Historic Seppeltsfield brings old-world charm together with high-tech precision
When it was first put into service in the late 19th century, it was one of the largest wineries on the planet, a marvel of the winemaking world.
With the vast extent of his vineyard holdings, it’s little wonder Warren Randall can sometimes use some help finding his bearings. Of all his treasures, the greatest jewel is the historic Seppeltsfield estate, the Grand Dame of Australian wine, a place where history wraps its arms around every person who sets foot on the grounds. It’s here the most exciting possibilities coalesce and the greatest outcomes can be explored.
Each vintage, the Seppeltsfield winemaking team, led by Fiona Donald, assess a vast number of vineyard blocks, looking for the magic that allows a certain place to demand it speaks for itself. Once outstanding parcels of fruit have been identified, they begin a journey to bottle unlike any other in Australian wine.
The Grand Cellar at Seppeltsfield is a winemaking facility that brings together ambitious Victorian-era vision and contemporary reverence for the past.
It’s a system of 120 individual eight-tonne fermenters in a series of cascading terraces carved into a hill, allowing the wine to move through the winery purely through gravity’s momentum. For winemakers looking to keep small parcels of fruit separate through the winemaking process, it’s the very definition of being spoilt for choice.
When it was first put into service in the late 19th century, it was one of the largest wineries on the planet, a marvel of the winemaking world. By the time Randall assumed ownership more than a century later it was little more than a skeleton sprawled on a hill. His winemaking heart and entrepreneurial mind knew it had to be restored.
Today it hums with bygone resonance, producing contemporary wines with a sepia soulfulness. This is a very special place in Australian wine.
SEPPELTSFIELD ‘THE NORTHING’ SHIRAZ 2022
$85
From an estate block, Block C, planted on sandy loams over clay. It’s supple, lithe and sinewy, an essay in refined decadence. Rye bread and quince, blueberries and plums, some dark cocoa and cassia bark. Alluring and intriguing. Soundly structured and framed by fine, river silt tannins.
14.5% alcohol, 95 points
SEPPELTSFIELD ‘THE WESTING’ SHIRAZ 2022
$85
From ‘V’ Block at 125m above sea level on the rich soils of the Barossa’s grunty Western Ridge. Blacker, meatier, chewier and grittier than its northerly sibling. Pan scrapings, sweet soy, plum preserve, dark chocolate. Granular, gritter tannins, some ferrous punch.
15% alcohol, 94 points
SEPPELTSFIELD GRENACHE SHIRAZ MATARO 2022
$50
Another wine showing the soft shaping of the gravity flow cellar. Some darker blue fruits beneath the vibrant reds the meaty bedrock of mataro provides, so the fragrant grenache and spicy shiraz can sing. The end result is a beautifully fragrant and focused wine.
14.3% alcohol, 93 points