Serafino Vineyard

The Serafino Vineyard was first started by Serafino Maglieri, back in 1968. However, before this time, it all started in the late 1950s, when his father Giovanni Maglieri was working in Pirramimma, also in McLaren Vale. When Serafino was 17 years old in 1963, he joined his father Giovanni in the vineyards. This was when Giovanni and Serafino bought 50 hectares of woodland in McLaren Vale, with the intent of clearing the lands to grow grape vines.

Serafino first started as a Cellarhand, picking and pruning grapes. He worked his way up the ladder and started to plant his first vines to build his first winery, which is now the famous Serafino Vineyard.

The McLaren Vale region was picked by Serafino because of the great climate for growing grapes. There is rarely any frost or drought in the region, making it ideal for winemaking. The soil is rich, with plenty of sunshine for the grapes during growing season. The rainfall is always ideal for keeping the vineyards healthy every year.

Serafino Vineyard has now expanded to 300 acres in the McLaren Vale region. Their winery has a Cellar Door, Restaurant and accommodation. They also do functions and conferences, including weddings.

The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are sourced from their Little Road and Malpas Road blocks. The grapes are destemmed and cold soaked on skin for 24 hours. The cold soak starts the process of building brightness and depth of flavours. The wines are then fermented on skin in the huge open fermenters, where the yeast starts to eat the sugars to make alcohol. The main huge fermentation is done for roughly 10 days, where there is regular cap punching of pushing the top of the wine down into the huge fermenters to mix everything up. Then there is the daily  pump overs where the the wine is pumped over the top of the wine to mix everything up. Both these processes helps get more flavours and colour out of the grapes, and into the wine. After roughly 10 days when the main fermentation is finished, the sediments is all filtered out and they begin to put the wine into French and American oak hogsheads 300 litre sizes, where it matures for roughly 10 months.

These days, the Serafino Winery is being run by Serafino’s daughter, CEO Maria Maglieri. She is more than capable, as she has been awarded the South Australian Business Ambassador in 2006, and in 2010 she was nominated the Telstra Business Woman of the year. In 2012, she was named the Molisana Business Woman of the World in Italy. In her guidance, she leaves the winemaking to her Winemaker Charles Whish.

Serafino Wines is located on Kangarilla Road, McLaren Vale South Australia. Since the Serafino Winery started making wines, they have won many awards for their Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s a delight to drink, and highly recommended.