CHAPTER 16 | 1920s – Bountiful Years
1922 SEPPELT PARA LIQUEUR PORT Barossa, South Australia
The history of B Seppelt & Sons Para Liqueur Tawny Port goes back to 1902, although the brand name Para was only trademarked in 1923. Throughout the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, there were various releases, including ‘old’, ‘medicinal’, ‘Barossa’, ‘family’, ‘red’, and ‘white’ Para labels. These first incarnations of Para were followed by ‘royal purple’, ‘purple’, ‘imperial reserve’, and ‘invalid’ bottlings. The 1922 Seppelts Para Liqueur Port, presented in a distinctive bell-shaped bottle, was first released to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Based primarily on grenache, shiraz, and mataro, the wines were traditionally vinified in open fermenters and matured in a fractional blending system, with the oldest vintage going back to 1922. The success of this release led to the follow-up vintage-dated 1925, 1927, 1930, 1933, 1939, 1944, and 1947 Para Liqueur Ports. For a while, these bottlings commanded great resale values as investment-type wines, but there was a problem: they breached labelling standards because the wines only dated back to the vintage year. As a consequence, Para Liqueur Tawny Ports were released with numbered bottlings, starting with 101. Soon after, the
name ‘Port’ was abandoned as a result of new international nomenclature standards. Despite these challenges, this distinctive wine style has enjoyed a consistent profile and currency. Seppeltsfield Para Liqueur Tawny is one of South Australia’s great 20th-century wine traditions.
Seppeltsfield Para Liqueur Port. [Seppeltsfield Collection]
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