Articles / News2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Moss Brothers family vineyard
Jeff Moss, January 29, 2010Jeff Moss recounts the 25-year journey as he sold the small family grape growing business and became vineyard manager for B Seppelt & Sons at Waikerie in the Riverland, as well as having overseen the Seppelt vineyards in the Barossa Valley. He takes up the story thus...
This is not the first encounter the Moss Family has enjoyed with grape growing Fay and Jeff along with a growing family grew sultanas for drying and citrus on a 50 ac property at Red Cliffs before moving to Waikerie in the SA Riverland. This was a challenging time moving from a small private enterprise to a large
winery owned property with responsibilities to the directors of B Seppelt & Sons as well as giving oversight to company vineyards in the Barossa Valley. In all, Seppelts had over 1,000 acres of plantings in the Barossa and Riverland.
Joining a large wine company in a sense was a logical step as my love affair with wine began in 1938—39 when as a child I discovered the rich bouquet and over powering flavours of Barossa Shiraz. Little did I realize that my career path was pre-ordained - grow grapes, make wine, enjoy wine.
In 1947 Mildara Wines then still owned by the founding family, the Chaffeys, required a youngster to learn the business from the ground up and as luck would have it my application was successful.
The period 1947 to 1952 were difficult for the Industry. Competition from fortified wine made in Spain & Portugal, not to mention French colonies in North Africa, put paid to Mildara’s export markets and along with the majority of the staff I was shown the gate.
Grape growing appeared to be a good fall back position. Working for growers, the Victorian Government plus some luck in Real Estate enabled the family in 1960 to take up a small holding which over time expanded to 50 acres. This remained in the family until 1975 giving me an overlap of 5 years with Seppelts.
1978 saw another move. This time to Houghton’s in the Swan where my job was to upgrade company vineyards and keep an eye out for potential growers in cooler areas.
Anticipating early retirement and a return to being self employed the family Fay, Peter & David & I purchased our Caves Road property in 1984 with development commencing in 1985.
For the first three years we commuted each weekend often camping out, sometimes staying in Moss Wood’s cellar. Time flew by. Vines were planted; slowly our first home took shape. It is surprising how much can be achieved over weekends and annual holidays. We moved permanently the Wilyabrup property in 1987, September in fact by which time my wife deemed our home habitable.
1988 saw our first vintage if you could call it a vintage. David whose role was wine maker made up a barrel of Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc. We drank it if memory serves.
In the meantime Peter had begun construction of tanks and buildings. The structures and tanks are all Peters work. This continued along with some minor plantings until we now have 9.5 ha of vines and winery capacity approx 400 tonnes.
Daughter Jane’s contribution to the enterprise was to enroll in 1988 in the Roseworthy Wine Science course successfully graduating in 1991. At that time Jane was one of a small band of women Wine Makers. Today many of the countries most famous wine makers are women.
Jane has wide Industry experience particularly in Sales and Marketing as well as strategic planning. Jane operates out of Melbourne attending to our interests in the Eastern States and is here along with her daughter Bridget in WA for our anniversary celebrations.
Our commitment to quality and exceptional fruit has earned Moss Brothers a reputation for producing some of Margaret Rivers' finest wines.
This is not the first encounter the Moss Family has enjoyed with grape growing Fay and Jeff along with a growing family grew sultanas for drying and citrus on a 50 ac property at Red Cliffs before moving to Waikerie in the SA Riverland. This was a challenging time moving from a small private enterprise to a large
winery owned property with responsibilities to the directors of B Seppelt & Sons as well as giving oversight to company vineyards in the Barossa Valley. In all, Seppelts had over 1,000 acres of plantings in the Barossa and Riverland.
Joining a large wine company in a sense was a logical step as my love affair with wine began in 1938—39 when as a child I discovered the rich bouquet and over powering flavours of Barossa Shiraz. Little did I realize that my career path was pre-ordained - grow grapes, make wine, enjoy wine.
In 1947 Mildara Wines then still owned by the founding family, the Chaffeys, required a youngster to learn the business from the ground up and as luck would have it my application was successful.
The period 1947 to 1952 were difficult for the Industry. Competition from fortified wine made in Spain & Portugal, not to mention French colonies in North Africa, put paid to Mildara’s export markets and along with the majority of the staff I was shown the gate.
Grape growing appeared to be a good fall back position. Working for growers, the Victorian Government plus some luck in Real Estate enabled the family in 1960 to take up a small holding which over time expanded to 50 acres. This remained in the family until 1975 giving me an overlap of 5 years with Seppelts.
1978 saw another move. This time to Houghton’s in the Swan where my job was to upgrade company vineyards and keep an eye out for potential growers in cooler areas.
Anticipating early retirement and a return to being self employed the family Fay, Peter & David & I purchased our Caves Road property in 1984 with development commencing in 1985.
For the first three years we commuted each weekend often camping out, sometimes staying in Moss Wood’s cellar. Time flew by. Vines were planted; slowly our first home took shape. It is surprising how much can be achieved over weekends and annual holidays. We moved permanently the Wilyabrup property in 1987, September in fact by which time my wife deemed our home habitable.
1988 saw our first vintage if you could call it a vintage. David whose role was wine maker made up a barrel of Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc. We drank it if memory serves.
In the meantime Peter had begun construction of tanks and buildings. The structures and tanks are all Peters work. This continued along with some minor plantings until we now have 9.5 ha of vines and winery capacity approx 400 tonnes.
Daughter Jane’s contribution to the enterprise was to enroll in 1988 in the Roseworthy Wine Science course successfully graduating in 1991. At that time Jane was one of a small band of women Wine Makers. Today many of the countries most famous wine makers are women.
Jane has wide Industry experience particularly in Sales and Marketing as well as strategic planning. Jane operates out of Melbourne attending to our interests in the Eastern States and is here along with her daughter Bridget in WA for our anniversary celebrations.
Our commitment to quality and exceptional fruit has earned Moss Brothers a reputation for producing some of Margaret Rivers' finest wines.
