Having been sold off by Fosters, Seppeltsfield is now owned by the same interests as Kilikanoon, and in the processes involved with the sale the stocks of table wines were separated from the fortified stocks. That meant while there were table wines available to taste, they were going to be much the same as some of the range I’d tasted at Kilikanoon the day before. There was, however, a 2005 Barossa Shiraz with an impressive long finish.
In any case, I wasn’t there for the table wines.
The starting point on the fortified trail was the Flora Fino (500mL $22), absolutely bone dry and the sort of wine that would make an excellent aperitif or an ideal accompaniment to a spread of tapas. It was made from Palomino, as was the excellent Clara Blanca Amontillado (500 mL $20), a wine which had, believe it or not, sixteen years in wood.
And it showed it.
The third sherry on offer was the Vera Viola Oloroso, a semisweet wine that is, or so I was told, more in the Spanish style.
These are wines that, as far as I can see, are flying under the radar as far as popular taste in Australia is concerned. In a way you’d almost hope they stay that way and never make a comeback.
If that were to be the case the aficionados might be able to quietly enjoy sipping away at some fine styles without breaking the bank but, on the other hand, there’s the danger they’ll disappear altogether if producing them becomes less attractive to the bean-counters who are starting to rule the roost in the upper echelons of the big wine concerns.
However, now I know what I’ve been missing I’ll be doing my bit to sustain them in the future.
Moving on to the Tawny side of things the Cellar No. 7 ($20) with an average age of five years was a light style that doesn’t need a log fire on a cold winter night while the Para Grand Tawny ($26) with an average age of ten years was wonderfully complex.
The sale of the winery and its large stocks of unfashionable fortifieds meant the new owners acquired substantial stocks of Rutherglen Muscat and Tokay and, as a lover of both there was no way I was going to be walking out without sampling what was on offer. The Cellar No. 6 Tokay and Cellar No. 8 Muscat (both $20) were great examples of the younger version of these great Rutherglen styles, while the Grand Tokay and Grand Muscat (both 500mL $32) were simply superb.
The ownership shakeout has resulted in changes to names and labelling but someone wandering into a bottle shop to find something under the Seppelts label at around the same price point will probably be looking at the same product,
Back in the car we made our way back to and through Tanunda on the way to my other must visit winery, Rockford Wines in Krondorf Road. Arriving outside the stonewalled compound Madam decided she liked the look of the place, an impression that was reinforced as we walked into the tasting room, which had the look and feel of an ancient cellar rather than some modern architect’s self-indulgent showcase.