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Assmanshausen Winery is a heritage-listed former winery at Serisier Road, Toolburra, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from to . It is also known as Toolburra Vineyards. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 January 1999. == History == Assmanshausen Vineyard at Sandy Creek, near Warwick was established in the 1860s by German immigrants Jacob and Elisabetha Kircher, who were also among the first in the district to establish commercial wine production on a substantial scale. In the late 19th century, Assmanshausen's award-winning wines were known throughout southern Queensland, and the winery was a popular attraction for visitors to the Warwick district.〔 Jacob and Elisabetha Kircher were early settlers on the southern Darling Downs, arriving at Moreton Bay in March 1855. Jacob gained employment as a gardener at Canning Downs Homestead near Warwick, when the principal stations on the southern Downs had extensive orchards and gardens. About 1857 the Kirchers left Canning Downs, Jacob working as a bushman on Rosenthal station and at various other activities, before taking up farming in the early 1860s. In December 1861 Kircher purchased adjoining portions 238 (45 acres) and 239 (45 acres), near Sandy Creek, about 7 miles northwest of Warwick, for £81. The Kirchers were among the earliest farmers in the district. They fenced and cleared their land and experimented firstly with wheat, but after successive failures turned to vine growing, the first 1,000 vines being planted . By 1870 they had established Assmanshausen Winery - named after a celebrated Assmannshausen wine-producing district on the Rhine.〔 Viticulture and wine production in the Warwick district was pioneered in the mid-19th century by principally German immigrants. By 1861, Germans formed 9.75% (217 persons) of the population of the towns of Warwick, Allora, Leyburn and the rural portion of the Warwick police district. Like the Kirchers, most were farmers sponsored in the 1850s by southern Darling Downs squatters. Most of those who pioneered the wine industry on the southern Downs took up selections on the Warwick Reserve or Warwick Agricultural Reserve in the 1860s. By the mid- 1870s a number of vineyards had been established along Sandy Creek, at Swan and Deuchar's Creek, and at the Jew's Retreat on Glengallan land. Only one vigneron relied solely on the vineyard as a source of income; most also grew wheat, maize and lucerne or had established orchards, and none of the vineyards exceeded 10 acres. All made wine on the premises, and all had constructed cellars (some in stone, often two- storeyed and partly underground) in which the wine was both made and stored.〔 By 1876 Assmanshausen was the principal vineyard and winery in the Warwick district, with 10 acres under vines. Older plantings included both white (verdelho, muscadine and salvina) and red (black Spanish and Mataro) grapes, but more recent plantings were reds only: Mataro and Hermitage. Most of the vines were trellised, the newer ones planted about 6' x 6' apart, and Kircher had invented a horse-drawn cultivator which could weed and turn the soil close to the vines while the horse walked at a sufficient distance to prevent vine damage from the traces. Kircher was producing unfortified wines (wines made without the addition of cane sugar or spirits ), and had already won prizes at the Warwick and Brisbane exhibition In the 1870s, grape growing and wine production in the Warwick district emerged as an important economic activity. Warwick vignerons had reached a stage whereby they could hold much of their produce until it had mellowed and ripened with age, and the reputation of Assmanshausen wines in particular was growing. By 1881, Kircher had installed modern screw presses at Assmanshausen and his winery was described as one of the best in Queensland. At this period the presses were located in the attic, the must then gravity-fed down pipes to the ground floor where it was fermented in vats, before being piped to the underground stone cellar to mature. A timber, ground- level extension to the cellar may have been constructed by this time. Kircher had 11 acres under vines around his house, and a 5-acre vineyard about half a mile distant. He was also farming his land, with a 10-acre paddock under oats and 500 merino sheep. The Kirchers' residence (unlikely to be their first house on the property) was impressive also - described by one reporter in 1881 as ''"the neatest, best finished, and most comfortable dwelling I have ever seen among Queensland farmers or selectors ..."'', and in an 1887 report as ''"one of the most perfect in the colonies"''.〔 Assmanshausen figured prominently in the 1889 report on viticulture and wine-making in the southern districts of Queensland, prepared by the Under Secretary for Agriculture, Peter McLean, who visited the Warwick district in late 1888 or early 1889. Assmanshausen was then one of the oldest vineyards in the district, and Kircher, with wine exports to Scotland, was the only Queensland wine-maker then exporting to Britain or Europe.〔 By March 1901, the Assmanshausen vineyard still comprised just 10 acres, but Kircher was devoting most of his time to wine production as distinct from general farming. The cellar was considered still one of the finest in the State, carrying on average about 18,000 gallons of wine, with annual output averaging 4,500 gallons. Assmanshausen wine was seldom sold until it had aged 7 or 8 years, and was in demand throughout southern Queensland. Kircher had secured about 60 prizes and certificates for his wines, some awarded for exhibits sent interstate and to Britain and Europe. Both the winery and the vineyard were managed by Jacob Christian Barth, son of the Kirchers' adopted daughter, Mary Rickert of Warwick.〔 In March 1902 Assmanshausen Farm, Vineyard and Winery was advertised for sale. The property still comprised 90 acres of first-class agricultural land, 10 of which were under vines, and contained a substantial 8-roomed timber residence and a winery comprising a 3-floored stone cellar, attached to which was a timber and iron cellar. It failed to sell at this time, and following the death of Jacob Kircher on 30 April 1903, the property passed to a trustee, the Kirchers having no children. Following Mrs Kircher's death in 1912, title passed in 1915 to an American nephew, Michael Kircher, who had been managing the winery since , prior to Jacob's death. In the early 20th century, following the federation of the Australian colonies and the removal of interstate tariffs, Queensland wine production declined in the face of strong competition from more established wine producers in South Australia and New South Wales. Henri Macquarie Serisier of New South Wales was associated with Assmanshausen from , and in 1920 purchased the vineyard and winery from Michael Kircher for £2,200. Serisier was the son of Jean Emile Serisier, a successful Dubbo (New South Wales) vigneron, and had both Australian and European experience of viticulture and wine- making. He changed the famous Assmanshausen name to Toolburra Vineyards, and undertook extensive new plantings, many of which were table grapes. By 1922 he had about 65 acres under grapes, and was expecting to produce about 20,000 gallons of wine that season - principally ports, muscat, madeira, sweet sherry, claret and hock.〔 HM Serisier remained at Toolburra Vineyards until a few years before his death in 1942, but in 1932 transferred the property to his son, Kelvin Eugene. KE Serisier sustained Toolburra Vineyards throughout the 1930s, but with the onset of the Second World War, when he joined the RAAF, the vineyard fell into decline and the winery ceased production in the early 1940s. At some period after the closure of the winery, the timber extension, and the shingled roof with its attic space, were demolished. The property remained with the Serisier family until 1980.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Assmanshausen Winery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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