The Australian vineyard "Wynns Coonawarra Estate" is located in the Coonawarra area (state of South Australia). The origin dates back to 1891, when John Riddoch (1828-1901), who had immigrated from Scotland, began to plant vines. In 1895, a winery was opened, and the vineyards covered 52 hectares at that time. They form the core of the current estate. In 1951, the company was bought by Samuel Wynn (1891-1982), a native of Poland, and his son David and renamed "Wynns Coonawarra Estate". At that time, especially spritzer wines like sherry or port were popular in Australia.
It was a daring venture to produce dry red wines, but Wynns was very successful with it in the end. As a novelty it was introduced to mention "Coonowarra" as the origin of the wines on the label. In 1972, the estate was bought by the Allied Vintners, and later came into the possession of the multinational Southcorp, which was finally taken over by Multi Foster's in 2005. In 2011, all wine activities were spun off into a separate listed company called Treasury Wine Estates, which now includes Wynns. David Wynn received the prestigious O'Shea Award in 1995 for his great services to Australian viticulture.
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