Schulz Wines
The fate of the Schulz family in the Barossa
The Schulz family and its future generations started with Johann August Schulz's arrival in Adelaide in 1849 to settle in Hoffnungsthal, a small Lutheran community near Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley. In 1853 he married Willhemine Silbernagel and shortly after had two children. The family lived a rural subsistence life that involved growing vegetables, smoking meats, preserving fruits and working the land.
In 1859 Willhemine and Johann had their third child, Mattheus Benjamin, who met and married Maria Elizabeth Koch in 1884. This union sealed the fate of the Schulz family, and its future generations as the newlyweds planted close to 25 acres of what were to become the classic Barossa varieties of Grenache, Shiraz and Mataro.
Benjamin eventually increased the land to 500 acres. Simultaneously he also grew his vine plantings up to 80 acres. Benjamin and Elizabeth finished building their first home, a bluestone villa known as 'Primrose' on section 51 in 1905.
Carl Julius Schulz
Julius was one of Benjamin and Elizabeth's sons, who worked alongside his father by the time he was 14 years old, overseeing the property and nurturing and maintaining the vines that his father had planted. By the time Julius took over running the property, his father had divided the land evenly between Julius and his older brother Harry.
At 21, Julius married Clara Schrapel, who was a woman of sharp wit and intelligent business insight, and these traits combined held the family together and ensured their future following the early death of Julius in 1934, leaving Clara with an enormous debt, two small children aged one and two and a property of some 270 acres to manage.
Through sheer hard work and perseverance, as well as the support of the strong community in the Barossa Valley, Clara held onto Primrose, maintained the Schulz's vineyards and raised their children, one of whom took over from her when he was old enough to assume a more fundamental role in the Schulz family's business.
Dennis Ross Schulz
Dennis, apart from Benjamin, was one of the first of the Schulz's to continue with the property by himself. He had 25 acres of vineyard to maintain and 250 acres of land.
In the late 1950s, DR set out to secure long-term contracts with local wineries, one of which was Kaiser Stuhl. Having recognised the potential that this variety had not just within the region. Still, in the country, Kaiser Stuhl convinced DR that growing Chardonnay would deliver a prosperous future for himself and the Australian wine industry. It was the combination of this agreement and DR's pioneering spirit that eventually helped to protect the vineyards from the Vine Pull Scheme that was initiated in the early 1980s.
Dennis was the first man in the Barossa region to grow Chardonnay. As such, Marcus named his Chardonnay after his father, who planted the vines in the mid-1960s.
Marcus Noel Schulz
Marcus is a fifth-generation Schulz and the sole owner of sections 51 and 54 in Ebenezer. He is also the first of his family to release a wine made from the old dry-grown vines planted by previous generations.
His focus was and remained to produce the highest quality grapes he could – to achieve this; he has concentrated solely on the vineyards. Marcus has increased the plantings again by another 60 or so acres employing sustainable agricultural principles.
In 1970 Marcus married Roslyn Habel, who managed to juggle tying on whilst her twins were only five months old, as well as managing the business in conjunction with Marcus.
