Our Story
A husband and wife team only with no staff. But we love it!
It all begins with the vineyard
Warren and Sue, a husband and wife team, began their Stanthorpe vineyards in 1999. Inspired by a change in life style and leaving the busyness of the Sunshine Coast behind, they headed to the Granite Belt for a tree change.
Determined to be hands on, they hand planted each vine and proceeded to care for them as young babies. They quickly learnt the peaks and troughs of farming life experiencing some very dry years when the vines were young. Irrigation practices changed to give the vines less water and enable them to grow deep roots to find their own water supply.
The winery came together with a few pieces of necessary machinery. A crusher, basket press, a couple of barrels, stainless tanks and hey presto – a winery is born. Over the years, the equipment wish list has grown and they’ve purchased a new air bag press to process the whites.
The old packing shed which dates back to the 1930s was slowly transformed into the current cellar door. Officially opened in 2003 with only 4 wines in production, they now produce 10 wines across a number of styles.
The focus has always been on the production of small volumes of hand made wines. All the wines are hand crafted on the premises. Small batch production means most operations are hands-on – from pruning, training, picking in the vineyard to basket pressing, bottling and labeling in the winery.
In the early days, all the wines were made from estate grown fruit. In recent years, they have purchased small parcels of locally grown fruit to supplement their production. The Verdelho and Petit Verdot are grown by Duncan and Dini Ferrier at the Rosemary Hill vineyard just west of Stanthorpe. The Chardonnay comes from a variety of vineyards in the Ballandean district.
Warren Smith
Viticulturist and WinemakerInspired by his love of chemistry, Warren completed his Associate Diploma in Applied Science at Charles Sturt University. This prompted a quick move from the Sunshine Coast to the Granite Belt where he hand planted his vineyard in 1999 on an old orchard in the foothills of Girraween National Park. The winery followed with small volumes of wine produced in the early years from estate grown fruit and now white wines produced from fruit grown locally.
Suzanne Smith
Wears many hats
Ex school teacher now cellar hand, vineyard worker and admin manager. Having a business background certainly helps keep the small business flourishing. You’ll meet her when you book for events, order wine, visit offsite festivals and also in the cellar door. It’s been a steep learning curve but huge rewards along the way.
Merlot
Merlot has the classic characters of ripe cherries and red berries with bright crimson hues. It features fine soft tannins backed by some silky oak characters.
Shiraz
An elegant Shiraz that is hand plunged in open fermenters before being basket pressed and racked into barrels to complete the malolactic fermentation.
Verdelho
The fruit used to produce this wine was sourced from the Rosemary Hill vineyard west of Stanthorpe. The nose features fresh fruit characters of pineapple and passionfruit.
Chardonnay
The fruit used to produce this wine was sourced from the St Jude’s vineyard in Ballandean. Whole bunch pressed and then the juice was separated into individual ferments.
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