Page 32 - OurStories-2022_Preview

32 | OUR STORY: BALNAVES

▲ BIRDS EYE: An aerial view of Balnaves of Coonawarra’s cellar door and winery, which were designed by Mount Gambier architects
Chapman Herbert.

“We always said we would never have a cellar
door, we would never have a winery and we were
Next generation returns Balnaves of Coonawarra is born
Both Kirsty and Pete say there was never a plan The Balnaves family insist they never had any never going to employ a winemaker but we have
for them to join the family business but after they plans to make their own wine but by chance in done all of it,” Kirsty said.
had spread their wings in their 20s, they found 1990 they “got caught” with 20 tonnes of top “The only thing we said we’d never do and we
their way home. quality cabernet sauvignon that Hungerford Hill haven’t is open a restaurant,” Pete added.
“We were actively discouraged and both came was unable to crush due to the big vintage. Kirsty says Doug and Annette showed an
back because we wanted to, I think that is part of “We had them made off premise and said we enormous amount of faith in them having to
the reason why it has worked,” Kirsty said. would sell it as bulk, then people said to us that it borrow much of the money for the 1000t winery
Pete was the first to return full-time after coming was a bloody good wine so we had to bottle it,” when interest rates were 22 per cent.
back and forth between working vintages at Doug said. But Pete and Kirsty were also signatories to
Mildura, Vic, and the off-season as a lacky for the The wine won a trophy in the Adelaide Wine the loan, which gave them “skin in the game”.
movie industry at Broken Hill, NSW. Show that year and from there Walkerville Cellars “Dad’s father always used to have a saying
“Growing up, when we used to live over at became their first stockists. that you want to be in debt enough to get out
Hungerford Hill during vintage there would be More sales eventuated and in 1991 they opened of bed in the morning but not enough to keep
trucks coming and going and bins banging all the cellar door, which is perched over a natural you awake at night,” Pete said.
night, it was quite exciting,” he said. pond that attracts an abundance of birdlife . Senior winemaker Pete Bissell - who the
Soon after Kirsty, who had spent time working Kirsty and Annette worked there for the first year Balnaves family enticed from Wynns - oversaw
in hospitality and tourism in Tasmania, also ended until they started employing staff. the design and construction phase of the
up home soon after completing a business In the early years of Balnaves of Coonawarra, winery.
management and marketing degree. their wine was being crushed at a neighbouring It was the start of a very successful 25-year
“I was at uni in Adelaide but I had finished when winery but in 1995 they decided to build their own association, which would result in Balnaves of
my house got broken into. Because nothing was winery, enlisting Chapman Herbert architects to Coonawarra wine winning many accolades,
taken, the police said it wasn’t safe to be there,” design the exterior - a curved roof building with a including Winery of the Year in 2008.
she said. distinctive tower. The Balnaves family say Pete Bissell made
“So I went home for the weekend and never It was completed just in time for the 1996 sure they never took any shortcuts in their
went back.” vintage. quest to produce top quality wine.

▲ PERFECT PAIRING: Another passion of Balnaves of Coonawarra’s ▲ HELPING OUT: Four year old Kirsty Balnaves and three year old Pete Balnaves with some of the
general manager Doug Balnaves is running beef cattle. family’s grapes during their first harvest in the mid-1970s.