About Us

We believe what you want from us is

the finest wine we can produce,

sold at a reasonable price,

and that will always remain our focus.

Our story begins with deep-rooted connections. I grew up on this property, helping my dad farm and make wine and I can’t imagine any other way of life.

In 1976 my father, David, a dedicated French language teacher, took a leap of faith and established our family wine business here. They were the days of the red wine boom, when many Australians suddenly began drinking red wine with their meals. People would drive out to the wine regions to select and buy their wine, returning with a case or two in the boot to stock up their home ‘cellar’. When the cellar started to run low, they’d make another trip to the vineyards. Supermarket owned liquor stores like Liquorland and BWS didn’t exist back then.

So Dad simply put a sign out on the road and started offering our wine to visitors. Even in those days people were quick to discover new wines and many came back for more and so we continued. He also decided to start a mailing list to keep people informed when new wines became available and that’s a tradition we keep to this day.

Much else remains unchanged too. When Rae and I took over from mum and dad in 1996, they had already established a relationship with the Borrett family of Langhorne Creek who supplied us with a little of their best Shiraz and Cabernet grapes to extend the range of wines we could offer. We are proud to continue that arrangement and I think the Borretts are too. Mum and dad only produced red wines because it’s what our vineyards grow and, apart from a couple of years in the 80’s when dad purchased some local grapes and tried his hand at producing a little white wine, we continue to only make reds today. Perhaps most significantly, we still only produce the same amount of wine as back then and we still only sell it direct to consumers. We don’t sell to shops or restaurants except for a few local ones here in McLaren Vale. I like selling direct because we get to know our customers and they know where their wine comes from. And there’s no middlemen involved so the price is better. But it’s only possible if production is small and you’re happy to stay small. I love doing it this way.

We make the wines for you, not for the show circuit so you won’t find us talking them up with medals and awards. They’re made for your table.

Family makes all the difference. When I was growing up, my sisters and mum always helped in the vineyards and winery after school and we picked the grapes only on weekends so we could get friends to help! Our winery was small and we needed all hands on deck to get by. It’s still like that today. When it’s harvest time or we’re bottling or the cellar door is open, all the family pitch in to help. We’re very lucky to have that.

Now we have grown children of our own who help with the wine production from the vineyard to the cellar, as well as bottling, packing orders and talking to customers.

Every vintage is dependent on the weather so there’s no guarantees in what we do but when we see the pleasure a good bottle of wine can bring and the difference it can make to someone’s life, we wouldn’t want to do anything else.

With the passage of the years I realise that it’s very important to farm and to produce our wines in a way that is sustainable over generations. That means improving our soil health through increasing organic matter, leaving no chemical residues and not degrading other environments such as river systems through irrigation. So we farm our vineyard organically and we don’t irrigate our vines. There is a cost in yield potential to this approach but a benefit to grape quality and sustainability.

Today, my wife Raegan and I continue running the vineyard and winery much as my parents did. We make a select range of full-bodied red wines with the depth and generosity of character that our vineyards allow. Hand crafting wines like these takes time, effort, and attention to detail. There are no shortcuts to achieving the rich flavours and mouthfeel that define our wines. But this is what we love to do.

Drew Noon

We sleep better at night knowing the way we farm is in tune with nature and leaves a light footprint on the land. We believe it produces better wine too.