Now called The Wild Vine, Kate and Nick Shepherd took over the vineyards in July 2018 after the land sat idle for years, and have just celebrated their first harvest.

With no experience in running a winery, Kate Shepherd said they were inspired to buy the business as they couldn't bear to see its deterioration continue.

"Watching it go to rack and ruin wasn't what we wanted, it's an iconic piece of Wagga, and we couldn't stand by and let it go to waste," she said. 

Husband and co-owner Nick Shepherd said he hoped their career backgrounds would help with the new business venture.

"We've come from an events and hospitality background, and we kept driving past this place and liked the look of it - it was crying out for a bit of TLC," he said.

"There's so much history here and so many people have memories of it so we'd like to keep that going, we love a challenge."

The pair, born and bred in Wagga, said they are both excited to carry on a legacy with a personal touch of their own.

Mr Shepherd said they plan to take it slow while they learn the ropes, but will introduce more facilities to the winery in time.

"The first stage is mainly functions, weddings and that sort of thing, then maybe later on down the track we'll look at opening a cellar door and a little cafe," he said. 

"Once we have some wine of our own to sell that's when we can expand, and we'd also love to promote other little wineries around here, or boutique wineries, so trying to keep it as local as we can, and keep the money local."

The Harvest Party celebrating their first harvest was a big milestone, according to Mr Shepherd.

"We've pretty much just picked our first vintage - we're total novices so we don't know how it will turn out but we're very excited," he said. 

Mrs Shepherd added that not all wineries were so lucky this time around. 

"We've harvested our first grapes for a red blend, which we're looking at calling 'The Wild Red', but we are lucky to even have that because unfortunately a lot of wineries couldn't harvest this time with the extreme heat and the drought," she said.

The couple said the first batch should be ready around October which would call for more celebrations, and Mrs Shepherd said the support they received from the community was 'amazing'.

"We've had so much support from both ends in Oura and Wagga, it's been amazing and really good fun to get to know everyone," she said. 

"It's a great learning curve," Mr Shepherd added. 

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