Joseph Osborn was passionate about horses and football. While the latter passion led him to play for Richmond between 1871 and 1874, his love for equestrianism and racing earned him 72 prizes and a significant amount of money; all under the pseudonym J.Rowen, as he tried to hide this activity from his Methodist mother, who would have been scandalised. Although he was a teetotaller, his path led him in 1881 to work with Thomas Hardy, a wine merchant. There, possibly without realising it, the history of D’Arenberg began, the winery located in the McLaren Vale in southern Australia, 30 minutes from the city of Adelaide.
This project came to fruition when Joseph Osborn sold his stables and bought for his son Frank—who had returned from university without obtaining his medical degree due to health issues—the estate originally called Bundarra, which to this day is still managed by d’Ary and Chester Osborn (father and son), the fourth generation of this winery. D’Arenberg is one of the most representative wineries in the area, producing wines such as D'Arenberg The Stump Jump White Blend, a white wine crafted from sauvignon blanc, riesling, marsanne, and roussane.
The vineyards, most of them old, thrive on a wide variety of soils including marl, sand, clay, and limestone (in fact, the McLaren Vale is one of the regions with the greatest geological diversity in the world). The Mediterranean climate (with mild winters and very hot summers), along with the breezes from the Indian Ocean (which provide moisture and temper the temperatures), completes the picture, resulting in high-quality grapes with well-managed tannins.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Chester Osborn does not have many headaches when, before the harvest, he walks through the vineyard selecting the best clusters for his wines. Each plot is classified, waiting for the right moment to harvest them individually. The grapes arrive at the winery in small batches, which are gently pressed and crushed. Separately, each batch is transferred to five-tonne tanks. After fermentation, D'Arenberg The Stump Jump White Blend is basket-pressed. “It’s a labour-intensive process, but the quality of the results makes it worthwhile, as the action is controlled and extremely gentle,” they assure from the winery, one of the few places where this process continues (also in whites).
Finally, after an extensive tasting process, the different batches of D'Arenberg The Stump Jump White Blend are blended and bottled, without clarification or filtration. Just like D'Arenberg The Stump Jump GSM (its red version), both the name and the bottle of D'Arenberg The Stump Jump White Blend pay homage to Richard Bowyer Smith, the inventor of the Stump Jump (a machine capable of ploughing over tree roots), who had vision problems and had to visit the oculist several times to be able to use his invention.