About Us

Jean Pauls Vineyard is situated in the Northern foothills of the Great Dividing Range, 65 km north of the Yarra Valley, where Will de Castella's Great Grandfather Hubert de Castella established his vineyard "St Hubert's" and his brother Paul had his Vineyard "Yering" in the 1850's. In 1880 St Hubert's won The Emperor of Germany's prize at the World Fair held in Melbourne. This was awarded 'To an exhibitor of one of the Australian colonies, as an acknowledgement of the efforts in promoting art and industry shown by the high qualities of the goods manufactured by such an exhibitor'.

The pictures below are of the original St Hubert's Estate in the Yarra Valley unfortunately all gone now, however the passion to produce great wine is not and still thrives in the de Castella family

After Will's Grandfather Francois left Xavier College in Melbourne, Hubert sent him to Lausanne University where he studied Natural Sciences, after that Francois worked on the family vineyard st Huberts for a while and then returned to Europe to spend some years(?) in France & Spain learning European methods. Apon returning home again he managed St Huberts until it was sold.. Francois went on to become State Viticulturalist for Victoria and wrote many papers and a book called 'A Handbook on Viticulture for Victoria'. He became the man to seek out for anything related to the vine, from growing grapes to making wine. After being inspired by his grandfathers work, Will de Castella planted his first acre of Shiraz grapes in 1994. Today Jean-Pauls Vineyard is NASAA certified Organic / Biodynamic using the principles of Biodynamics to make our own fertilizers for the vineyard & farm.

Adding organic milk for fungus sprays.