Wine columnist RICHARD CALVER gives a nod to a century old port and savours a joven-style new wine.

Seppeltsfield was established in 1851 and is one of the most iconic wineries in Australia. 

It is a label, famous for its fortifieds, epitomised in the Centennial Collection – the world’s only unbroken lineage of single vintage tawny dating back to 1878.  

In February 2023 Seppeltsfield announced the release of a rare 1923 100 Year Old Para Vintage Tawny – seeing one hundred years maturing in oak. The release coincided with the day the Seppelt family moved into the homestead.

So, this is a label that drips with history and is known for wines that are old, kept on oak and which you cellar for a long time. 

For example, I have in my collection a 1947 Para vintage liqueur port given to me by a client in the 1990s when she had a win in the then Employee Relations Commission of Victoria, long since abolished. 

The vintage date refers to the oldest component of the blend and I looked up the price of the 1947 on the internet: it’s worth around $350. For those of you who are thinking of a gift for me (so many!), a current release 1924 100 Year Old Para Vintage Tawny is $1750 for 100ml in a premium gift box, with a certificate that can be personalised.

With this as background, you can imagine my surprise when sitting in the Symposium wine bar at the ANU with a mate, I discovered on the list a 2023 Seppeltsfield Barossa Nero D’Avola, a young bright wine made for drinking now. 

It is made in a “joven” style without any oak maturation. Joven means young in Spanish, albeit the grape variety is Italian, and this style of wine is meant to be fresh, easy drinking, aromatic and fruity.

This is the opposite of the heady, intense fortifieds that this winery is famous for, but which appear to have a diminishing market with the category “fortified and other” comprising only three per cent of the off-trade sales of wine in 2023 compared with four per cent in 2019, according to Wine Australia. 

Joven wines are usually from the current vintage and should be consumed within a year to around 18 months from being made. 

One expert, Mark O’Neill, estimates that around 80 per cent of wines marketed around the world are now made in this style. The Seppeltsfield Nero D’Avola certainly lived up to the joven description, with a remarkable bouquet of cranberry and a hint of violet.  

On taste, it was surprisingly bold with fresh acidity and finished with depth, mouth filling and textural.  

I spoke with Lauren Mudge, head of sales and marketing at Seppeltsfield, who confirmed that the 2023 Nero D’Avola had won two gold medals, the Top Gold Medal at the 2023 Royal Adelaide Wine Show (national show) and Gold Medal 2023 Barossa Wine Show, and was available from the winery at $30 a bottle.  Speaking of winning, what is a prize that old people can get: atrophy. Anyway, Lauren told me that the winery was based on its sales of fortifieds, but that the range was moving to more young, vibrant wines.

“Our line-up include styles you would expect from the Barossa including shiraz and grenache, but also alternative styles like nero d’avola, touriga and vermentino, which not only thrive on the growing conditions in the Barossa but are gaining interest from consumers, given their drinkability,” she said. 

“We are well and truly on our journey to achieve our mission, to match our reputation for the fortified collection with the luxury still-wine collection.”

The young is always there to replace what we call the old. That’s the process, even in nature –Bernard Hopkins