With the wisdom of hindsight, Seppelt’s decision to establish a vineyard in Henty in 1965 is fact bordering on fiction. According to Dr John Gladstones it is the coolest region in Australia, the Tasmanian East Coast next coolest. It is a region with no large towns, let alone cities that could provide cellar door sales. The landscape is unremittingly flat, with no obstruction of the onshore winds blowing from the nearby Southern Ocean. Benno Seppelt was the only person to broach the great unknown, and it took another 10 years until local grazier John Thomson cautiously planted the first vines of Crawford River Wines.
So what led Seppelt buying a 190ha property and planting a 120ha vineyard 10 years before anyone else followed suit? it was the culmination of a prolonged search under the direction of Karl Seppelt for early ripening premium varietal grapes suitable for table and sparkling wines. Not only was it cool, it had 375mm of growing season rainfall and red-brown volcanic earth soils, interspersed with ironstone gravel. The vines thrived and grew at such a rate that conventional viticulture methods failed to produce grapes of sufficient ripe flavours for quality wine. So much so that over the next 20 years Ian McKenzie, then Seppelt Chief Winemaker, told me there were times when the board gave serious consideration to mothballing all or part of the vineyard.
Those days are long gone, and the current releases (which also include a ’21 Pinot Meunier and ’17 Salinger Methode Traditionnelle) are all of a mouth-watering quality and pricing. That of the Salinger is an extraordinary $30. With three years on tirage it is more expensive to make than the still wines, and the ’15 Salinger won the Trophy for Best Sparkling Wine at the 2021 National Wine Show of Australia.
It’s a sign of the times that the ’22 Drumborg Riesling is line-priced with the ’21 Drumborg Chardonnay, and far more than the ’21 Jaluka Henty Chardonnay.
2022 Seppelt Drumborg Vineyard Henty Riesling
Has the brilliance and purity of a perfectly cut diamond, the low yield (flowering problems ex unstable weather) adding to the gentle insistence of the lime juice, granny smith and lemon flavours. The acidity is a silken web of an unseen orb spider.
97 points, drink to 2037, 11% alc, Screwcap, $40
2021 Seppelt Drumborg Vineyard Henty Chardonnay
The complex flowery/scented/powdery bouquet slips alongside the intense and equally complex palate. Incoming winemaker Clare Dry has nailed a wine that allows delicacy and intensity equal time, stone fruit and grapefruit ditto. Will reveal more and more over the next 5-plus years.
95 points, drink to 2032, 13% alc, Screwcap, $40
2021 Seppelt Drumborg Vineyard Henty Pinot Noir
A masterclass in not judging pinot noir by the depth of its colour, here only a little deeper than that of its pinot meunier sibling. And there’s more in the mouth, initially hesitant then majestically expanding on the finish and aftertaste, peacock’s tail opening. The rainbow of berry aromas surging from the glass.
96 points, drink to 2033, 13% alc, Screwcap, $45
