Est. 1982
Four decades, three generations
The first vines, 1982
Careful vineyard management and good fruit are the foundations of good wine. Everything else follows from that.
Garry Crittenden came to wine through horticulture, after years running plant nurseries. He planted four acres of Cabernet and half an acre each of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay across two weekends in September 1982, with friends and family doing the planting. Those five acres effectively doubled the vineyard area on the Peninsula at the time.
The second generation
Running it now
Rollo leads winemaking and the business as Managing Director. Zoe runs marketing and brand. Linda, Rollo’s wife and long-time manager of Lakeside Villas, joined her in-laws in 2025 when the family took back the on-site restaurant.
Between the three of them they now run every part of the business. Garry, though no longer in the day to day, is still very much around.
Remembering Margaret
The first winery restaurant on the Peninsula
Margaret Crittenden, Garry’s wife and mother to Zoe and Rollo, opened a restaurant alongside the cellar door in 1992 and ran it for over a decade. It made Crittenden one of the first wineries in the region to serve food.
Margaret passed away in November 2020. The restaurant she started came back into the family’s hands in 2025.
Her legacy runs through the business she helped build, and through the Peninsula’s wine and tourism industries.
The third generation
Four teenagers
All four Crittenden teenagers are working in the new restaurant while they finish studying, exactly as their parents once did. Finn has applied to study winemaking at Charles Sturt University. Oscar, still at high school, is keen to follow his father.
Rollo, Zoe and Linda have plenty of plans for the years ahead. They will also need to keep an eye on where the next generation takes it.
See how the site is farmed
Nine blocks, seven Pinot clones, a 20 megalitre lake and a compost heap the size of a small house. The vineyard page maps all of it.