Joseph Seppelt

Joseph Ernest Seppelt

Joseph Ernst Seppelt (* 1813 in Wüstewaltersdorf , Province of Silesia , Kingdom of Prussia , today Walim , Powiat Wałbrzyski , Lower Silesian Voivodeship , Poland ; † January 29, 1868 in Seppeltsfield , Australia ) was a German trader of tobacco and spirits .

In 1849 Seppelt emigrated to South Australia , where he received citizenship. Here he was successful as a winemaker in the Barossa Valley and founded the first winery , which would later develop into the largest winery in Australia.

Early life

Seppelt's father had participated in Napoleon Bonaparte's Russian campaign in 1812 and it took eleven years to get home after giving up Moscow. Joseph Seppelt was already around ten years old when he met his father for the first time. In his liberal parental home received training in music and art. As a young man he traveled through Germany and Italy, where he learned the commercial and technical basics of tobacco, snuff and liqueur production in order to later manage the family business. However, business declined in the 1840s, so he decided to emigrate to South Australia in view of the uncertain political and economic conditions at that time . On September 9, 1849 he cast off with his wife Johanna Charlotte (nee Held) and their three children Benno, Hugo and Ottilie on board the sailing ship "Emmy" from Hamburg and reached Port Adelaide on January 16, 1850 .

Australia

He had bought 80 acres of land in Golden Grove, near Adelaide , through a London agent, but sold it soon after discovering it was unsuitable for tobacco growing. The family then moved to the first German settlement in Australia in Klemzig . In the year of his arrival in Australia, he bought 158 acres (about 64 hectares ) from Hermann Kook, a farmer from Tanunda , for £ 1 per acre of land in the Hundred of Nuriootpa of the Barossa District and named it Seppeltsfield . After another unsuccessful attempt in tobacco cultivation, he planted corn and wheat to secure his income, but at the same time established a small vineyard. He successfully produced his first wine in his wife's dairy. In 1851 he became an Australian citizen.

From then on, Seppelt concentrated on wine production, as there was a demand from England for wines and spirits from the colonies, and Australian hospitals also had a need for medicinal brandy. The wine business developed rapidly and Seppeltsfield grew with it. By 1867, Seppelt had built wine cellars and fermentation tanks from Mintaro slate. He was able to sell most of his wine along the Murray River , from where it was transported away by paddle steamers.

Succession

Palm trees on the streets of Seppeltsfield , which the succeeding families of Joseph Seppelt had planted during the Great Depression to keep their workers busy.

Joseph Seppelt died of delirium tremens on January 29, 1868 . In a 1951 obituary, the circumstances of his death were described as follows:

"... in the late summer of 1868, he caught a chill and within 24 hours was dead."

"... in the late summer of 1968 he caught a cold and died within 24 hours."

He was buried in Greenock . His estate was valued at £ 1,000 for execution. His son Benno Seppelt (1845-1931) took over his father's business at the age of 21 years and established in 1902, the B Seppelt & Sons Ltd . After he had retired from the business, his son Oscar Benno Seppelt (1873-1963) took over the company and continued it.

The families who followed behaved very socially. The approximately 100 employees received breakfast and lunch every working day at the company's expense. During the Great Depression , the family continued to employ their workers and had them plant palm trees on the streets of Seppeltsfields.

In 1971 the company was converted into a public company and was merged into South Australian Brewing in 1984 . SA Brewing Holdings took over in 1990, was renamed The Penfolds Wines Group and in 1994 again renamed Southcorp Wines , which in turn was acquired by the Australian beverage company Foster's Group in 2005 . The Seppeltsfield Estate Trust bought Seppeltsfield from Foster's Group in 2007.

The winery founded by Seppelt is today (2017) the largest wine producer in Australia with an annual production of 2 million liters of wine.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} History at Seppeltsfield Winery - Barossa Valley . In: seppeltsfield.com.au. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Jaki Ilbery: Seppelt, Joseph Ernest (1813–1868) ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
3. ^ Ship Emmy, 554 tons, Captain JHO Meyer. In: theshipslist.com
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Joseph Seppelt died at Seppeltsfield on 29 January 1868 . In: sahistorians.org.au. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
5. ↑ ^{a b} B seppelt & Sons . In: sahistoryhub.com.au. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
6. ^ Seppelt and Seppeltsfield, a short history . In: bestwinesunder20.com.au of June 10, 2013