In the year 1849, a merchant, Joseph Ernst Seppelt from Poland (formerly known as ‘Silesia’) moved to Australia along with his family. In 1851, they purchased the property which is now known as ‘Seppeltsfield’ and settled down in the Barossa Valley wine region. The climate of this area is generally warm, dry and sunny and gets only about 500 mm of rainfall. The terrier is composed of heavy, red – brown soils. Owing to the climatic and terrier conditions of this lush and fertile valley, the vines planted by the Seppelts flourished naturally, leading to the growth of healthy and juicy grapes. Joseph Seppelt encouraged his neighbours also to take up viticulture. Very soon, the whole valley floor was teeming with green and gold grapevines.
The first ever vintage produced by Seppeltsfield was manufactured in the family dairy. By the year 1867, Joseph had been granted permission to construct a full – scale winery. Although Joseph did not live long enough to see the winery completed, his visionary and pioneering spirit lived on through his eldest son Oscar. Oscar Benno Seppelt inherited his father’s company and legacy in the year 1868 when he was just 21 years old. He wanted to fulfil Joseph’s dreams and thus, worked hard to take Seppeltsfield to heights his father could only dream of. His unwavering faith, influence and dedication are the reason behind Seppeltsfield’s immense success, earning it a reputation for elegant and premium – quality wines. From Seppeltsfield’s small and humble beginnings, Benno Seppelt harnessed the vines’ potential and expanded Seppeltsfield until it became the largest winery in Australia by the onset of the 20th century, producing more than 2 million litres of marvellous wines every year. Later owners of the estate continued to grow both the vineyard properties as well as the wineries.
No other winemaker in Australia has such grand stocks of old fortified wines as Seppeltsfield. When the spectacular stone Seppeltsfield port store was built back in 1878, Benno placed a puncheon (500 – litre barrel) of his finest port wine from that vintage in the newly – constructed storage maturation cellar. This barrel was intended to lie in that cellar for at least a century and then be released as the premium Seppeltsfield 100 – yr – old Para Tawny Port wine, known as their Centennial Collection.
Every year from 1978, the next vintage of the port wine was set to be released in a 750 ml bottle. To release the 1900 vintage in the year 2000, Seppeltsfield decided to make them available in both 375 ml and 750 ml bottles. Till date, it remains the only winery to release a 100 – year – old single vintage every year.
In the year 2007, Seppeltsfield wines was purchased by the Foster’s Group, placing it under the leadership of private hands again. In 2013, MD Warren Randall became the majority shareholder of the estate. In addition to Randall and Nathan Waks, Randolph Bowen and Carl Lindner are the current custodians of this sprawling Barossa Valley wine heritage.
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