The wines that made us: Stories from the Koonara wines Cellar
As we’ve been preparing for this year’s Cellar Dwellers event, we found ourselves doing what we always do when we’re selecting older wines: reminiscing about the seasons that were exceptionally kind to us. You know how it is when you’re digging through the cellar: one bottle leads to another story, which leads to another memory, and before you know it, you’re three hours deep in vintage tales and memories of how these Koonara wines came to be.
After sharing some of these highlights with our team, it dawned on us that there’s probably a bigger story to tell here. These aren’t just wines we’re proud of, they’re the Koonara wines that essentially formed us into the brand we are today. Each one represents a pivotal moment, a challenge overcome, or a dream realised.
So here are the stories behind some of our most significant vintages—the Koonara wines that didn’t just define great years in Coonawarra, but defined us as winemakers and as a family business.
1998: The Wine That Started It All
Celestial’s Promise Cabernet Sauvignon
Every winery has that one wine that changes everything. For us, it was our very first vintage: Celestial’s Promise Cabernet Sauvignon. We were complete unknowns, taking a massive leap of faith with our debut release, hoping that somewhere out there, people would connect with what we were trying to create. Mind you, we had really no idea what we were doing back then.
Then something extraordinary happened. Andrew Lloyd Webber purchased most of our entire first vintage.
Let that sink in for a moment. The man behind some of the world’s most successful musicals chose our wine. It was surreal, overwhelming, and exactly the boost our young winery needed. Suddenly, we weren’t just dreamers making wine in Coonawarra; we were winemakers whose work was being enjoyed in illustrious company.
The 1998 growing season couldn’t have been more perfect for a debut. Near-perfect weather with warm, dry days and cool nights created intensely flavoured fruit with beautifully balanced tannins. It was as if nature itself was conspiring to help us succeed.
That wine gave us the confidence to keep pushing boundaries, to believe in our vision even when others doubted. Today, Celestial’s Promise has evolved into Ambriel’s Gift Cabernet Sauvignon, but the spirit of that first vintage (bold, uncompromising, ready to make its mark) lives on in everything we do.
2004: Building Foundations in Uncertain Times
The wines that proved we could endure: Angels Peak Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz
If 1998 taught us we could make great wine, 2004 taught us we could endure. This was one of the most challenging periods in our journey. Dru’s father was battling cancer, and the future felt uncertain in so many ways.
But sometimes the most difficult times produce the most meaningful work. Dru made the decision to move back to Coonawarra, to help on the farm and prepare for something that seemed impossible: opening a cellar door in the main street. “It will never work,” people said. Small wineries didn’t belong in the main street. Visitors wanted the full vineyard experience, not a shopfront.
Twenty-plus years later, our main street cellar door is still here—a cool, novel space that offers something for everyone. Looking back now, it this was absolutely the right decision as the cellar door has become the foundation of how we connect with our customers, proving that sometimes the best decisions are the ones that seem crazy to everyone else.
The wines from 2004 reflect that period beautifully. The cool, even ripening season created reds with remarkable structure and elegance, wines that are still drinking beautifully today, more than two decades later. Both our Cabernet and Shiraz shared the Angels Peak name back then (the Cabernet later became Wanderlust), and they captured something essential about perseverance.
These wines remind us that building something lasting requires both vision and stubbornness. Sometimes you have to dig in when everyone else thinks you should give up.
2008: New Beginnings and Profound Change
Our first chemical-free wines: Sofíel’s Gift Riesling and Ambriel’s Gift Cabernet Sauvignon
Some vintages are defined by joy, others by challenge. The 2008 vintage was defined by both, intertwined in ways that would shape our philosophy forever and influence future of Koonara wines.
December 2007 brought our wedding and the opening of our Bay of Apostles cellar door in Apollo Bay on Boxing Day, we spent our first Christmas as husband and wife with both families at the coast. Life felt full of possibility and excitement.
But 2008 also brought profound loss when Dru’s father lost his battle with cancer. Just before he passed, we were able to share the news that we were expecting our first child, Lucy. Life and death, endings and beginnings, all wrapped up in the space of a few months.
It was during his father’s illness that Dru made a decision that would fundamentally change how we approach winemaking. Influenced by his dad’s belief that chemicals had contributed to his illness, Dru decided to remove all chemicals from our viticultural practices. The 2008 vintage marked our first year with no chemicals, which in turn was the beginning of our journey toward certified organic practices.
The wines from that warm, dry year showed incredible vibrancy and freshness, particularly our Riesling with its crisp, aromatic character. It was as if the vines themselves were responding to this new, more natural approach. Sofíel’s Gift eventually evolved into A Song for Alice, but those early chemical-free wines proved that you don’t need to compromise quality to do the right thing.
That vintage taught us that the most personal decisions often become the most important business decisions. Our commitment to organic winemaking didn’t start with market research, it started with family, with values, with the belief that we could do better.
2012: Life in Full Swing
The wines that captured our vibrant family era: Lucy and Alice Pinot Gris and Flowers for Lucy Moscato
By 2012, our lives had expanded in ways we never could have imagined when we started. Two young children, three cellar doors, even a wholesale homewares business alongside the winery. Life was busy, sometimes chaotic, but always full of energy and possibility. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all smooth sailing, the reality of juggling that much was exhausting, but somehow we made it work.
The wines from this vintage capture that spirit perfectly. The cooler growing season meant slower ripening and wines with beautiful aromatics and finesse, somehow elegant despite all the complexity involved in making them. Our Lucy and Alice Pinot Gris and Flowers for Lucy Moscato were vibrant and joyful, reflecting the energy of a young family building something special together.
This was also a period when we were finding our rhythm with organic practices. We were well on our way to certification, discovering efficiencies and seeing real improvements in soil health and vineyard vitality. The 2012 vintage showed us that our sustainable approach wasn’t just good for the environment, it was making better wine.
These wines remind us that some of life’s best chapters happen when you’re juggling multiple dreams at once. Sometimes the key isn’t choosing between different paths—it’s finding ways to make them all work together.
2022: The Future We’re Building
Wines that reflect our sustainable evolution: Wanderlust Cabernet Sauvignon and Angel’s Footprints
Fast-forward to 2022, and everything had changed again. After the challenges of the pandemic, there was a sense of renewal in the air. Visitors were returning to Coonawarra, and we were seeing our community come back to life.
But this wasn’t just about getting back to normal, it was about building back better. The mild, balanced growing season provided the perfect conditions for our biodiversity projects to flourish. In 2021, we’d undertaken the Ecovineyards project, creating a comprehensive biodiversity action plan. By 2022, we were trialing native plants and flowers undervine, sowing perennial grasses in the mid-rows, and planting native trees to create natural insectaries.
The results were remarkable. Native wasps and beneficial insects were helping with disease management, reducing our need for interventions and creating a thriving, balanced ecosystem. We’d also implemented Deep Planet’s technology to monitor soil and vine health, optimising our water management for an even more environmentally conscious approach.
The wines from 2022 taste like hope, complex, purposeful, and built to last. They represent everything we’ve learned about working with nature rather than against it, about building systems that benefit everyone.
These Koonara wines are a testament to resilience and renewal, proof that challenges can lead to innovation and that the future doesn’t have to be a compromise between quality and sustainability.
The Koonara Wines That Continue the Story
Each of these vintages tells part of the Koonara story, but they’re also chapters in the larger story of what it means to be a family winery in one of Australia’s most prestigious wine regions. They’re about taking risks, staying true to your values, and never losing sight of why you started making wine in the first place.
When you taste these Koonara wines, you’re not just tasting fruit and terroir, you’re tasting decisions made in difficult moments, dreams pursued against the odds, and the belief that great wine comes from great stories.
Interested in tasting some of these story-filled vintages? Contact us directly to discover which historic Koonara wines from our cellar might be calling your name. You can also explore our current wine releases or plan a visit to our Coonawarra cellar door.
