The first winery in South Australia’s Clare Valley celebrated 175 years with its annual long lunch and the release of a shiraz named for the Jesuit winemaker who inspired it. Source: The Southern Cross.
When the St Aloysius Church bell rings it reminds the nearby Sevenhill Cellars winemaking team of the winery’s Jesuit history.
Every new vintage is blessed annually, a tradition that grew in popularity during the time of late Jesuit winemaker Br John May SJ AM.
Br John was the seventh Jesuit Winemaker at Sevenhill, a position he held from 1972 until his retirement from full-time work in 2003.
Sevenhill was founded by Fr Alois Kranewitter SJ, who arrived in South Australia in 1848 as chaplain to the Weikert group of Silesian migrants fleeing religious persecution in Europe.
“From the very beginning, this place has been shaped by courage, patience and hope,” said Superior of the Sevenhill Jesuit Mission, Fr Brendan Kelly SJ.
“Those were the words Fr Alois Kranewitter carried with him as he walked the valley in the early days of the mission, and they continue to guide us as we look to the future and the generations still to come.”
Sevenhill was named after the Seven Hills of Rome, intended as a centre of Catholic faith in the newly established colony. Over time, the Sevenhill mission expanded to include St Aloysius Church and crypt and Aloysius College, which operated at various times as a boarding school, seminary, Jesuit novitiate and scholasticate, and Jesuit residence.
Initially, the wine production was sacramental wine for Catholic communities across South Australia. This, too, is still made today and distributed globally. Sevenhill gradually expanded into table wine as demand and the vineyards grew.
Sevenhill continues as a working not-for-profit winery and a living Jesuit site, with Jesuit priests living and working on the property. They are the custodians of the Clare Valley’s oldest vineyard, a pre-1860 Shiraz vineyard that still produces quality fruit.
Sevenhill’s Annual Long Lunch was held on October 10 and the winery has released the 2021 Brother John May Reserve Shiraz, in honour of the Jesuit brother who died on August 18, aged 92.
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Sevenhill Cellars celebrates 175 years (By Katie Spain, The Southern Cross)
