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In 1988 Wolf’s parents bought a property on Stonewell Road in the Barossa, a property close to Torbreck Vintners and a hop, skip and a jump away from Seppeltsfield.
They intended to renovate the 1890’s dilapidated villa that came with the property. The original property was 40 acres on two titles. Wolf’s father Gerald moved the boundary so that the house and 3 ¼ acres of vines would be on a title of 6.5 acres – the balance of the vineyard is now owned by Penfolds.
Those 3 ¼ acres housed dry grown Cabernet Sauvignon of about 30/40 years of age.
In 1992, the first vintage was picked and Charlie Melton made the wine. The first bottled vintage was a 1993’ Cabernet. It still drinks very well.
Wolf was having the wine made, learning along the way how to be a vigneron, so he could have cases of wine to swap with his winemaking clients of the family printing business.
In 1993 Wolf and his wife Jacquie bought the property from his parents.
Charlie Melton made the 94’ and 95’ Cab, and being the birth years of Wolf’s daughters Charlotte and Kaitlyn, these were bottled under their names. The label designs were created in-house at AQ, the label printing business the family owned at the time. The 1995 Label won a packaging award to the time.
Following the 1995 vintage, which was only a barrique of wine Charlie ‘fired’ Wolf as a client for having too small a volume. He told him to go meet a guy at Rockford who actually owned a vineyard near his. This was Wolf’s first meeting with David Powell.
From 1996, David Powell of Torbreck was the family’s contract winemaker. Considering he could see his winery from our back door it was very convenient.
In 1998 Wolf met a US importer who was extremely interested in sell Wolf’s wine. Wolf had no label, so he briefed the two designers employed at the time to come up with something while he travelled for business. He wanted a label that was white, printed letterpress and a name that was suitable.
Lost Wolf as a name was born (not to be confused with Lone Wolf – this particular Wolf is never lonely, just occasionally ‘lost’). The name was fitting as Wolf would often find himself lost in a house full of girls.
Then came the 1999 vintage. Wolf and Jacquie walked 8 rows of vines and filled one bucket. The row of pinetress planted across one end was sucking the life out of the vines. In 1999 they replanted ½ the vineyard with Shiraz, adding additional acreage that was empty, added irrigation to the whole vineyard and cut down the pines. Lost Wolf Cabernet was becoming a Shiraz.
In 2003 Wolf and Jacquie were able to buy the neighbouring property of 6 ½ acres. They took down the fence and added roughly 6 acres of vines to the 4 they already had. The following years involved a lot of vine planting, pruning, training etc to get the vines on the wire.
As the Shiraz vines developed, the wine changed from being 100% Cabernet to a Shiraz with under 15% Cabernet in it.
In 2003 Wolf finally had some reasonable volume and a US importer who wanted it. He packaged the wine using a new label design by father, and printed using hand set type of a Heidelberg Platten. It was printed one colour at a time, so Wolf could have colour and registration variation which he just loved in hand printed items.
In 2006 Wolf found the three major things in his life – family, career and a vineyard were beginning to compete with each other and one of them had to go. He had started in 2004 with Fosters Wine Estates (later to become Treasury Wine Estates) and was traveling a lot. Weekends and evenings were spent mostly in the vines. Balance was out. So the property was sold and the family moved into Tanunda – however Wolf kept his producers license.
The wine they had produced for 2004, 2005 and 2006 was sold to Torbreck.
Over the following years Wolf put several different wines together. Mostly these wines were side projects not under the Lost Wolf label, but he did do a 2006 and 2011 for a little fun.
Then came 2017. A friend has a vineyard and some spare Shiraz and a bit of Cab. Wolf’s style has always been a Shiraz with a bit of Cab. What was going to be maybe 2 ton became 10 ton of Shiraz and nearly a ton of Cab.
Then another ‘mate’ suggested Wolf might like some Grenache over lunch and by days end Wolf was arranging for 3 ton to be processed.
The 2017 Lost Wolf wines were vinified at Teusner Wines under Wolf’s direction In 2018 Wolf took some more Shiraz, also processed at Teusner. In later 2017 Wolf purchased his ‘shed’ in Tanunda, a purpose built multi warehouse site. Wolf now had room to bring the 2017 & 2018 barrels back to that site for finally blending. All the bottling was actioned on site with Wolf’s own bottling equipment.
We have been label printers in the Barossa for generations: ink and wine run in our veins. Our original printing presses and hand-cut fonts date back to 1865. We approach our work with meticulous care and great attention to detail. The label, letter-pressed and finished by hand, can sum up our family’s attitude to winemaking, honouring the traditional methods of the past with a dash of modernity.
Since 2019, we have made our wines in the Shed. Our production is hands on and simple. We use a small hand-fed crusher, small half ton and one-ton open fermenters, and two hand-cranked basket presses. Basic but effective for small-batch wines made with minimal invention.
We don’t claim to be organic or natural, but the wines are all crafted using wild yeast with minimal intervention. We manage the ferment temperature by having the fermenters out in the cool of night and inside during the heat of the day. Once fermented dry, we shovel the skins into the small basket presses, slowly hand-cranked to get the best flavour.
Wolf’s father had a massive collection of traditional printing machinery equipment including metal hand-set type and wood cut large type and many small hand operated presses. Most of this came out of the print business bought by Gerald in the mid 1970’s, with the previous owners having run their business in the Barossa since 1865. The 1880’s type and materials was still there and in use when purchased. All the handset type, along with a Heidelberg press, has its own special room in the Shed and are used to print the Lost Wolf labels (except the Reserve). Like his father, Wolf has a strong appreciation of 18th and 19th century printing, especially hand-coloured etchings.
The Lost Wolf label is to represent and respect the family’s printing history whilst also being fresh and quirky. By use of a small-scale bottling equipment, the family fills, labels and packs all their wines by hand. This labour of love is important to them in terms of the label and the branding as this small ‘craft’ approach captures the essence of Lost Wolf as a wine. The wine is very much a Barossa product, with the grapes being sourced from the Barossa, the wine being produced in the Barossa and the bottling as a family in a small warehouse affectionately referred to as ‘The Shed’.
Again, with the family approach to the wine, the family votes on the best barrel of the vintage which is the Reserve. The Reserve is made for the family with some to share.
Wolf Viergever is both the typical Dutch migrant’s son and yet very Australian. Wolf was born on Australia Day and can claim a public holiday every year for his birthday. Only when Wolf started school did he work out his Oma & Opa may have been twisting the truth by telling him that everyone put out flags for his birthday. Wolf enjoys Australian Rules Football (AFL) but loves Dubbel Zout Liquorice, Croquets and be easily bribed with Oliebollen.
Wolf has spent 30+ years in beverage (mainly wine) packaging. There is not much he has not been asked to source, solve or create in labels, cartons and tertiary packaging such as giftboxes and sleeves. Although he has a love of old printing techniques, he is also a strong advocate of new printing techniques – modern offset digital and Ink-jet direct technologies are producing amazing results.
Wolf’s wife and two daughters have always been involved in some way with the wine label, particularly as the family lived for almost 15 years with their own small vineyard. As a family they ran this small vineyard with much love and dedication, with the girls helping to pick the grapes as soon as they were old enough to do so. Although they have since left the property, the family is still very much involved with the label, with Wolf’s youngest helping to create label ideas and his eldest daughter, though working as a lawyer, always comes home to help with vintage and bottling.
At Lost Wolf Wine Co we don’t have 50 tonne crushers and a rows of stainless steel tanks, for us that would be like comparing a restaurant kitchen to a country house kitchen. We take the time to use small scale tools and traditional processes to create small parcels of unique hand made wine. Everything from crushing & fermenting, to bottling is down by hand in the shed by the Wolf and his family, this is what our label represents.