Johann Gottlob Schrapel and his family arrived in South Australia from Silesia on the ship 'George Washington' in 1844, just eight years after the colony was settled. Like many of their fellow Germanic migrants they made their way to Bethany, the Barossa Valley's first settlement, where they established a home and planted vineyard in 1852. Geoff and Robert in the vineyard		THE WINEMAKERS In 1981 Johann Schrapel's fifth generation descendants Geoff and Rob Schrapel established a winery in a quarry high in the Barossa Ranges, overlooking the family's vineyards and the historic village of Bethany. Red skins before pressing Rob learnt winemaking by travelling the world's wine regions and working vintages in Europe, the US and South America while Geoff studied viticulture at SA's Roseworthy Agricultural College then worked at several large Australian companies.		Schrapel Family Vineyards The greatest natural advantage the Schrapels have is a fruit which comes from the familycarefully tended vineyards. Their thirty hectares of vineyard in Bethany, comprising the Bethanien Block, the Old Manse block and the Homestead Block are fanned during summer evenings with cooling gully breezes, creating a special microclimate which allows the grapes to achieve good sugar and acid levels without becoming over-ripe. This gradual ripening creates well balanced wines with flavour and structure. Bethany Wines also has leased a further seven hectares of vineyard in the Trial Hill area in the high country of the Barossa Valley which contributes added elegance and complexity to their wines.