Bittersweet twist for South Australian wine heir as tragedy rocks famed Teakle family
Just weeks after the sudden death of the eccentric Peter Teakle, his son’s life changed again. Now, he is paying the ultimate tribute to his business partner dad.
Port Lincoln
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Just weeks after the sudden loss of his father, Ben Teakle became a dad.
Sitting in the Port Lincoln cellar door at the heart of the business the father and son duo built together he reflects on those hard days.
“He was a little bit unwell for a while there but we weren’t expecting him to pass away,” Ben, who welcomed son Harvey with wife Kylie in July, a week after patriarch Peter Teakle was laid to rest, says.
“Those weeks were really tough but having Harvey and the birth of him to focus on was something that was good for us to be able to help process dad’s passing. We were really busy, we’re looking after him, making sure the house was ready to bring him home, we were in the hospital for a week after he was born.”
Peter was a larger than life businessman who loved the Anzacs so deeply he adopted the Light Horseman regalia wearing emu feathers in his hat.
But to Ben, he was first dad, a storyteller with a memory like an elephant who could transport you anywhere and who couldn’t travel overseas without a fishing rod.
And later, a business partner, with his fondest memories standing side-by-side as they processed the first fruit in their winery and served the first wine in their cellar door.
In the throes of redefining what it means to be tired, Ben knew he needed to forge ahead with the new era of Peter Teakle Wines in tribute to his father and the passion he poured into the winery.
It was the evolution of a plan Peter spent many mornings thinking up in the old smoko shed.
“We had to find that balance between family time but also continuing to build what we’ve got over here, enjoying it with Harvey and giving him the opportunity to potentially experience it as he grows up,” the new dad says.
“I know that’s what Dad would have wanted.
“He was big on legacy and big on experiencing everything our state has to offer. He lived in multiple different places in South Australia. I want to do the same and I want Harvey to experience the same.”
Peter’s hat and first name have disappeared from the bottles as his son unveiled the rebranded Teakle Wines on the eve of the chardonnay harvest.
“The name change was purely to take it from my dad’s name to our family name, something he fully supported,” Ben says.
“He was hoping to share in this launch, we were hoping to do it sooner than now.
“It turns out the old family business still knows how to print a good wine label.”
The fourth generation wine industry family made its fortune printing wine and spirit labels.
Ben’s great-grandfather Gilbert was the first Teakle to join Collotype Labels purchasing the business when owner Donald Taylor died without any family to take it over.
Grandfather Roy ran it with his brother and eventually Peter would buy both of them out but the eccentric businessman wasn’t content with simply printing the labels and ended up growing and bottling the wine too.
He bought the Riverland’s Akuna Station tending to 40ha of vines, grain, cattle and pigs while learning the challenges of farming over 20 years.
“Dad was not just interested in the printing side of things, that was his business and he was extremely passionate about that but he also loved viticulture,” Ben says.
“He loved being on the tractor, he loved being up at four o’clock in the morning to harvest the grapes.”
Ben spent his weekends and summers on the farm riding quad bikes, water skiing and camping by the Murray – a lifestyle he hopes to pass on to Harvey – before following in the family footsteps to join Collotype.
The business was sold in 2007 to Cincinnati-based Multi-Colour which has now grown to become the second largest label company in the world.
After first visiting during an Adelaide Port Lincoln Yacht Race in the ’80s, it was the sailing and fishing that lured Peter to Port Lincoln after the sale.
His love for viticulture never went away and when Ben returned from a year working at Multi-Colour’s South African plant in 2015 he was offered a job.
At first they didn’t know what it would look like but within 12 months they had snapped up the old Delacolline Estate vineyard, Limani Motel and more.
It was a pairing that changed their relationship from father and son to business partners.
“I was about 27 then … so I started to mature,” Ben says.
“We went through this really interesting transition of a dynamic where dad was in charge, it was his group but I had some really good, fresh ideas that were helping move the group forward.
“I had nothing but respect for everything he achieved, but he could see that I was as passionate as he was to try and make these businesses work.
“One of Dad’s best characteristics as a manager was empowering the people that worked for him to do the job that they’re employed to do. If he trusted you, he said, ‘Look, you go and do what you think is right, and I’ll back you.’”
It’s a trait visible in the winery.
Head winemaker Liz Heidenreich remembers Peter telling her to put in whatever equipment she wanted.
“A couple of times I came to him with a few quotes for different pieces of equipment and he said: ‘What are you bothering me with this for, you know what you need and you just pick the best,’” she says.
“That was a fairly unique and amazing scenario.”
Peter’s smoko shed vision included a winery with a wine barrel inspired cellar door that would put Port Lincoln on the tourism map.
“Dad would be the first to put his hand in and say he never in his wildest dreams thought he would be a restaurateur, even though he loved a lunch,” Ben says.
“Port Lincoln isn’t known as a wine growing area but from his time in the Riverland, he knew that he’d identified that the maritime climate, combined with annual rainfall, which is more than the Barossa Valley, and a soil profile sharing similarities with McLaren Vale meant that this was an exceptional place to grow grapes.
“People who know or have heard of Port Lincoln normally mention a few things, sharks, seafood, but our hope is this region will be known for more than just oysters, tuna and great whites.
“It’s not just about us, it’s about the whole region. You can’t come to Port Lincoln for an afternoon, you’ve got to come here for a weekend.”
That fresh local seafood is championed by the chef hatted Line & Label restaurant led by chef Mark Jensen.
And under Liz’s expert eye the team in the vineyard has experimented and is now streamlining the range to sauvignon blanc, riesling and rose – varietals they believe will cement the region as an exceptional wine growing area.
But she won’t stop pushing the boundaries and is particularly excited about a patch of pinot noir.
Ben’s inherited his dad’s love for Port Lincoln and now lives the FIFO life spending a week a month in the Eyre Peninsula city often with Kylie and Harvey in tow.
“She is an incredible support, an incredible mum and I couldn’t do what I do without her,” he says of his wife who he met “the old fashioned” way at a mate’s birthday.
“We’re just parenting together here instead of in Adelaide.”
The doting dad described the tiniest Teakle “an up and coming fisherman” taking after his grandpa.
“I still remember the first time we took him on the boat and he loved it and then went straight to sleep for a couple hours.
“We thought, ‘We could get used to this,’” Ben says.
“Liz likes to call him her junior winemaker so he’ll be in the winery before we know it.
“I don’t want to force anything on to him.
He’ll grow up and he’ll have the support around him to grow into whoever he becomes but he’ll have some wine and some restaurants and a few other things around if that’s what he chooses to do, then he’ll have a platform to do it.”
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