WHY ARE WE HERE?
Our family established Hayes Family Wines in the Barossa Valley in 2014.
We are the proud custodians of a superbly-sited historic Barossa vineyard, driven by the desire to feel the soil on our hands and to craft authentic, classically-styled wines that reflect our unique sites.
We achieve this by working with the region’s hero varieties – Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro and Semillon – certified organic and certified sustainable vineyards, handling our fruit respectfully in the winery with minimal intervention, no fining and no filtering of our red wines (and hence they are vegan friendly).
Barossa Valley VINEYARDS
Barossa Valley is home to our primary vineyards, including our Estate Vineyard in Stone Well, where we operate our winery and farm-style cellar door. The Barossa Valley is a truly special place with a wine growing history dating back to the 1840s and reputation for producing some of the world’s finest Shiraz.
Our vineyards date back to the 1870s and have been the source of some of the region’s flagship wines over several generations. We believe in doing things naturally, therefore much of our work is hands-on. We hand-prune and hand-harvest, managing all aspects in the vineyard with extreme care and attention to detail. Our vineyards are typically dry-grown with certain blocks supported by drip irrigation. We don’t apply any unnatural fertilsers or sprays, farming our vineyards sustainably and organically (our Estate Vineyard in Stone Well and Primrose Vineyard in Ebenezer are Certified Organic and Certified Sustainable).
Estate Vineyard
Stone Well
Other Vineyards
Ebenezer, Koonunga & beyond
our winemakers
Hayes Family Wines comprises a highly-skilled and experienced team of two. We have 50+ years of combined experience in grape growing, winemaking, sales and distribution.
Our extended team of multi-generational growers provides a further resource and support, overseeing the farming of historic vineyard sites across Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, Coonawarra and the Adelaide Hills.
Our own viticulture team for our Estate Vineyard, is led by Mandy Madar, a truly exceptional vineyard resource.
brett Hayes — Owner
READ BIO ➝
Brett has held numerous business roles within Australia and overseas since completing his Bachelor of Commerce Degree in the early 1990s.
During this time, he led transformative projects as business partner of a major international consulting firm, overseeing manufacturing, distribution and sales across food, beverage and various other industries. Brett has operated businesses across the Asia-Pacific region; specifically in China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Oceania.
Since entering the wine industry, Brett has owned and managed the Estate Vineyard and Winery Infrastructure.
Andrew Seppelt — chief winemaker
READ BIO ➝
Andrew has been making globally recognised wines since 1995. He has an impressive 26 vintages under his belt, with 18 of these in senior winemaking roles.
He has played a major role in developing a number of successful businesses from infancy; most notably as General Manager and Winemaker for Torbreck Vineyards, and Founding Partner and Senior Winemaker for Murray Street Vineyards, both located in the renowned north west region of Barossa Valley.
Andrew recently joined forces with Brett Hayes to develop a portfolio of exceptional, small-batch wines from the Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, Adelaide Hills and Coonawarra under the Hayes Family Wines label. Significantly, Hayes Family Wines has enjoyed a five star rating from the James Halliday Wine Companion since its inception; an impressive endorsement from Australia’s most recognised wine guide.
“Our winemaking approach is very simple, focusing on quality above all else - no shortcuts, no compromise.”
barossa valley WINEMAKING
Winemaker, Andrew Seppelt, draws on generations of knowledge and some 25+ years of personal winemaking experience to craft wines that are sensitive to site, variety and vintage.
We genuinely believe in low intervention winemaking to ‘let the vineyards and their grapes do the talking’, applying these practices from one vintage to the next:
No added tannins.
No fining of reds and minimal fining of whites and rosé when necessary
(no animal products are used).No filtering of reds and minimal filtering of whites and rosé.
Minimal sulphur additions in line with organic protocol.
We pride ourselves on crafting wines with thought, rather than adopting prescriptive, recipe-driven practices. We use both traditional and contemporary, innovative winemaking techniques, including:
Extended skin contact for red varietals.
Use of either indigenous or introduced yeasts, subject to particular blocks,
varieties and styles sought.Use of ceramic egg fermenters, as well as large format oak for fermentation and maturation.
Crafting of unique styles, from small batch project wines to fortified wines and brandies.
Ultimately, Hayes Family Wines are classically styled and tell a story of where and how the grapes were grown. They are minimal addition (vegan friendly) wines that reliably over-deliver, displaying fruit purity, balance and ageability. And, because we are small scale, our customers can rest in the knowledge they’ve made a great discovery; these are wines not likely to be brought by others to a dinner party!
MEET THE TEAM
The hard-working team behind Hayes Family Wines comprises:
Andrew Seppelt — Winemaking
Amanda Mader - Estate Vineyard Viticulture Management
Steve Fletcher - Cellar Door Manager
Lucas Robinson - Cellar Door and Local Trade Sales
Brett Hayes — Owner, Hands-on vineyard management, cellar-hand, sales and marketing
Kylie Hayes — Owner, Finance
Despite our defined roles, each wine touches all our hands at some point from vine to bottle, in the true spirit of small-scale wine production.
A key helper and supporter along the way has been Marcus Schulz, who has been tending vines on his family property in Ebenezer for more than a half century. Marcus’ commitment to biodynamics and organics, combined with lessons learned over five generations farming the Ebenezer vineyard, have ultimately steered our own vineyard practices.
need a wine JUST FOR YOU, YOUR CUSTOMERS or PARTNERS?
Looking for a corporate gift for your business employees, partners or customers? Or have a wine in mind for your own label domestically or internationally? We can help. We can leverage our skills, assets and relationships for your benefit whether it be a barrel, a pallet or a container.
We offer a personalised service to develop a wine specifically for your needs.
Hayes Vintners produces high quality, bespoke wines for discerning customers from a range of exceptional South Australian vineyard sites under our label or yours.
