Kingston Estate was established in 1979 by Sarantos and Constantina Moularadellis when they planted 40 acres of vines in South Australia's Riverland. This family owned winery is now in the care of son Bill Moularadellis who further developed the business with expansion of vineyards throughout the Riverland, as well as building long term relationships with premium growers in Adelaide Hills, Coonawarra, Clare Valley and Langhorne Creek. In 2000 the company was found to have added banned silver nitrate to their wine, had their export license suspended and were prosecuted. While maintaining a family, hands-on culture, Kingston is now Australia's sixth largest winemaker in terms of tonnes of grape intake, and twelfth largest in terms of total revenue. Its Riverland winery, at Kingston-on-Murray, approximately 220 kilometres from Adelaide in South Australia, produces more than a million cases of premium-quality varietal table wines each vintage. Of this branded wine, 60 per cent is exported to markets such the UK, New Zealand, Canada, Germany and Sweden as well as to emerging markets such as China and Singapore. Kingston employs more than 70 full-time staff, with total employment swelling to more than 100 during vintage. The winery is a very modern facility with crushing capacity of 80,000 tonnes per annum, stainless steel storage capacity of 30 million litres and an extensive oak-maturation cellar. The Kingston Estate winery is the sixth largest winery in Australia in terms of wine grape intake. Kingston is a keystone of Riverland's foundation as one of Australia's major wine grape growing areas, with about 30% of South Australia's wine being made within a 40-kilometre radius of the Kingston winery.
History
1956: Sarantos and Constantina Moularadellis emigrate independently from Greece and settle in South Australia's Riverland. 1961: The Moularadellis family purchased a small fruit block in Kingston-on-Murray. 1965: The family purchased a second 40-acre Riverland property planted with shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and merlot vines. Initially, grapes from this property were sold to major wine producers. 1979: Kingston Estate is established. Until the mid-1980s the business remained a small family affair with the wine-production facility only processing fruit from the family vineyards and selling bulk wines to major producers. 1985: Eldest son Bill Moularadellis graduated in oenology from Roseworthy Agricultural College and joined the family business. 1986: Bill Moularadellis crushed his first vintage of 60 tonnes, principally red, and produced Kingston Estate's first commercial output of some 4500 cases. Bill saw the opportunity for Australian wines in the international market, including the UK and Sweden. 1994: Awarded South Australian business of the year as well as the Kingston Estate 1991 Reserve Chardonnay won double gold at the San Francisco International Wine Show and the Hyatt Advertiser Award for South Australia's best Chardonnay. 1995: The value of Kingston's exports tops the $10m mark. 1998: Kingston expands its vineyards, planting about 300 acres of vines on the Sturt Highway, opposite the winery at Kingston-on-Murray. A further 200 acres were planted in 1999. Key components of this expansion were merlot and petit verdot, until then little known in Australia but selected by Bill Moularadellis as being especially suited to the Riverland. 1999: Bill Moularadellis offers long-term contracts to grapegrowers in other South Australian regions. This provided the opportunity to further increase wine quality, blending options and style development. Today, approximately 30 per cent of the winery's grape intake is from other premium regions throughout South Australia, including the Clare Valley, Adelaide Hills, Langhorne Creek and the Limestone Coast wine zone. This growth in diversity of fruit supply has contributed significantly improved wine quality, especially in the Kingston Estate range. 2000: Kingston Estate acquired Swan Hill based Ashwood Grove. 2001: Kingston Estate launched its Kingston Estate Echelon Selection range, focussing on non-mainstream premium grape varieties. 2003: Bill Moularadellis’ vision for petit verdot was further vindicated when the Kingston 2002 Echelon Selection Petit Verdot wins top gold in its class at the 2003 Royal Melbourne Show and is the only non-mainstream red in the taste-off for the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy. 2010: Kingston Estate winemaker Donna Hartwig named The Wine Society Members’ Choice Winemaker of the Year at the 2010 Young Winemaker of the Year awards held in Sydney on 12 November 2010 2011: Kingston Estate owner and winemaker Bill Moularadellis appointed to the board of Wine Australia Corporation 2017: Kingston Estate awarded Australian Shiraz Winery of the Year at the 2017 Berlin International Wine Competition. 2018: Kingston Estate is ranked Number 12 'Australia's largest wine companies' in terms of sales revenue.
