Seppeltsfield

Written By Angus Hughson

1925 Seppeltsfield Para Vintage Tawny

The 1925 South Australian vintage followed a ‘favourable’ and relatively mild growing season. At Seppeltsfield, Oscar Seppelt believed the Export Bounty Act 1924, had saved the industry from significant turmoil. An oversupply of wine grapes, largely the result of post-first world war soldier settlement schemes, and sluggish domestic demand in Australia had threatened widespread collapse. At the time the Seppelt family owned wineries in the Barossa, Griffith, Rutherglen and Great Western. Although it enjoyed relatively strong distribution and sales, it was not immune to the approaching crisis. But the new Export Bounty Act and imperial preferences would soon stimulate demand for Australian fortified wine in the UK. This would change perceptions about Australian wine for decades. The huge success of the Australian red wine boom (1880s-1910s) was largely forgotten and Australia became known outside its borders for making cheap fortified wines. This would have an impact on the reputation of Australian wine for generations. But economically, Federal Government policy, saved or at least delayed, the collapse of the ‘nation-building’ soldier settlement schemes. Meanwhile in the Barossa region Seppeltsfield, ‘the largest winery in the world’, was at full capacity as a result of a bumper crop in 1924 and above expected yields in 1925. According to a press report (Adelaide Advertiser July 1925), Seppeltsfield had made ‘considerably over one million gallons and had also purchased the equivalent of another million gallons.’ 

While the Export Bounty Act 1924 created new opportunities for Seppeltsfield during the following years, the winery continued the eccentric tradition of laying down a barrel of vintage tawny each year and for the contents to be matured for 100 years before release. Despite changes in ownership this tradition, first established in 1878, has always been prized as a proprietary institution. Foiled against the history of the Australian wine industry, the Seppeltsfield Centennial Collection of 100-Year-Old Para Vintage Tawnies is a reminder of the ambitions and sensibilities of previous generations. Our forefathers had big ideas for the future. In 1925 Seppeltsfield was a state-of-the-art winery with all the bells and whistles of a successful and technically progressive wine business.

The 1925 Seppeltsfield 100-Year-Old Para Vintage Tawny is a taste of the past through the prism of the present. Through a 100-years of maturation, evaporation, temperature oscillations and changes in atmospheric pressure, the wine has evolved and transmogrified into a rare elixir. By virtue of history it straddles modernity, the world in conflagration, advances in technology and profound changes to Australian life. The transcendent 1925 Seppeltsfield 100-Year-Old Para Vintage Tawny is a living wonder of the wine world and a rare ethereal experience for those who have the luck to taste it.

1925 Seppeltsfield 100-Year-Old Para Vintage Tawny

Deep colour. Intense lifted ground coffee, praline, panforte aromas with smoky, liquorice, aniseed, cloves notes. Generously concentrated, dense and richly flavoured with fresh espresso, dark chocolate, orange rind, sandalwood cloves notes, fine supple textures, superb mid-palate volume/ viscosity and a persistent pure aniseed cut. Finishes smoky and long with apricot, panforte notes. A wonderful expression of Australian wine history and ambition. A living curio to share. Drink now – keep 23% alc 100 points

 2023 Seppeltsfield Release

 The historic Seppeltsfield winery, in the heart of the Barossa Valley, is a symbol of ambition through the ages. The 1888 gravity flow cellar, distillery, maturation sheds and ironstone buildings (including EC/East Cellars) reflect the newest technologies and applied winery practices of the day. Under the ownership of Warren Randall, Seppeltsfield is going through a remarkable renaissance. Although the brand’s reputation hangs on its 100-Year-Old Para Liqueur Vintage Tawny and wonderful fortified wines, its future is indelibly linked to table wine production. For years Seppeltsfield has been juggling its priorities to underwrite the development of its ‘luxury’ red wine portfolio, and with success. The distinct blue and black branded livery, harking back to earlier times, foreshadows an authentic experience steeped in retro modern techniques and exceptional barrel maturation philosophies. At the helm is Fiona Donald, a veteran winemaker previously at Hardy’s and Penfolds. With her background and longstanding role at Seppeltsfield, she knows exactly what is required to make age worthy red wines and this release highlights this point. I kept the bottles and tasted the wines again over the following week. They maintained their freshness for much longer than expected. High quality fruits sourcing, traditional techniques, handed down through the generations, and precision winemaking are the foundation of these lovely Seppeltsfield wines.

The quirky and medium-term drinking 2022 No EC3 Touriga, Tinta Cao, Tinta Amarela (93), all Portuguese grape varieties, is a genuinely alternative style but possessing the generosity and amplitude that epitomises Seppeltsfield’s contemporary brand of winemaking. The classically structured 2021 No EC4 Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz (94+), sourced from the incongruously named (but famous) God’s Hill and (and less known) Chooks Block vineyards in the region’s south, highlight the synergy of the varieties very well. With age, the wine will loosen up with the elements folding into each other. An extra year of bottle age will improve the experience into top-notch territory.  Seppeltsfield’s investment in building a narrative around the Barossa’s sub regions yields plenty of dividends.

2021 The Southing Single Vineyard Shiraz (96) is my favourite of the three because it offers an extra sheen, ample flavour, beautiful integration and sinuous flow. 2021 Westing Single Vineyard Shiraz (95) highlights the Barossa aesthetic with great flair. 2021 Northing Single Vineyard Shiraz (94) is the most elemental and will benefit from a touch more bottle age. Although modern winemaking is all about the now as much as the future, these three sub-regional shirazes will benefit from a touch more bottle age. As much as it is lovely to taste one hundred-year-old Para Liqueur Vintage Tawny (and to be nostalgic about the past), the promise at Seppeltsfield is so much greater with its red wines. The brand’s remarkable history, access to high quality fruit, imaginative winemaking team and consistently well-crafted wine styles are a recipe for long term success.

 

2022 Seppeltsfield No EC3 Touriga, Tinta Cao, Tinta Amarela, Barossa Valley South Australia

Medium deep crimson. Beautiful fragrant pure black cherry, dark plum aromas with hints of stone fruits, camomile and aniseed. Generously flavoured with ample dark berry fruits, a touch of dark chocolate, fine grainy firm tannins and underlying savoury notes. Crisp and chocolaty at the finish. Familiar yet different. Delicious to drink. Drink now-2028 14% alc 93 points

2021 Seppeltsfield No EC4 Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz, Barossa South Australia

Deep crimson. Intense blackcurrant pastille, dark chocolate mocha aromas with roasted chestnut notes. Inky deep claret style wine with attractive blackcurrant, blackberry, praline flavours, fine grainy/ vigorous tannins and well-integrated vanilla notes. Finishes firm and tight with minerally notes. Very good concentration and flow. Should develop very well. 55% Cabernet Sauvignon 45% Shiraz. Drink 2024-2032 14.4% alc 94+ points

2021 Seppeltsfield The Northing Single Vineyard Shiraz, Barossa South Australia

Deep crimson. Intense dark chocolate, dark berry aromas with touch of black olive. Richly flavoured choco-berry flavours, slinky textures, very attractive mid-palate volume and underlying cedar oak. Finish claret firm with liquorice notes. Lovely vim, volume and vigour. From the Katingi Vineyard. 14 months in French oak hogsheads. Drink now -2030 14.7% alc 94 points

2021 Seppeltsfield The Southing Single Vineyard Shiraz, Barossa South Australia

Deep crimson. Intense and classic dark berry, praline aromas with roasted chestnut, hint marzipan notes. Supple and smith with fresh dark plum, blackberry fruits, fine persistent chocolaty/ velvety textures and integrated praline/ roasted almond notes. Finished chocolaty and long with vanilla/cedar, aniseed notes. Impressively balanced with superb generosity, freshness suppleness and length. 14 months in French oak hogsheads. From the Chooks Block, Lyndoch. Drink now - 2030 14.7% alc 96 points

2021 Seppeltsfield The Westing Single Vineyard Shiraz, Barossa South Australia

Deep crimson. Intense black cherry, black olive, cedar aromas with touch of black olive/ flinty notes. Well concentrated inky dark cherry, blackberry, mocha flavours, fine slinky textures and fresh long acidity. Finishes chalky firm with lovely chinotto bittersweet notes. From Seppeltsfield V Block. 14 months in French oak hogsheads. Delicious and classic in style. Drink 2024 - 2030 14.7% alc 95 points

Angus Hughson
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