A true industry icon

Andrew Mathieson
BLOOD is thicker than water – so they say – but for Daryl Sefton it’s wine, especially a good red, that has flowed through his veins.
Daryl, with his wife (and partner in business) Nini, were chiefly responsible for reviving Geelong’s winemaking past that died out in the 19th century.
For them, it all started after converting unruly beer-drinking students to wine at annual dinners during their university days together.
But for Daryl, now 78, it’s always been about his ancestral links to winemaking.
His Swiss maternal great-grandparents had immigrated to Point Henry in 1855.
“I think their vineyard was a small one because we could never find out exactly where it was,” Nini, who is acutely aware of the history, recalls.
Jacob and Rosina Just first set up the landmark La Pensione Suisse, which not only was a James Street boarding house, but a restaurant where Geelong’s largely Swiss vignerons had gathered socially.
But phylloxera, an insect pest, wiped out the vineyards and economic sanctions didn’t help either.
Their son-in-law, William Sefton, was one of the region’s last known winemakers.
“Most people had forgotten we were the biggest wine-growing region in Victoria (in the 19th) century,” Nini maintains.
“When we started all those years later, people thought we were crazy.
“They insisted it was too cold here but this climate is very similar to Bordeaux, where some of the greatest wines in the world are made.”
The quietly-spoken Daryl then chirps in that the cold winters is a “nice time to lay down and have a sleep” for wines.
The Seftons would buy a 23-hectare property in 1966 among the Moorabool Valley near Ballarat Road and named it Idyll – short for picturesque, and it was.
An old cellar built in the hill also proved that the site was remnant of a past vineyard.
But despite Daryl having already established a high standing in the tight-knit veterinary community, he was audaciously prepared to risk it all.
He took over the family’s Malop Street clinic for close to 30 years following his father’s untimely death.
And after introducing the first practice management course at the new Werribee Veterinary Clinical Centre, Daryl was also made its first lecturer.
But that wasn’t enough.
He would continue to run his veterinary practice until 1979, often spending 20 hours a day working between the practice and the winery.
“What I discovered was a lack of sleep,” Daryl laughs.
Idyll would burst through a vast number of European markets with its boutique wines, even broaching East Berlin, where the wall had stopped many others.
Nini, an accomplished oil painter, designed original labels on their wine bottles, earning international acclaim in 1989 after capturing one of only five world wine awards.
Daryl would later revolutionise winemaking and its methods in Victoria.
He would later design a water-operated mechanical wand to increase planting from 200 to 1000 rootlings per day – a turning point in wine production nearly 40 years ago.
After listening to some Israelis talk about daily-flow irrigation, he also developed his own drip-irrigation system before they were available commercially.
Idyll also purchased one of the first machine pruners to reduce production time from 2800 to 80 hours per year.
“The vines were in those days that you would be picking at this point,” Daryl says, pointing to a couple of feet from the ground, “and I didn’t think that was a good idea.”
“People used to ask why we did we have the trellis so high and I said because one day I’ll be doing it mechanically, and again they’d think I was crazy.”
While Daryl and Nini have slipped comfortably into retirement after selling the winery in 1999, their Highton home could easily be mistaken for one in any village in European wine country.
Now they just enjoy a good drop from afar.
“Somebody asked Daryl what his favourite wine was and he said the last one,” Nini says, before Daryl then adds, “or the next one.”