"Only those who have stood within the bars and heard the din of devils and the appalling sounds of despair� can imagine the horrors of the hold of a convict ship."
— John Boyle O'Reilly
Some men overcome adversity. Others make an art of it. In 1867 John Boyle O'Reilly was given a sentence second only to death in its severity: transportation. O'Reilly, however, was no ordinary convict. He published poetry throughout the harrowing journey to Australia and, once there, outwitted prison guards to escape to America.
Nineteen crimes turned criminals into colonists. Upon conviction British rogues guilty of a least one of the 19 crimes were sentenced to live in Australia, rather than death. This punishment by "transportation" began in 1783 and many of the lawless died at sea. For the rough-hewn prisoners who made it to shore, a new world awaited.
As pioneers in a frontier penal colony, they forged a new country and new lives, brick by brick.
This wine celebrates the rules they broke and the culture they built.
