Many years ago I’d had the good fortune to come across a shiraz from Rockford and had been constantly on the lookout for any of their wines ever since, with absolutely no success whatsoever. Since, as far as I can make out, their distribution system doesn’t extend into our part of the world I figured Rockford was definitely one of the two to visit.
I’d also run across a number of references to Thorn-Clarke as one of the rising stars of the Australian wine industry and since it was close to the night’s accommodation I thought I’d found the second one.
That, however, was before I started looking at web-sites. Once I’d finished going through those there was only one choice - Seppeltsfield.
For a start I realised there was something lacking in my tasting experience and the something was the highest quality sherry-style wines produced in Australia. Looking at the photos on the web-site it was obvious the buildings and grounds would provide Madam with plenty of heritage-oriented photographic interest while I had a taste or two.
Once we’d picked up the guide book and the map it was time to think about lunch, but even before the German-accented lady had drawn a circle around it on the map, Madam had decided lunch was going to be a picnic basket from Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop. She’d also set her heart on trying the ice-cream there.
We drove out through light drizzle, parked and wandered indoors to find that the picnic basket was an eat-it-here affair of pate, dips and bread. There was an area where we could taste the pates on offer, and once we’d made our selection it was a case of grabbing a table overlooking the lake which, even through the drizzle, was a pleasure to behold.
I’d opted for the mushroom pate and a glass of the Beer Brothers Semillon Chardonnay for my lunch, while Madam’s preference was directed towards the red pepper version and a glass of non-alcoholic Cabernet.
Looking at the contents of each little basket you might feel that you’d need a bit more to keep you going for the rest of the day but I found that there was just enough to fill the yawning void without leaving you too bloated to be able to fit in a little liquid afterwards.
Madam picked up some ice-cream on the way out, planning to give it time to soften a little on the way to nearby Seppeltsfield. On the way we passed two wineries that my research suggested could well be worth visiting, but the game plan brooked no variation.
Approaching Seppeltsfield Madam was impressed by the hilltop Seppelt Family Mausoleum looking out across the valley, and by the avenues of huge ancient date palms along the way.
A momentary pause in the precipitation gave me the chance to duck into the tasting room while Madam sat in the car with the little container of ice-cream. Had the weather been finer she could have used the public park facilities beside the car park, but the weather gods looked like intervening at any moment, effectively ruling out that possibility.
Once safely inside the tasting area I took a stroll around the museum displays before sidling over to the business side of the facility.