Doug Balnaves

Doug Balnaves was born in Penola in 1938. his parents were Ian and Gwen (nee McWaters). His mother came from Morgan in 1906. The family owned a large general store and there was no family history in the wine industry. His father's cousin Bill Redman introduced Doug to the wine industry. In the 1960s his family sold their 400 acre farm to Hungerford Hill from Sydney and he stayed on to manage it. Two hundred and fifty acres was planted out to grapes in 1971. He was given a lot of support from the Redmans, Ken and Lorna Ward in how to run the business. They planted Shiraz, Cabernet and Riesling and bought their stock from Reynella. The 85 acres of Cabernet was the biggest planting in the Coonawarra. They always machine harvested the grapes. The cellar door operation began in 1979. He was the first secretary of the Viticulture Council in the south east and Bob Hollick was the first President. Hungerford Hill was the subject of a takeover and it was bought by Katnook. They bought 200 acres from the Pitt family. He developed Greymoor vineyards with Geoff Merrill in 1988 and this was taken over by Mildara. He then developed properties for Kym Tolley and Vincorp. He formed a viticultural development company called Balnaves Management Services and his children Kirsty and Peter became involved in the business. They made wine on a contract basis and had their own label in 1990 and 1991 and had a winery in 1996. Peter Bisell was their winemaker. They make 10,000 cases and sell the rest as bulk wine, crush up to 900 tons, and they are always trying to promote the region of Coonawarra. The most significant impact has been mechanisation and soil moisture management. The future of Coonawarra is in maintaining the quality of the wines. They do all their own distribution which includes a lot of restaurants, 40% of their wine is exported