Located at Light Pass in Nuriootpa (SA), Kurtz Family Vineyards are notably smaller than their neighbours, barely reaching over 15ha.

Nessled in the Barossa Valley, Nuriootpa is believed to mean “meeting place” (tr. Aboriginal). Once a place for Indigenous communities to trade their wares between clans, the town is now a hive of commercial and winemaking activity. Famous neighbours to the Kurtz Family Vineyards include Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Elderton.

In the 1930’s Alfred Bernhard Kurtz began to grow grapes in Light Pass on a block that is still worked today.

His son, Bernhard Otto Kurtz started his own Light Pass vineyard in 1957 and his son, John Bernhard Kurtz took over both existing vineyards in the early 1960’s. This is a truly family-centric winemaking team.

Before taking his place as winemaker at Kurtz Family Vineyards in 2006, Steve Kurtz worked a few vintages at Saltram Wines, had a brief stint at Orlando Wines and then spent almost twenty years at Fosters Wine Estates.

After gaining a lifetime of experience working with winemaking greats, Steve decided to ‘do his own thing’ and continue the family tradition of almost seventy years – growing grapes in the Light Pass area. Steve hopes his sons will do the same ‘somewhere down the track’.

Over the years the desire to make wine exclusively from their own grapes has not diminished at Kurtz Family Vineyards. The end product is exactly what drinkers expect from a traditional Barossa Valley wine: full-bodied, mouth-filling and loaded with layers of intensely flavoured fruit. In a word, these wines are succulent. - Daniel Jess