Somerled is the deft creation of stylish, premium wines that fit into your lifestyle.
By virtue of thirty years’ winemaking experience at Penfold’s, and feedback from a vocal family, Rob Moody chooses young wines each vintage, often still during fermentation, and develops them as interesting wines for his Somerled range.
Rob is known for his rich, dark McLaren Vale shiraz and hs elegant Adelaide Hills chardonnay, but the most notable new addition to the stable is the Somerled Adelaide Hills Sparkling Pinot Noir, a 100% pinot noir sparkling made in the full methode champenoise.
SOMERLED - OUR NAME
Somerled is named after a horse.
Rob’s grandfather, Stephen Bowd, rode Somerled to victory in the Adelaide Hills Amateur Steeplechase at the Oakbank Picnic Races in 1908.
It was heroically run.
Somerled was up against the likes of Wild Irishman, Dingara, Maori Jack, Greyhound, Osiris and Fearless. The starting gun saw a stampede of horses flailing about, losing their way and otherwise coming to grief, leaving but three horses upright. Somerled was among them. Osiris was a close second – at twenty lengths behind.
Bowd rode Somerled to a thrilling finish whereupon all waited patiently for Osiris to come in.
Their sole remaining competitor, Greyhound, arrived “some time later” in third place - the judge “obligingly waiting in the box until he put an appearance in” (The Advertiser, 1908).
Our name is a tribute to our ancestor, his winning horse and an honest race run.
Bay gelding. Winner of the Amateur Steeplechase (now known as the Von Doussa Steeplechase) at the famous Oakbank Easter Picnic Race Meeting, South Australia, in 1908, ridden by Stephen Bowd of Mt Gambier, grandfather of the winemaker.
Thane of Argyle, King of the Isles, 1113 – 1164 AD. Credited with breaking the power of the Vikings in the isles of Scotland, he defeated the Viking king, Godfrey, in 1156, thanks to his use of ships equipped with a rudder. He died in battle, fighting the Scottish king Malcolm IV.