2012 vintage at Seppeltsfield.

The crossing of Bass Strait from Tasmania on 3^rd December was smooth. We had a cabin as it was an evening crossing and were woken up at 5.45 am to prepare for our arrival into Melbourne. After a week staying at a friend’s house we left Melbourne for Adelaide, taking the alternative route via Mildura. Over the Christmas period we caught up with our boys and Declan our grandson. On 2^nd January we moved to Tanunda caravan park where we started looking for vintage work that was just about to start in the Barossa valley, one of Australia’s premier wine regions.

We secured work at Selleltsfield winery. It was established in 1851 by the Seppelts family and has won many awards over the years for its different wines and fortified wines both locally and abroad

The road to Seppelstfield

Chris was employed in the modern section on the crusher unit and weigh bridge and I ended up at the gravity fed section that was revamped after being neglected for many years. This was its third vintage since becoming operational again. It consists of 120  8 tonne open fermenters that were dug into the hillside and originally relied on gravity to get the fermented wine from the tanks to holding barrels for storage. Pumps are now used to accomplish that task.

The grape hopper

The gravity building

The work for both of us was very physical, working seven days a week from seven in the morning to seven in the evening during the vintage period which went for around six weeks.  After vintage I was asked to stay on to assist in the post vintage clean up. So after ten weeks and only five days off it is now all over.

From an empty fermenter

Filling the 8 tonne fermenter from the crusher

To a full one

One row of open fermenters

Standing on the Cap

The modern section

Storage barrels

We leave for New Zealand shortly to catch up with my sister and her family and my Mum for a week, then we head to the South Island for two weeks where we will be hiring a car and touring around. When arriving back in Adelaide we will go north to the Northern Territory where we are catching up with friends at a camp site on the Gulf of Carpentaria near the small outback town of Boroloola. The aim is to be there for at least five to six weeks just relaxing and fishing. From there we plan to go to Darwin for a few more months before heading back to Adelaide for the Christmas period and start next years vintage all over again at Seppeltsfield.