The Islander Estate Vineyards

Jacques Lurton's first vintage in Australia was in 1984 with McWilliams in Griffith, New South Wales. From that time on, Jacques held the dream of establishing his own vineyard in Australia. When Jacques visited Kangaroo Island in 1997 he was struck by its natural beauty and recognised the island's considerable viticultural potential. Three years later Jacques returned to the island in order to find a suitable place to grow vines.

Jacques was looking for a large property offering a combination of agricultural and vineyard potential. The property had to be on north-facing slopes with heritage vegetation.

A 300-hectare property located near Parndana in Kangaroo Island’s heartland came up for sale and with the help of the Paxton team an 11-hectare vineyard was planted in the year 2000 with varieties Jacques had enjoyed working with around the world - cabernet franc, malb...

A modern 70-tonne winery was erected on site with most of the equipment shipped from France. This included sorting tables to hand-select the best grapes after de-stemming, concrete open fermenters with temperature control and a combination of large wooden vats and smaller barriques for aging, settling and blending of the wines. The open fermenters double as lockable tanks and the extremely fine-grain concrete from which they are made requires ...