Berton Vineyard

Berton Vineyards was established in 1996 by Bob and Cherie Berton when they purchased a block of land in High Eden, a subregion of the Barossa Valley, South Australia. This idyllic property sits 450m above sea level on gently rolling hills - except for the Chardonnay block which is anything but gentle!!

Bob and Cherie set about planting the first Berton Vineyard cuttings that spring - ten acres of Shiraz and seven acres of Chardonnay - without any permanent water - it wasn't until the following year, in 1998 when the dam filled that the vines got a decent drink!! It was due to these conditions and the seemingly hydrophobic podsolic soils that the vines struggled to become established. After a few years where the vines still looked like rootlings, a Swedish friend jokingly called it the bonsai vineyard - and the name stuck and later became the name of our premium Shiraz. High Eden has a high annual rainfall so the vines are looking good these days... but we still remember the early days every time we crack open a bottle of Bonsai! After the dam was established and water plentiful we went on to plant Cabernet sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc.

In 2005 the decision was made to purchase a winery to process the 100 odd tonnes that was produced at the High Eden Vineyard. In 2005 when the former Southcorp winery in Yenda became available, Bob and Cherie joined with Jamie Bennett, Paul Bartholomaeus and James Ceccato to form Berton Vineyards the company. The winery was purchased and the guys moved to their new home in November 2005. For the next few months they were kept busy buying up fruit and arranging contact crushing for the 2006 vintage. In January 2006 the first grapes rolled across the weighbridge, and so began the scariest vintage we have all experienced! With very few staff we managed to crush and process 13,000 tonnes. Thankfully life at the winery has become easier since then!

Berton Vineyards all started at our Eden Valley Vineyards, in High Eden, South Australia. High Eden is a subregion of Eden Valley, situated in the Barossa Valley. It is the highest part of the Barossa, about 500 meters above sea level. In this beautiful part of the world we have planted Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The best parcels of fruit from our Shiraz vineyards go into our Berton Vineyards Bonsai Shiraz, our flagship wine. Fruit from the Shiraz vineyard also forms the backbone for our Reserve Shiraz. The Cabernet Sauvignon is lovingly crafted into our Berton Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon. The Chardonnay is harvested in around March and creates the Reserve Eden Valley Chardonnay, and the Sauvignon Blanc is picked in February and makes the Berton Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc.

Over the years we have also formed some close relationships with growers of the Riverina, who we work in partnership with to bring high quality fruit from around the region which forms the majority of our annual grape intake. We crush and ferment each vineyard in batches and then grade and blend accordingly. The fruit from the Riverina region generally makes up our Oddsocks, Foundstone and Head Over Heels ranges.

For our Reserve and Metal ranges, we have been working with vineyards in the Coonawarra, Tasmania, Swan Valley, King Valley and Yarra Valley. Over the years we have continued to source our fruit from the same vineyards in order to build a consistent product with fruit hand selected from the best vineyards.

The Winery is located in the New South Wales regional township of Yenda which has a population of around 1,600 people and is 580km south west of Sydney and 500km North West of Melbourne. The Winery site itself was established in 1945 and it has close ties with the development of the Riverina as a major Australian viticultural area. The winery has the capacity to crush and bottle approximately 20,000 tonnes annually and has a storage capacity of 14 million litres.

From humble beginnings in 2005 Berton Vineyards has grown into one of the 20 largest Wineries in Australia (Wine Industry Directory, 2017), and the top 13 for Branded Sales. Both our winery and our wines have also received strong reviews and accolades both domestically and internationally. We have achieved our success through maintaining personal relationships with our customers, this inturn has created our success in both our global and domestic markets.

Since acquiring the site in 2005 we have been constantly updating and improving our facility. Recent improvements include the addition of a new tank farm, warehouse and state of the art filler for our bottling line.