Birth of the cool – How the Drumborg Vineyard ushered in a new style
Seppelt’s Drumborg Vineyard sits in the wind-swept, south-western pocket of Victoria, where the winters are long and wet. While conditions aren’t what textbooks would define as ideal for viticulture, this oft-described mystical site is home to some of the highest quality Riesling in the country.
With its southerly aspect, Drumborg fronts up to the full force of the ocean, copping the brunt of winter tempests and the glitter of summer sunshine, often in just one day. There were no vineyards in the area before Seppelt started planting in 1964, to imagine the undulating coastal hills covered in vines was a peculiar thing. ‘Cool-climate’ just wasn’t cool back then.
Fortunately, Karl Seppelt had his interest peaked by specific European clones during a summer abroad and he was keen to see how they might perform in Australia. B Seppelt & Sons had their winery at Great Western, but he knew that this wasn’t the right terroir for the style he was chasing. For that, he was going to have to jump in his car.
Drumborg is now one of a handful of vineyards that comprise the Henty wine region. These rolling hills cover an area of near 180 hectares and though Riesling was the first varietal planted by Karl Seppelt, you’ll find Pinot Noir and Chardonnay (among others) in prominence too.
While renowned as a notoriously challenging region, viticulturally speaking, Henty has won the hearts of many and its cool, wet weather plays to its advantage. The ripening period of this coastal region extends much beyond that of other mainland sites and this allows for the slow accumulation of complex flavours. Yields vary year to year, due to nature’s impacts during ‘veraison’ (the fruit setting stage), but this too is exciting in itself as each vintage release is a stunning encapsulation of the season.
The Drumborg Vineyard wines characteristically exhibit power and grace through multiple layers and its enduring length. They also demonstrate remarkable capacity for cellaring, with the Riesling in particular evolving slowly over 15-20 years.
It can sometimes be hard to imagine, but Seppelt’s move into Henty was a ground-breaking achievement. Cool-climate wines are most certainly more in vogue than they once were, and the Drumborg Vineyard itself is an important part of that story. Almost 60 years on and this mystical, coastal wonder is still providing some of the highest quality fruit for some of Australia’s most celebrated long-lived wines.