During a wine tasting at Four Pines Brewing Co in Hunter Valley, NSW, he found a vintage wine from Seymour, but from an unfamiliar winery.
He posted on Facebook, asking the Seymour community if they knew which winery it came from and who the winemaker was.
Local Facebook commentators confirmed that the wine was from Somerset Wines, now known as the The Winery Kitchen restaurant.
“It was really exciting,” Mr Thomas said.
“It’s really sort of portal to town into a knowledge that the people forgot about.”
“If you look at the bottle, there’s a château ... it’s actually now a restaurant.”
Locals confirmed that the 1982 Seymour Vineyard Malbec was made by winemaker Maurice Bourne.
Although the bottle was empty, Mr Thomas found it fascinating to see a piece of Seymour history in an unexpected place.
“We were looking for a Tahblik or Mitchelton or just something from the area,” he said.
“(I) was not expecting to find Seymour ones.”
What made it even more exciting was the winemaker’s ties to him and his residence.
“We've now found out one of our neighbours was actually one of the winemakers that helped make that,” Mr Thomas said.
Mr Thomas expressed gratitude to everyone who provided information and helped him learn more about his town’s history.
“It’s really appreciated to see them band together like that and give information on the names and who he (the winemaker) was at the time.
“It’s nice to see that they actually remember its history.
“It will be nice if we could all go somewhere and find something more about our town.”
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