Our Heritage

The origins of the name Bantry belong to a past but unknown connection with a place by that name in Ireland although the name Johnson and the Johnson family crest now being featured on Bantry Grove's wines are distinctly Anglo-Celtic. Bantry Grove's Johnson family history began with Terrey's father who bought the property together with Terrey's mother and his grandfather in the 1930s. Terrey's love of the land was inherited directly from his father who was an early adopter of improved pasture production in the region.

Bantry Grove became the Johnson family's wool brand when sheep and beef cattle were run on the property before Terrey Johnson replaced the sheep in the 1990s with a vineyard for diversification and sustainability. It was the Johnson family's friends and their children who helped them plant their first grape vines. It was these same supporters who formed Bantry Grove's Inner Circle Wine Club.

Until 2004 Terrey Johnson had been satisfied as a producer of exceptional quality fruit for leading winemakers but the corporate collapse of one of these winemakers that year led him to rally his family, friends and community to pre-purchase grapes which would otherwise have been left to rot on the vine.

This was the beginning of Bantry Grove's Inner Circle Wine Club and opened an exciting new chapter in the property's heritage where commercial customers and end consumers could experience the added benefits of wines with a very direct connection to the values and quality standards of the grower, viticulturalist and winemaker.

Terrey Johnson underlines the importance he places on people knowing where Bantry Grove wines come from, and the conditions under which particular vintages have been grown and made, by providing growing and tasting notes on the wines that people can use to make informed decisions based on their own personal tastes.

The people who helped plant the first Bantry Grove grape vines remain strong supporters of Bantry Grove wines and it is the benefits of this direct connection of wine lovers with the grape growing and winemaking processes that newcomers experience when they taste Bantry Grove wines for the first time.