Robert O’Callaghan was born into a family of grape growers. He grew up amongst vineyards and wineries, where he inherited a great respect for the pioneer Australian wine trade
All that O’Callaghan experienced is reflected in the Rockford fundamentals. Quality winemaking is a skilled craft that consumes a very large part of one’s life, so it must give you joy. O’Callaghan's parents and grandparents were grape growers, so his childhood was spent in their vineyards. His family moved to northeastern Victoria where his father managed a vineyard for Australia’s then largest family winemakers, Seppelts. In 1965 O’Callaghan followed a natural path and started as a trainee winemaker at Seppelt’s Rutherglen winery. It was a wonderful apprenticeship in the old, ordered, slow and gentle Australian wine trade. The wines he drank, the winemakers from previous generations with whom he associated and everything he absorbed in that period had a major influence on the way Rockford is today. Although O’Callaghan spent all his life in the industry, the pleasure he derive from walking through rows of vines or casks filled with wine has not diminished. Rockford»
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