Where It All Started

Our beginnings came from seeing opportunity, rising up from the ashes after the devastating 1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires, when our owners and founders Paul and Kathy Drogemuller took over a burnt out former dairy farm high on an ancient plateau at Paracombe in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia.

Those early days were rustic and bold.  Paul and Kathy were a young couple with no background or experience in grape growing or wine making, yet they planted their first vines and made wine in a tin shed with a homemade basket press, secondhand milk tanks and crusher.

When they launched Paracombe Wines in 1992 around the homestead gardens, Kathy was eight months pregnant with their second child, Sarah. And so started the incredible journey of raising not just a young family but a vineyard and wine business.

Our Journey

Our journey is remarkable. With hard work, passion and vision we expanded our vineyards, designed and built a state of the art winery, underground cellars and stunning cellar door.

The fruit for Paracombe wine comes from our own vineyard and specialist local growers. Our success is collective and driven by our dedicated team, including son Ben, all sharing the obsession to make great wine that truly honours place.

Every step is taken with care to be sustainable with the environment. We make, mature and bottle our wines on site, and distribute direct from the winery. This is our unwavering commitment to quality throughout the wine’s journey from the vine to the glass.