History

In 1835 Richard Hamilton Jnr arrived in South Australia as a seaman aboard the brigantine “Duke of York” carrying settlers for the fledgling colony and due to meet up with HMS Buffalo sailing to South Australia via Buenos Aires.

Richard Jnr returned to England full of tales of the potential of South Australia convincing his father of the merits of emigrating with his entire family.

On June 7, 1837 Richard Hamilton (snr) took out Land Order 449 in London for the Province of South Australia. He arrived with his wife and five of his children aboard the “Katherine Stewart Forbes” on October 7, 1837. His eldest child, Henry, remained in England to complete his schooling.

Initially the family lived in a camp on the banks of the River Torrens before the local Aboriginal Karuna tribe burnt it out. This forced the family to move down to the land they had secured on the banks of the Sturt River, in the Marion district 8 miles from what is today Adelaide’s G.P.O where they set about establishing a farm. This marked the beginning of Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards.

It became apparent to Richard that before the farm could support his family he would run short of money. Therefore he wrote to a friend in South Africa describing his predicament and requested that he send some vines to plant 'as the health of the family requires a little wine-'.

Circa 1880s. The original Hamilton Ewell Vineyards, Gleneg, South Australia at vintage time.

The vines, which were Pedro Ximenez, Shiraz and Grenache, arrived three months later and Richard planted them in the winter of 1838. The plants thrived in the deep alluvial soil and sunny climate helped by the annual flooding of the Sturt River much like the Bremer River does in the Langhorne Creek wine region, in South Australia.

In 1841 Richard made his first and South Australia’s first wine, which he subsequently loaded onto a horse and cart and sold to nearby farmers.

The eldest son, Henry, joined the rest of the family after completing schooling and then spending two years on a sheep station near Burra. Gradually Henry and the family purchased surrounding land. In 1854 Henry planted two acres of vines on a section of 10 acres, which was named Ewell after a village in Surrey. Some of these vines were still bearing in 1980.

This was where Henry was to build his wine cellars that became known as Hamilton’s Ewell Vineyards. Henry ran a mixed farm with hard work and good management. In 1890 and 1891 he won the Angus Award for agricultural farms presented by the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society. At that stage he had 140 acres of farm with 40 acres of vineyard.

Richard Hamilton’s widow, Anne, died in 1886 aged 97 and in accordance with her husband's will the original property was divided equally amongst the nine children. Henry and his son Frank set about buying the land back from the other members of the family.

Circa 1930s. A bird's eye view of Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards original vineyard first planted by Richard Hamilton in 1838 near Glenelg, South Australia.

Under the management of Frank Hamilton the vineyard expanded to 156 acres and amongst other wines they produced a “Chablis” dry white wine made from Pedro. In 1928 Frank’s son, Sydney, blended Pedro with Verdelho to produce Hamilton’s Ewell Moselle, a semi sweet white which went on to be Hamilton’s and Australia’s biggest selling wine.

At the same time Hamilton’s started picking the grapes early to retain some natural acidity and fermenting them in closed wooden vats rather than open concrete tanks, as was the norm. Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards developed a reputation for fine wines through the efforts of winemakers Sydney Hamilton, Russian born John A. Seeck, and Frenchman Maurice Ou. In 1945 a temperature controlled cellar was built which greatly helped the quality of the white wines.

Circa 1930s. Filling 65 gallon (300 litre) hogsheads with wine in the original Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards winery near Glenelg, South Australia.

Under the stewardship of managing director Eric Hamilton, the company flourished. Eric was a pioneer in exporting Australian wines spending up to six months of the year overseas promoting Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards and Australian wines, mainly in the UK and Canada. He even went to the length of shipping his Rolls Royce with him on occasions.

During the 60s and 70s Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards had lost much of its vineyards at Ewell through urban expansion and compulsory acquisition although there is one small section of vineyard still alive today. When Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards was sold to Mildara (now Beringer Blass) in 1979 the company had vineyards in the Eden Valley, Nildottie and Wood Wood near Swan Hill in Victoria and wineries at Ewell, Eden Valley Nildottie and Nyah in Victoria.

Mark Hamilton was horrified as a young board member in 1979, hoping to one day take over the reigns, when Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards was sold to Mildara.

In 1982 Mark Hamilton’s father, Robert, bought the winery and vineyard in the Eden Valley back from Mildara. Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards in turn purchased this from Robert in 1993 and named it Stonegarden. Mark, a lawyer, was determined to revive his interest in the wine industry so he and his wife Deborah began purchasing premium mature vineyards in the Barossa Valley in the 1990’s.

Circa 1960. The Bridgewater Mill used as a Whisky and Brandy Store by Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards in the 60s and 70s until the sale of the company to Mildara in 1979. Now a restaurant and sparkling wine cellar owned by Petaluma Winery.

Mark spent a lot of time in the 90s seeking out and purchasing the right vineyards in the Barossa Valley; purchasing an old winery and vineyard called Stonegarden near Springton in the Eden Valley previously owned by Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards, and searching for the ideal piece of land for a premium vineyard in the South East of SA.

At the same time Mark Hamilton took the opportunity to regain the name and associated trademarks of Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards.

Hamilton's Ewell vineyards have developed a new, high quality 100-acre vineyard named Limestone Quarry Vineyard in the Wrattonbully region near Coonawarra in South Australia’s South East on predominantly terra rossa soil.

Under the stewardship of chairman Eric Hamilton in the 60s and 70s, Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards became one of the biggest exporters of Australian wine. Eric spent up to six months overseas each year promoting Australian wines, even shipping his Rolls Royce with him to drive round Canada and the United Kingdom.

It is with this long heritage in mind that Mark and Deborah are proud to have relaunched Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards.

Descendants of Richard Hamilton

View a chart of six generations of descendants of Richard Hamilton [50 Kb PDF file]