PFEIFFER WINES
The historic winery cellars, and the century old Sunday Creek bridge are situated in an idyllic setting on the banks of Sunday Creek, an anabranch of the mighty Murray River near Wagunyah.
A French community settled this area of Wahgunyah. The winery was built in 1895 by Monsieur Joseph Gassies, whose vineyards were on the opposite banks of Sunday Creek where Pfeiffer's Sunday Creek vineyard now flourishes. Next door at the Tuileries vineyard lived Camille Reau, who is remembered as the last Rutherglen winemaker whose employees crushed grapes with their feet.
There was no Sunday Creek bridge in those days. In order to get to his vineyard Monsieur Joseph Gassies was obliged to pass through Camille Reau's land, to use a safe crossing. This arrangement proved satisfactory until a serious rift between the two neighbours led to Camille Reau demanding that Gassies find his own way across the creek. Monsieur Joseph Gassies devised a flying fox, then a primitive punt using a row-boat and a pulley.
Almost inevitably there was an accident, and Gassies was believed to have drowned. There were no witnesses and surprisingly, no mention of an inquest appeared in the newspapers of the day.
Gassies' winery was sold and during a period of strong demand for fortified wines it was enlarged by the noted Rutherglen partnership of Masterton and Dobbin, to become a distillery for the production of fortifying spirit. A brick house was built nearby for Charles Leonard Dobbin, and now serves as a comfortable home for the Pfeiffer family. The distillery was sold to B. Seppelt and Sons in 1942. Seppelt continued to distil fortifying spirit here until 1979.
In 1984, the sale of Seppelt interests at Rutherglen offered Chris and Robyn Pfeiffer an opportunity to return to the district. Chris had worked as a winemaker for Lindemans at Corowa, and they both loved the area. The rest, so to speak, is history.
Apparently the ghost of Monsieur Joseph Gassies still disturbs visitors from time to time.
Features – Enjoy the Sunday Creek Bridge in their shaded grounds. BBQ , shaded picnic tables, children’s cubby and sandpit.
NOTE: Best to avoid this on the Queens Birthday long weekend when the Winery Walkabout proper occurs.
This cache series has been placed to highlight a number of the regions wineries and we have endeavoured, where possible, to locate the hides close to the wineries. We have also tried to avoid busy roads but PLEASE park responsibly to ensure eager children (and adults?) don’t need to cross the road. Although you will be travelling on some dirt roads these can be accessed by 2WD in wet weather – we tested out the NinjaGolf to ensure this was possible.
Cache is a 400ml sistema container so small swaps only.
Please enjoy and remember “Don’t drink and drive!”
