About Giaconda Vineyard

The Giaconda vineyard can be found on McClay Road, Beechworth, Victoria. It is a part of the Beechworth Wine Region and is about two-and-a-half hours north east of Melbourne.

Rick Kinzbrunner established the vineyard in 1982 after spending ten years travelling around the world to study wine-growing areas. These wine areas included New Zealand, Davis University in California, the Napa Valley, the Sonoma Valley and France.

When Rich came back to Australia in 1980 he worked as assistant winemaker at Brown Brothers Milawa. It was during this period that he bought the land close to the old Everton Hills Vineyard.

He began planting his first vines in 1982 with varieties that included: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot and a small amount of Pinot Noir, which was added later in 1986 with another acre. More plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir again took place, with the inclusion this time of a small amount of Roussanne.  There are now six hectares under vine.

The vineyard lies at an altitude of 400 metres above sea level. It is situated on a cool south-facing slope, shaded from the harsh sunlight. The small valley has a preponderance of light breezes, which tend to defray the incidence of disease.

The soils of the vineyard are a mixture of granitic loam over decomposed gravel and clay which provides a steady slow release of water. These are ideal conditions for growing grapes of great quality. They only use drip irrigation in extreme times. The yield is around to two tonnes per acre.

The winery is made from local granite blocks and hand-made bricks and has views over the vineyard. They use the best French oak to mature their wines and the hand-crafted wines, using Burgundian methods for their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and Bordeaux methods for their Cabernet, Merlot and Cabernet Franc are of excellent quality.

Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Roussanne, Pinot Noir and Shiraz are available on their web site.