevin's wine working life began in South Australia with a job in a Waikerie winery owned by the Hardy family. He also worked alongside the great Peter Lehmann at Saltram and in 1967 he was recruited by Seppelts to be winemaker-manager at the Chateau Tanunda winery.

After Kevin's father died at work in 1968 he was offered the Quelltaler winemaker's job but decided to stay with Seppelts. But in 1972 he swapped the Barossa Valley for a new challenge in the Upper Hunter Valley with the post of winemaker at the then new Denman Estate venture, based on grapes from the Roxburgh and Mindaribba vineyards.

In 1974 he and his wife Margaret established the Queldinberg winery on the New England Highway at Muswellbrook, basing production entirely on bought-in grapes - in those days a rare occurrence.

At Muswellbrook both Margaret and Kevin took active roles in community affairs and Kevin was one of the prime movers in the establishment of the Upper Hunter Vineyard Association in 1976 and the Upper Hunter Wine Festival launched in 1977.

In 1986 the Sobels moved their operation to Pokolbin, taking over the vineyard on the corner of Broke and Halls roads formerly owned by the late Greg Ross-Jones.

Today Kevin and Margaret work alongside a sixth-generation wine industry Sobels, their Roseworthy marketing course graduate son Jason, who is taking a growing role in making the Sobels wines from bought-in grapes and from their own Pokolbin vineyard.

Kevin is proud that Jason's 2014 Hunter wines mark the 166th unbroken run of Australian vintages by Sobels.

Kevin told me last week that he and Jason were the only Sobels still actively engaged in the wine industry and the Hunter Living Legends award was a great milestone in the family history.

He said he still enjoyed his involvement in wine as much as he did as the young Roseworthy graduate and the great, great grandson of Carl August Sobels.

A SHERLOCK Holmes-style deerstalker hat has long been the  trademark of Kevin Sobels’ career in Hunter wine.

One habitually sits on his head as he works at the Sobels vineyard and winery on the corner of Halls and Broke roads, Pokolbin.

A drawing of a deer-stalker was used on the labels of the Queldinburg wines produced at the Sobels New England Highway, Muswellbrook, winery and Kevin says he adopted the headgear after a relative bought him one in 1974 during a visit to Scotland.

While Kevin and his wife Margaret were building their Muswellbrook winery, they spent a winter living on-site in a caravan and Kevin found the hat’s fold-down earpieces ideal for countering the intense cold.

Sadly, the original gift hat met its end when it fell into a tank of fermenting red wine, but Kevin has continued to buy replacements and to make a deerstalker part of his persona.

THERE hasn't been much good news emanating from Wyndham Estate lately, with the announced closure of the Branxton Wyndham Estate cellar door, restaurant and function centre and sale of the prime Black Cluster vineyard in Mistletoe Lane, Pokolbin.

The historic former Penfolds Dalwood winery, however, provided a fine setting for the 2014 Hunter Valley Legends and Wine Industry Awards dinner last Thursday.

And the Viticulturist of the Year Award was won by Louise Eather of Orlando Wyndham.

Louise won the prize from a field of finalists that included Will Capper of Hunter Valley Vineyard Management, Andrew Margan of Margan Family Wines and Andrew Pengilly of Tyrrell's Vineyards.

The Rising Star of the Year Award went to Belinda Stapleton of Spicers Vineyards Estate from other finalists Stuart Hordern of Brokenwood Wines and Jessica McLeish of McLeish Estate.

Andrew Thomas and the grand old J.Y Tulloch wine company scored second-time successes in the Winemaker of the Year and Cellar Door of the Year awards.

Known universally as "Thommo", Andrew Thomas, owner and chief winemaker of Thomas Wines and contract winemaker for some of the Hunter top boutique wine brands, was crowned Winemaker of the Year, a title he previously won in 2008.

Other winemaker award finalists were Jim Chatto of McWilliam's Mount Pleasant, Andrew Margan of Margan Family Wines and Usher Tinkler of Tinklers Wines and the Crush House consultancy.

The Tulloch headquarters on the corner of McDonalds and De Beyers roads, Pokolbin, won the Cellar Door of the Year title - repeating its success in 2007.

Other cellar door finalists were Bimbadgen and Oakvale Wines.

Hunter Valley Heritage awards went to Cessnock's Marthaville Homestead and the 1973 Vintage Festival Poster.