Old Redgum Stable

Sawn Redgum Floor

Chris Finnen and Band

Jamming in the Stable

Our History and Vineyard

We both originally hail from the nearby town of Angaston but have lived in this particular region of the Barossa Hills since 1985 and in 1987, we purchased one of the original "Argent" cottages. Since then we have had two children and have spent much of the past decade restoring the cottage and raising our family. History and heritage surround us; still standing on our property is the huge Redgum and Bluegum stable. This was used to service local work horses transporting timbers from the nearby saw-mill, during the early 1900s. These days it is a unique place to celebrate family and friends' birthday parties. Recently a good friend from Melbourne held his 50th Birthday in the old stable and we had the pleasure of well respected South Australian blues musicians Chris Finnen and his band playing well into the night. Chris described the stable as reminding him of some of the old wooden buildings in the deep south of the USA!

Our German ancestry is extensive: James’ great, great, great, great grandparents, Johann Christian and Johannes Eleonore Linke, arrived at Port Adelaide, (Port Misery) after a one hundred and sixteen day voyage on the “Gellert”, on December 21, 1847 and Maries first ancestors, who were early pioneers of the Flaxmans Valley area, arrived in South Australia at Port Misery on December 15, 1847 on the “Herman-von-Beckerath”.

Since the early 1990s, we have seen many of the “original” families of the areas, such as the Argents and the Randalls, of two micro-settlements, “Argent-Town” and “Randall-Town”, (each settled on respective hills about a kilometer apart over a valley), leave but for new neighbours to arrive and join our small community.

We have been enjoying the results of home-winemaking for many years, and after many enquiries and requests from friends and others, have decided to start our own small winery. There is no cellar door but please email us for a list of where our wines are available, or you can order directly from us using the order form on our website and then return the completed form to us via email or post.

Living here, it's hard not to be involved in winemaking in some way, and our combined experience in the wine industry, over many years is extensive. We have seen the many differences between the very large wineries such as the Fosters Group, compared to the likes of much smaller gems like Langmeil, Rockford, Small Fry and Henschke and the even smaller wineries, such as those of our neighbours who are mentioned further on this page.

We believe that bigger is not always better. Sometimes there is a great reward in finding lesser known or newly released, small-quantity wines, as they are the ones that have been created with the personal touch. Husbands and wives, families and friends, hand-pick, hand-prune and weed the vines, then have an active role in the entire production process from the actual wine-making, to labeling, marketing and dispatching. We enjoy being able to provide the much more personalised service that can often be lost in the office paperwork trails and/or bureaucratic maze of large multi-national companies.

Whilst we live in the original Argent-Town, the Karra Yerta Wines vineyard that produces our Eden Valley Riesling and Eden Valley Shiraz is situated about a kilometre north on a high ridge in Randall-Town, near the vineyards of two well-respected producers, Chris Ringland and Greg Hobbs. Our vineyard adjoins Greg Hobbs property and is a mere few hundred metres from Chris Ringlands famous "Three Rivers" vineyard. All three vineyards were planted in the early 1900s by members of the Randall family (hence the area being known as Randall-Town). During the mid to late 1900s some of these vineyards were surrounded by orchards and other vines bearing currants. There was also a saw-mill situated on what is now the Hobbs property. The Randall families stayed in the area for most of the 20th century, the final family members only leaving the area around 2002.

Currently the Karra Yerta Wines vineyard consists of 0.40ha of 50 year-old Frontignac (Muscat Blanc), 0.49ha of 75-80 year-old Riesling, 0.60ha of 75 year-old Semillon, 0.18ha of 45-50 year-old Shiraz, 0.11ha Shiraz planted in 1998 and 0.14ha Shiraz planted in 2001. Whilst the Riesling and shiraz grapes are used in our own wines, in 2006 and 2007 the Semillon was sold to Hobbs Vintners and as of 2008 is now purchased by Pete Schell of Spinifex. In 2007 we "pooled" some of our shiraz grapes with Colin Sheppard to create a sparkling shiraz from the Flaxmans Valley area. The Frontignac vines were not tended to for many years and we are in the midst of resurrecting them in the hope of making a "sticky" Frontignac in the next year or so. It will be a long-term undertaking as the old vines are in need of major work particularly in regards to the removal of large blackberry plants and general pruning and tidying up.

We have been caretakers of this precious vineyard for over ten years now and prior to releasing our wines to the public, most of our Riesling grapes used to be sold to Peter Lehmann, and the Semillon to Peter Lehmann and Penfolds. We used to keep the shiraz and a small portion of the Riesling to make wine for our own personal consumption. On many occasions the Rieslings used to win prizes at amateur wine shows in the area. In the future we will continue to restore this very old vineyard and produce some of the very best wines from our beautiful and unique area.

This spectacular environment has inspired many of our close neighbours to create premium quality boutique wines: Flaxman Wines, Hobbs Vintners, Ringland Vintners, Wroxton Grange Wines and in close proximity to us are the much larger Heggies and Pewsey Vale Vineyards (Yalumba - S. Smith & Son). Just over the ranges a little are Henschke Wines, Mountadam, Grant Burge and others. This impressive portfolio is an indication of the excellent quality produce from the Barossa Hills and Eden Valley areas.

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