John Reynell expresses his confidence in South Australia vine potential with the first plantings on his farm in 1841

John Reynell in a daguerreotype family portrait in about 1855 with his children Lydia, Walter and Lucy. John Reynell planted the first vines at his Reynella Farm, south of Adelaide, in 1841.
Portrait image courtesy State Library of South Australia

John Reynell planted his first vineyards, with 500 cuttings from Tasmania, in 1841 on his farm south of Adelaide where he had previously grown wheat and potatoes and raised sheep and cattle. What he’d seen in Italy and southern France convinced him that vines, olives and figs could be grown in South Australia.

Devon, England-born Reynell had gone to Egypt at 16 before trading in wheat and other cargo before going back to Egypt.  He arrived in Adelaide during 1838 on the Surry that gave its name to Surryville on the banks of Field River south of Adelaide where Reynell planted the vine cuttings he’d collected.

Next year he married Mary Lucas at Holy Trinity Church, North Terrace, Adelaide, and gained his land selection, Section 524 in Hurtle Vale, and called it Reynella Farm. He took rooted vine cuttings from Surryville to Reynella Farm, starting Stony Hill, South Australia’s first commercial vineyard. Reynell was among the 50 settlers who formed the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia.  He introduced Southdown and Saxon rams from Van Diemen's Land, and, in 1842, was shearing 4,000 sheep.

Reynell made his first wine in 1843 but went bankrupt during an economic recession. He lost £4,000 but was generously treated by creditors and received a loan from his brother Henry in Calcutta.

In 1844, Reynell planted half an acre with cuttings from G. A. Anstey, followed by four and a quarter acres the next year with shiraz and grenache cuttings from William Macarthur in Paramatta, New South Wales; in 1847-48, 10 acres with cuttings from E. J. Peake of Clarendon. He pioneered the export of claret and burgundy to New Zealand. In 1845, he’d dug the Old Cave, one of Australia's first underground wine cellars and, early in the 1850s, employed a young Thomas Hardy for two years.

In 1852, Reynell went to the Victorian diggings and won some gold. In 1854, he sold about 40 acres of Reynella Farm for the township of Reynella with 94 allotments bringing him nearly £3000.

Reynell died in 1873 but his son Walter didn’t return to the vineyards until 1910 when he retired from working on Beltana station for Thomas Elder, part owning Tolarno station on the Darling River, and becoming a manager for Elder Smith & Co. Walter worked with his son Carew who was strongly committed to the family business as its manager and winemaker from 1903. Carew Reynell rose to lieutenant colonel with the Australian Imperial Force during World I. He was killed at Gallipoli in 1914.