One of Australia's oldest wineries, Seppelt, has been sold by Treasury Wine Estates to the family-owned Stonier Wines, the ABC reports. It is the first brand sold as Treasury cuts its portfolio from 76 wine brands to fewer than 30.

The sale includes Seppelt's vineyards and winery at Great Western in western Victoria and its Drumborg vineyard near Portland in the state's south-west. The price was not disclosed and the deal is expected to be finalised in mid-October. The Seppelt brand was started by the Seppelt family in South Australia in 1851, and in 1918 the family acquired Hans Irvine's vineyards at Great Western.

Stonier, one of the pioneering estates on the Mornington Peninsula, returned to local family ownership in 2022. Chief executive and co-owner Aaron Drummond, who worked for years in the Great Western region, said the quality of fruit from the Grampians and Great Western is "extraordinary".

The Great Western winery, largely dormant since 2014, once processed about 8,000 tonnes a year but now crushes nothing. "Our hope is to put a couple of thousand tonnes through that facility," Drummond said.

Stonier also plans to put Seppelt's heritage-listed underground cellars, lately mainly a tourist attraction, back to work storing its top sparkling wines, calling them "the most phenomenal natural cooling environment". The story was reported by Angus Verley.

Photo: Mattinbgn / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Source: ABC Rural