WJ Seabrook started a wine brokers business in Melbourne back in 1878 assessing wine from many regions of Australia. His son T.C. followed his father as an acclaimed judge for 35 years and began working at the family wine business. Typically, the trade was in hogsheads, but wicker-covered, ceramic demijohns and special bottles of wine were also sold direct to the public.

After 1940 W. J. Seabrook & Son evolved more along the lines of a classic English wine merchant. The firm imported and exported wines, and began to produce it’s own blends under the Seabrook label. T.C.’s son, Doug continued in the family wine business and was chairman of judges at the RMWS for more than 30 years. Doug’s son, Iain took the family baton and worked in the family business from 1964. Douglas, who suffered from the effects of poliomyelitis, sold the family business in 1976 and retired, but this was not the end of Seabrook wines.

Seabrook Wines re-launced itself in 2005 after several years lying dormant. Fifth generation winemaker, Hamish Seabrook has revitalised the old 1878 family label and as his forefathers did, is hand sourcing fruit from some of the best regions Australia has to offer, which to date includes shiraz from both the Pyrenees in Victoria and the Barossa Valley, South Australia.

Hamish studied winemaking at Roseworthy and has worked as winemaker at Bests Wines Great Western, Senior Winemaker/winery manager at Brown Brothers Milawa, and is currently working as winemaker at Dorrien Estate in the Barossa as well as managing Seabrook wines with his wife Joanne.

Hamish is the proud recipient of the Dux Len Evans Tutorial and judges regularly at several shows around Australia including the Royal Melbourne Wine Show, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Rutherglen, Seymour, and several additional regional shows. The Seabrook Clan have set an all-Australian record in wine judging at Royal Melbourne Wine Show with five generations as a wine judge, three of which have served as chairman of judges.

Enlisting the help of another friend, wine marketer Leigh Gilligan, to write a business plan, cajoling legendary local winemaker Brian Light into making the wine and briefing renowned designer Barrie Tucker to create a label – the fledgling Dowie Doole wine business was formed in late 1995.

As wine writer Huon Hooke so aptly put it – "not even the most coke addled advertising executive could have come up with the name Dowie Doole, but this name now enjoys a growing reputation in Australia and overseas as a consistently excellent producer of Chenin Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz".

Committed to growing and making classic regional McLaren Vale wines, Dowie Doole utilise predominantly estate-grown fruit which is crushed, fermented, and matured at Boar’s Rock winery in McLaren Vale under Brian Light’s guidance. Leigh Gilligan, who joined as a partner in 1998, now manages the day-to-day operations, while Norm Doole oversees the Norjan vineyard in the heart of McLaren Vale and Drew Dowie’s wife Lulu Lunn takes care of viticultural operations at Tintookie Vineyard in the hills above McLaren Vale at Blewitt Springs.

The source Tintookie Vineyard, owned by Drew Dowie and Lulu Lunn is situated 12 km north-east of McLaren Vale, close to the southern Mount Lofty Ranges, the property is medium to steeply sloping to both the east and west. At 16.6 hectares the site lies at 180-200 metres above sea level, colder and wetter than the floor of the valley in winter and cooler in summer. Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz and Chenin Blanc vines are grown to sand over reddish semi-porous clay with ironstone pebbles throughout.

The Norjan Vineyard owned and operated by Norm and Jane Doole was acquired in 1993, the property is located 3km west of the township of McLaren Vale on gently undulating land which was the site of one of South Australia’s earliest plantings of wine grapes. An area of 26.3 hectares at a lowly 55-65 metres above sea level grows Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc planted to sandy loam over limestone. The climes here are very mediterranean, coastal sea breezes, dry summers with warm days and cool nights.

The winemaking philosophy is to make intensely fruit driven, complex, powerful, yet elegant wines, from the regions most suited to each separate premium grape variety in Western Australia. Capel Vale now sources fruit from its own Stirling and Wellington vineyards in Capel, its Whispering Hill vineyard in Mount Barker, Sheldrake in Pemberton, and Madrigals, the latest development at Margaret River. Capel Vale has grown enormously, and now is one of the few major family owned wineries in Western Australia.

Capel Vale owns and operates seven vineyards in the four EU registered growing areas in South Western Australia, in total 500 acres (210 hectares). Each vineyard grows the most appropriate fruit appropriate for the climate and terroir. The winery's operation has played an important role in the establishment of the Western Australian Wine Industry and the recognition of South Western Australia as a premium grape growing region. The winery now exports to over fifteen countries. It's been an amazing journey from a few vines and a small tin shed!

The Whispering Hill vineyard is the most southern at Mount Barker, followed by Sheldrake at Pemberton, Madrigals at Margaret River and Stirling and Wellington at Capel in the increasingly recognised region of Geographe. All wine produced by Capel Vale is made at the winery on the Stirling Estate in Capel.

Capel Vale's vineyards in the Geographe region consist of Capel Stirling 1, Capel Stirling 2 and Capel Wellington, eighty acres in total. The first vines were planted on the Stirling Estate vineyard in 1974. The winery, bottling line, warehouse, tasting cellar and restaurant are now all located on this property. The vineyards are named after the original Capel shire subdivisions. The Stirling area being one of the earliest surveyed areas in the state, deriving its name from Captain James Stirling, the founding father of modern Western Australia.

The Pemberton area is enjoying increasing acclaim as a premium cool climate viticultural region producing elegant flavours and wines of note. Capel Vale's Sheldrake Vineyard was planted in the winter of 1995 to initially supplement and ultimately replace fruit sourced from the Pemberton region. The name 'Sheldrake' seemed a natural progression from our emblem, the Shelduck. The vineyards here support superb varietal vines.

The ethos is simple, to create charismatic wines that are true to what Some Young Punks think wine is about. This is Passion, a monster bigger than the three of us that leads us to soapbox, grandstand and sometimes pass out on the couch.

We believe that awesome wine is a powerful aid to creativity, there is always the danger that while drinking a bottle of Punks, you may also be pushed to acts of complete random. It keeps us ticking over.

I refer you, the jury, to the gaudy bottles of plonk stamped Some Young Punks. It's OK to judge a book by its cover , we judged the covers of books to decide on these labels.

We need you to see us, and we don't have lineage or tithe, not even a family crest to take up the papaer on the glass. These labels are as bright and bold as the wines they clothe.

Each wine, each vintage and each label is a moment that will never come again, a winemaker should only ever promise to be consistently good, not just consistent.