Twentieth Anniversary of Narkoojee Winery
It’s with a degree of disbelief for owners Harry and Val that this year marks the twentieth anniversary of the opening of Narkoojee Winery. That feeling persists for the pair when looking back to when it all began in 1980.
In that year, Harry and Val pursued a dream shared with several close friends and planted a small half-acre pilot vineyard at Narkoojee, the dairy farm owned by Harry’s parents at Glengarry in Gippsland.
The grapes picked from the half-acre vineyard were crushed into drums at the farm. They were then freighted on a trailer, down to the pair’s home in East Oakleigh, where the garage became their first winery, in which no cars were permitted of course! With wine show success for its first wines, Harry and Val were encouraged to expand their plantings to another five acres in 1990. They made the decision to move to the farm and establish their new grape and wine making business.
The old Glengarry butter factory became the new winery. This facility served the business well for ten years when it proudly moved into the new winery at the farm, which was opened in 2004 by the then Premier of Victoria, John Brumby.
An important part of Harry and Val’s dream was to open a restaurant at the winery to serve as an added attraction for visitors and to showcase its wines in their proper context as complementary to food. The new restaurant was opened in 2013, at last bringing to fruition the final phase of their dream.