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History Mount Benson Vineyards : In 1989 retired lobster fisherman Bill Wehl and his wife Margaret along with their son and daughter in law established Mount Benson Vineyards, sited 2 kilometres inland from the scenic coastline of the locally famous Lobster fishing area known as Wright Bay. Good knowledge of the local weather conditions enabled them to set up the vineyard to make full use of the climate. Vines had never been grown commercially in the area. As with all pioneers in a new industry, not a lot of advice was available for a new wine region, particularly one established so close to the coast, this led to a lot of trial and error in the early days. Would the Wehl's have it any other way? "No way, that was the fun in the beginning, the challenges, the failures and successes, thankfully more successes than failures and we ended up producing a bloody good drop". More than once Bill threatened to "bulldoze the bloody things in" and run stock on the property, thankfully the moment passed and the rewards are now in the bottle year after year. So began the story of Mount Benson Vineyards with 1 Ha of Cabernet Sauvignon increasing to 8 Ha in 1992, and a further 4 Ha in1998, this time with the variety that is fast becoming the signature red for the region, Shiraz. Bill and Margaret retired in December of 2000. Their son, Peter along with his wife Leah purchased the vineyard and label and added the "Wehl's" name to the now popular and sought after "Mount Benson Vineyards" label to become "Wehl's Mount Benson Vineyards" The Mount Benson Wine Region is nestled halfway between the two historical fishing ports of Kingston and Robe on the picturesque Limestone Coast of South Australia, approximately 350 kms south east of Adelaide and 600kms west of Melbourne. The port of Kingston was a safe anchorage and loading port for large ships carrying wool and local wattle bark which was used in the tanning process of leather back in the days of horse and cart. Robe is a very historic port, being a major entry point for tens of thousands of Chinese migrants back in the early gold rush days of central Victoria. Mount Benson was one of the first grazing areas for stock in South Australia. The area has seen a lot of pioneers during its long history, the latest being Bill and Margaret Wehl, who pioneered the Mount Benson wine industry in this region during 1989. |
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