Nova Vita couple realise their Adelaide Hills dream with plans for new cellar door and winery buildings
NOVA Vita owners Mark and Joanne Kozned hope their $1.4m five-year dream to expand their hills winery will be the key to new tourist markets.
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NOVA Vita owners Mark and Joanne Kozned will realise their five-year dream next year, opening a cellar door as part of a development at their Adelaide Hills vineyard.
The business has been steadily plying its way into overseas markets over recent years, increasing the value of its exports from about $200,000 five years ago to about $1.3 million this year.
“We’ve been very successful with the export markets and are now exporting to the US, Greater Asia and China is a really big market for us,” Mr Kozned said.
“Our exports have been growing by 30-35 per cent per year.”
The couple has just received approval from Adelaide Hills Council to build a new cellar door and two winery buildings, allowing space for up to 50 tonnes of wine to be crushed at the Kenton Valley site each year.
“As well as getting our domestic business firing up, we’re going to be hosting a lot of international guests,” Mr Kozned said.
“I have one full-time staff member in Australia focused on the Chinese market and two full-time people based in China.
“We’ll be looking to do a lot of wine tourism here for the Asian market.”
The cellar door would serve light food and snacks and would also be available to hire for functions, including weddings and corporate events.
“It’s not a typical cellar door – it’s a different shape and style. It has a lot of open space and tries to capture the picturesque views of the Adelaide Hills,” Mr Kozned said.
After the cellar door opens, roles would be created for about three full-time staff and 6-10 casuals.
Most of Nova Vita’s wine would continue to be processed at Revenir Winery in Lenswood, but the extra space at Kenton Valley would allow the business to experiment with crushing new blends.
The company hopes to break ground for the project – to cost about $1.4 million – in December, and have it complete by August or September next year.
Mr Kozned said the Adelaide Hills was playing catch up with the wine tourism markets in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale’s, but the region had recognised the need to do more to entice people to stay in the area for longer.
“When small to medium businesses start doing things like this, it creates momentum,” he said.
The region also needed more accommodation – something Nova Vita will consider developing on site in the next five or so years.
“If in the long term, we could develop 10-12 premium small cottages or pods, it would be perfect and it would continue that growth in wine tourism,” Mr Kozned said.
He was also speaking with other wineries about setting up a Northern Hills wine trail.