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Nick Chlebnikowski was most widely known during the final decades of his life as a wine critic - a self-imposed role that involved evaluating thousands of wines every year as a commitment to his customers - an undertaking that was sometimes joked about as being a dream job.
Behind this daily discipline, the mundane routine of the retail wine trade and the constant interaction between customers, there was a man who enjoyed solitude as much as he craved conversation, and who in his later years became increasingly concerned and saddened by the state of the world.
On the surface, Nick was at the very least an easily met character and an interesting man to know - in equal parts witty, rude, outspoken, melodramatic and cantankerous. He was most distinguished by his integrity, compassion, alertness of mind, unusual determination and a dogged creativity that applied to almost any situation. A long time friend observed "He has 100 ideas a day - four of them are great". It didn't matter, so long as the great ideas were seen through to fulfilment, each undertaken with a passion and enthusiasm that was catching.
Nick as the wine merchant par excellence was constantly innovating. In the 1980s Nick together with his brother Vic were amongst the first to market cleanskins. They led the way in promoting the cause of many of Australia's first boutique wineries, both in Australia and overseas, trail blazing export markets in the U.K. and France.
Nicks Wine Merchants quickly expanded, though perhaps a little too fast. When the economic crisis of the 1990s hit, nearly all of the family's riches, so painstakingly acquired since migrating from Russia in 1949, were swept away in a receding tide of misfortune and debt. For a while, it looked like they would never recover. However, Nick and Vic, together with sister Irene and Nick's sons, Simon, Alex and Yuri, rallied together to pull off what was a protracted and tedious return to prosperity, helped along by the virtues of adversity and a chance meeting with an eccentric computer professor. In 1994, Les Goldschlager's idea of 'digital cash' was crazy enough to excite Nick's entrepreneurial verve, and together with his sons, they pioneered one of Australia's first e-commerce web sites - www.nicks.com.au. A suite of sites followed, most notably 'Vintage School', an idiosyncratic and highly ambitious online wine course which coincided with the development of the 'Wine Man' video, an interactive CD on Victoria's vineyards, and Nick's unique wine rating system, 'Winespider', recently acknowledged in a research paper from Yale University in the U.S.A. as the "creme de la creme of wine rating scales."
 At the Doncaster branch of Nicks Wine Merchants circa 1985.
A vision to create one of the world's great wine estates led Nick to search for a premier vineyard location. With help from long time friend, Bill Spring, 'Domaines Tatiarra' was established at Heathcote, earning immediate praise. James Halliday commented, "It is hard to imagine a more auspicious start to a new venture", while the world's most influential wine critic, Robert Parker rated the 2004 Tatiarra Caravan of Dreams Shiraz 98+ points.
Then, a bout of bowel cancer interrupted everything. Treated, cured and realising that life on earth is short, Nick's immense creative output became polarised. One part of him continued to review wines and maintain his business interests, while a deeper part of his personality began to stir. Since his early years as a successful architect during the '70s, he had painted on and off, but in 2002, he started painting seriously. "His grand theme was to reveal the woes of the world as well as the wonder of creation. Each theme had its own method. For Nick the medium reflected the message. He chose his media appropriately for the subject. Thus, 'In Search of the Watchmaker', his first exhibition, when the theme was fractals, the universal pattern in Nature, he chose paints which would yield a fractal texture when properly handled." These paintings, frequently overflowing with beauty, strangeness, doubt, terror and divinity continued through at least five major exhibitions on a progression of related ideas. "He showed us that art can matter, that it can and must affect our present and our future." *
Very recently it was the revolution of stem cells that caught his attention and he dedicated his last exhibition to the provocative subject of science creating designer life. Professor Richard Boyd, Director of Stem Cell Research at Monash University, opened the exhibition. He recalls, "It was a skilful and powerful expose that also led to a very strong, albeit unlikely, friendship with potential combatants - stem cell scientists at Monash University. There was an immediate fusion of the minds and enormous mutual respect. Nick had the scientists thinking and re-thinking...the therapeutic potential of stem cells could be realised in a totally non-ethically contentious manner."
Around Christmas Day 2008, Nick was again diagnosed with cancer.
Typically, he remained determined and optimistic. Some of his familiar sayings go a little way to characterise the man:
"Admire talent in whatever form it comes" (he was always quick to praise excellence);
"Remember the names and faces of your acquaintances - it might cost you a sale" (his ability to recall names and faces was phenomenal);
"It's not worth a pinch of nanny goat shit" (he was never shy about calling things as he saw them).
We hope readers won't feel we have been too informal in this brief tribute to Nick's life. Even in suffering and death he seems to have diffused around him an influence which translates part of his savour to us, and no doubt, to yourselves, whether through wine, architecture, art or argument.
As many have thanked Nick for the influence he had on their lives, we too thank you for your support. The business is, and will be continued by his family. A retrospective exhibition of his paintings is being planned. In the mysterious abyss of time from which fractal structures were first born, the same filaments survive with infinitely creative propensities, and in so many, many ways, Nick remains with us.
* a quote from the eulogy delivered by friend and fellow artist, Mary Newsome.
Architecture 1969
Group exhibition with Domenic de Clario, Barry Pearce & Zinta Jurjans at the Atheneum Melbourne
Solo exhibition of Lino Embossing in the offices of Eggleston, McDonald & Secombe Architects, Carlton
1970
1st and 2nd Prize Tasmanian Timber House Competition with Bernard Brown, Bruce Echberg and Tom Wilson
Design & Construction of massive bubble dome Melbourne University Union Forecourt
1972-1982
Private Practice - domestic, educational, industrial, sporting and institutional buildings and landscape design
1975
Designed first solar energy house in conjunction with Yazarki
Created Landscape Factory - sourcing landscape materials for Alistair Knox, Gordon Ford, Ivan Stranger and Robert Grant
Award for renovated industrial building - Inshape Gym, Ballarat
1973
Citation Awards for Domestic Architecture
Runner-up House of the Year - Turpie Residence Ballarat
1980
Co-founded Architectural firm Davidson, Chlebnikowski & Rogers
Co-authored History of Parliament House Melbourne with Tom Wilson
Exhibition of Works, Parliament House Melbourne Wine Industry 1975
Established Nicks Wine Merchants with brother Vic and expanded operations to export, import, global, international retailing.
1986 - 1994
Nicks Wine Merchants International London office, exporting boutique wines.
1994
Established
one of Australia's first E-commerce sites with Professor Les
Goldschlager, together with Simon, Alex and Yuri Chlebnikowski - http://www.nicks.com.au/ 1996
Co-produced,
scripted and hosted interactive CD-ROM, Vines & Vineyards of
Victoria with Gerald Carrington and with Vincent Donato (HSV7 &
Channel 10) 1998
Co-produced, scripted and hosted Wine Man Video with Gerald Carrington and with Vincent Donato (HSV7 & Channel 10)
Created 1st International Internet Based Wine School - http://www.vintageschool.com/
Wrote the Advanced Wine Course. Research into smell and taste leads to the creation of 'Witjuti' bush chocolates and 'Allira' range of bush perfumes all based on native Australian ingredients.
Invented Winespider, wine evaluation system 2000
Co-founded Domaines Tatiarra Limited with Bill Spring, establishing vineyard in Heathcote
Domaines Tatiarra Internationally recognized as one of the world's greatest Shiraz wines.
Art
2002
Returned to studio painting 2005
Solo exhibition In Search of the Watchmaker, Glen Eira Gallery, Victoria
Created website http://www.fractalpainting.com/
Development of Fractal based Architecture 2006
Solo exhibition Earth, Fire & Water, Manningham Gallery, Doncaster, Victoria
Selected paintings exhibited in BMW Doncaster
Earth, Fire & Water, group exhibition Green Hill Gallery, Adelaide
Penny's Hill Gallery, McLaren Vale 2007
The Message, an art installation inspired by The Passion of Christ, Malvern Gardens
The Message - Original works at Delshan Gallery of Modern Art, Armadale
Receives letter of endorsement from Professor Rhys Isaac, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History.
Receives review from Dr Colin Holden who is also working on a full commentary of 'The Message" exhibition
May 2007 Opens new studio, and becomes a member of the North Fitzroy Art Community - The group is known as J Studios
Group exhibition, May 2007, Blacksphere Gallery, Richmond
Group exhibition, May 2007, Carmelite Library, Middle Park, Melbourne
Group exhibition, 'Mother Earth' with Suzie Duncan and Ruth McCallum-Howell, October 2007, Glen Eira Gallery, Glen Eira
Solo exhibition, You're Invited To My Party, November 2007, Blacksphere Gallery, Richmond REPRESENTATIVE GALLERIES
Delshan Gallery of Art, Armadale, Victoria
Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide, South Australia
Red Dot Gallery, McLaren Vale, South Australia
Blacksphere Gallery, Richmond, Victoria
The artist's works are represented in private collections in Australia, U.S.A., U.K., Norway and Japan Education
University of Melbourne B.Arch Dip TRP 1966-1971
Architecture & Town Planning
Awarded several Nell Norris Scholarships for Architecture
Awarded the Stephenson & Turner Medal for Architecture 
Related Links...
Visit www.fractalpainting.com to see Nick's complete collection of fractal paintings.
Visit www.winespider.com to read more about Nick's wine evaluation system.
Visit Vintage School, a free online wine course first written by Nick, featuring excerpts from "The Wine Man" video. |
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