05 Jun Off the Vine, Season 1, Ep 4

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Seppalt Vineyard: Seppelt is one of Australia’s oldest wine companies, this year celebrating 150 years of quality winemaking. It is acknowledged as one of the finest wines in the world renowned for its power and concentration of flavour. This remarkable port is so dense and syrupy that one swirl will paint the inside of your glass. Seppelt is the only known company in the world to have significant stocks of consecutive tawny ports in barrels dating back over 100 years. Like his father, Benno was more than a successful winemaker. He was a great humanitarian who created an environment that fostered a sense of community with his workers. Benno continued to expand Seppeltsfield and by the turn of the century, it was Australia’s largest winery, producing 2 million litres annually. Ten years later Seppeltsfield Winery had doubled in size and employed 1700 people. Around this time Benno Seppelt became friends with Hans Irvine, owner of the Victorian Great Western Winery. Great Western was famous for it’s labyrinth of underground tunnels used to cellar the wine. These tunnels, known as the Great Western drives, had originally been dug out by unemployed gold miners back in 1868. The relationship between the two wineries eventually led to the Seppelt family purchasing the Great Western cellars, stock and vineyards in 1918. Seppelts had now expanded across two states and was exporting wine to New Zealand. Later generations of the family continued to expand both wineries and vineyards. In 1964, Seppelt pioneered cool climate grape growing at Drumborg in southern Victoria and Padthaway in the south-east of South Australia. Today, Seppelt has two main wineries, the original Seppeltsfield in South Australia, and the Great Western Winery in Victoria with a number of other vineyards across Australia.