The crossing of Bass Strait from Tasmania on 3rd 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 2nd
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
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| 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.
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| The grape hopper |
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| 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.
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| From an empty fermenter |
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| Filling the 8 tonne fermenter from the crusher |
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| To a full one |
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| One row of open fermenters |
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| Standing on the Cap |
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| The modern section |
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| 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.
