The Auld family dynasty started when Patrick Auld and his son William Patrick established a wine and spirit merchant operation in Adelaide, South Australia. The Auld family planted the largest fine wine vineyard in the new colony of Adelaide in the early 1840s and 50s. The Auldana Vineyard, established at Magill, quickly became famous, with an enviable reputation throughout Australia for ‘new world’ flavour and quality. So well respected was William Patrick that in 1896 he was elected President of the South Australian Vignerons Association.

Before William Patrick Auld joined his father in the Auldana Vineyard outside Adelaide, he was a surveyor and part of the 1861 expedition led by John McDouall Stuart. A historic expedition where the colonials crossed Australia from South to North for the first time. ‘Wilberforce’ was the name of the intrepid horse that ‘WP’ rode on this journey. A tall, muscular, dark brown stallion, Wilberforce was a descendant of the first english horses imported into Australia that became known as Walers. A great stalwart companion of WP for 37 years, it is the strength, stamina and loyalty of Wilberforce that are evoked in this series of wines.

In 1866 William Patrick Auld married Eliza Strawbridge, an accomplished poet who published ‘poems’ in collaboration with her mother, and another volume of her own in 1913 ‘Lyrical Poems’ which reflect upon vineyard life in S.A.