Sevenhill Cellars

About this Cellar

The Jesuits, (Society of Jesus) migrated to Australia from Austria in 1848 seeking a life free from religious and political persecution. They settled at Sevenhill in the beautiful Clare Valley and established Sevenhill Cellars, which is the oldest existing winery in the Clare Valley in 1851. Initially the main purpose of the cellars was to provide sacramental wine for religious use and this has been ongoing. Sevenhill Cellars now produce white, red and fortified wines as well as sacramental wine.

Sevenhill Cellars are nestled among the vineyards close to St Aloysius Church and feature a well tended grassed picnic area with tables, seats and shade trees. Sevenhill winery produces all its own fruit on 72 hectares of vineyard.

Twenty varieties of grapes are grown yielding an average annual crush of 450 tonnes. (This is a far cry from the pioneering days of the first Jesuit winemaker Br Schreiner. He and Br Schneider built a wine press in 1863 capable of pressing a formidable load of 4 buckets of grapes at a time!) The wine is completely processed on the property including the bottling of the finished wine (35,000 cases per year).