St.Kitts, after which the wines are named, is a hamlet in the North East corner of the Barossa Valley and was settled by Lutheran families mostly from Saxony from the late 1850s. The farm land at St.Kitts was formerly part of a large property owned by Captain Charles Harvey Bagot known as Bagot Well of which a part was called Koonunga*. St.Kitts was apparently an outpost on Koonunga and was used by shepherds for temporary periods. The important viticultural region, of the far Northern Barossa Valley, roughly from Ebenezer going north, is drained by St. Kitts Creek.
*A sidelight on how a Penfolds wine got it’s name:
Although by the late 1950’s most of the Koonunga district was serviced by a manual telephone
system , the majority of subscribers were on shared party lines and consequently there was no
privacy. The Post Master General Department decided that to rectify the situation, a new
automatic exchange would be built in the district. PMG called a public meeting on 18 th May 1959
to receive public input as to the name of this new automatic exchange. Many suggestions and
interjections were made and after a majority vote Koonunga was chosen. However, the
authorities rejected this on the grounds that telephonists from other areas would find it difficult
to distinguish between the names Koolunga, Kapunda, Tanunda etc. Not to give in easily one
bright spark piped up and said, ‘Put a hill on the end.’ The PMG spokesman said OK!. The new
exchange will be called Koonunga Hill.
Details of other Glug label brands at Glug Wines
Full list of Kitt’s Creek wines
