But by 1986, he could no longer hold on and he sold the property to local landscape gardener, Toby Heuppauff. Toby continued to sell off the grapes and converted existing buildings to create a restaurant and accommodation units set in distinctive gardens with a long wisteria-covered walkway. He also had some wine made for him under the Kaesler label and sold it through the cellar door. Keeping up his own landscape business, it was an enormous task.

On the southern block, Ernst also got rid of his fruit trees. The last to go was the strip between Ernst and Arthurs's houses along Barossa Valley Way. This strip was noticeable for the vines being planted north-south rather than the east-west of the rest of the vineyards.

There were some oddities in some of the other plantings on Ernst's holding. A row of Grenache, for example, might have two or three Rhine Riesling. A later owner of this southern block, Barry Matthew, noted one patch with four different varieties. Arthur Kaesler, on the adjoining block, said nursery cuttings were not always true to type and it was "impossible to tell the difference".

Barry Matthew also found uneven lines of vines that were certainly "not planted by a German". There was a clear reason for this. In about 1968 Ernst sold his holding to the popular and hard-working Hungarian immigrant, Milos Obradovich and his German wife Irmgard.

Milos worked enthusiastically and when he sold the block to Adelaide business identity Barry Matthew in 1975, it had some 13 different varieties including, presumably for nostalgia, one row of 80 Tokay vines.

Barry, who said the Obradovichs "virtually gave me the block" when ill health caused them to retire in 1975, immediately went about taking out the Tokay and varieties such as Pedro Ximinez and Doradillo and replacing them with Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. "The overall ratio was about 60% white and 40% red," he said. "I changed it to 76% red and 24% white."

He also changed Milos's policy to sell to the five big wineries in the valley and sold exclusively to Seppelts.

By 2001 Barry Matthew decided it was time to get out. He had deliberately allowed his children to make their own decisions on their future. "I didn't want any of them to have the obligation that someone had to take over the vineyard," he said.

He still loves the Barossa, however. He hived off about an acre and three-quarters to continue to live in Ernst Kaesler's old house - and turned it into a bed and breakfast set in a Barossa Valley vineyard.