SEVENHILLL CELLARS 150TH ANNIVERSARY: In the Clare Valley area of the Mid North Region of South Australia
Just south of Clare the region's wineries beckon, with enticing direction signs at each crossroad, but there is none that can match the character of a cradle of history and faith among the gum tree ridges and wine covered vales. I had come to celebrate 150 years of tending the vines by the Jesuit community of Sevenhill.
The Clare Valley's vineyards are distinct from the Barossa's, but the history behind the 1851 plantings here also take us back to German speaking Silesia. We know about the pioneer Lutherans, but the Catholics had the same religious problems. The same King of Prussia created the same reason for more than 140 of them to endure a four month voyage here in 1848. How come their Jesuit priest - the founder of Sevenhill - was an Austrian then? The newly ordained Fr Aloysius Kranewritter had volunteered to tend the immigrant flock, and on arriving he was soon sent to shepherd Catholics from Clare to the huge Burra mine and all the way to the Blinman diggings in the Flinders.
In the Sevenhill cemetery close to a vineyard lies the Catholic group's leader-farmer Franz Wiekert who provided a bed for the young priest up near Clare. Then, two decades later, when old Franz needed a roof, the Jesuits returned the kindness. When he died, a brother carved his epitaph on his gravestone.
Sevenhill Winery comfortably sits among the Clare Valley's acclaimed producers of a fine drop, but its old stone buildings mark its unparalleled place in Australian history. Exactly 150 years ago, founding Father Kranewritter and two newly arrived Jesuit brothers moved here and called their new home “Sevenhill”. They intended this to be a centre of Catholic culture like Rome on its seven hills. They even called the trickle of a creek running down the slope the Tiber.
Beginning in a humble hut, they raised funds for a two storey dressed stone boarding college for boys by pushing butter across to Burra in a wheelbarrow, receiving a gift from a Munich Mission, and gold dust returned from the Victorian diggings. One wing was raised in the 1850's and then another in the 1860's. In its heyday 120 years back, 51 boarding boys had their dormitories in the attic with its dormer windows, and with priests in training, Jesuits to be, Jesuits and priests in residence, Sevenhill College was home to 75 men and boys.
Nearby, what was originally a smokehouse for meat has been converted to a shrine for the Mother Mary. Along a ridge looking across to the college and cellars, a beautiful dry stone construction shrine honours the Jesuits' founder, St Ignatius. They are reminders of the settlement's present role as home to a brother, three priests and quiet retreats.
The warmth of Spring has once again coaxed the grape-vine-leaf green back to Sevenhill. In its first year as home to the Austrian Jesuits, Brother Schreiner brought cuttings down from Bungaree Station and so began the oldest winery in the Clare Valley.
Brother John May met me among the giant storage barrels for an on-camera chat. He's only the seventh Jesuit winemaker, and he's been presiding over the vintage for thirty or so years now. An important part of his work is to produce altar-wine for the Catholic Church. “We provide all the sacramental wine - alcoholic and non-alcoholic for Australia. We've served the south east Asian region too”. “And what kind of wine is it?, I asked. “A lot of people want to know that”, he smiled. “It's made according to canon law in a sweet sherry style”.
They make three varieties, all fortified so that they will travel and keep in Darwin or Djakarta.
On one side of the heritage stone and “galvo” wine cellars, the square Mintaro slate and open tanks ordered by Brother Schreiner are still in place. His original vaulted brick roofed maturation cellar is still used right back to where it is cut into the slate of the hillside. Upstairs a range of reds and whites are open for tastings in a friendly cellar door area that operates Monday to Saturday. A special 150th anniversary red wine release is nigh.
With all that history and an established reputation, Sevenhill has become an even more attractive tasting experience. As the first home of the Jesuit order in Australia, it also offers sanctuary next door in St Aloysius Church. The simple gothic structure with a front tower took shape over more than a decade, with home-grown graduate (and great supporter of the Blessed Mother Mary McKillop) Father Julian Tennyson Woods laying the foundation of the tower 120 years ago.
Brother Waldemann carved the stone detail on one side of the front door and completed the other side after he lost his sight. The towering wooden arches within were hewn from giant redgums and the massive floor slates were brought from Mintaro. The six Jesuit brothers built their church for the region while they also ran their dairy and college, infant winery and more.
One of them would not live to worship therein. In the rare crypt below, Brother Sadler was the first to be interred. He was killed by a flying rock as the stone for the building was quarried. For a century now, only the ordained who die at Sevenhill are buried here.
On the southern side of St Aloysius are signs that it is only just completed. The side chapel entrance is 1997 vintage, but it is strong on history with the stained glass window featuring the Jesuits' Austrian black eagle, the South Australian magpie and Brother May's beloved grapes. The church is the first building that visitors approach as they come in search of the cellar door. It emphasises the religious mission of the settlement which is backed by the dollar value of the wines that go as far as the UK and Germany. Fortunately, some of it stays for celebrating after a 150th anniversary Mass in October 2001 . . . and for us all to taste at historic Sevenhill.
Sevenhill Cellars
College Road
Sevenhill, South Australia 5453Phone: (08) 8843 4222 Facsimile: (08) 8843 4382
150th Anniversary Celebration Mass Sunday 29th October, 2001
[also release date of Sevenhill Seven Brothers Sesquicentenary Cabernet Shiraz]
