A special dinner inside a Barossa Valley art gallery
Great food, wine, art and conversation converge at this rustic Barossa Valley dinner party inside an art gallery and winery that has connection, creativity and community at its heart.
At the end of a dirt road, set amongst the green rows of Barossa Valley vineyards, sits a 1930s arts and crafts sandstone bungalow that was once a beautiful country home.
Landscaped gardens border lush rolling lawns, with contemporary art installations and retro breeze brick walls creating layers of colour, texture and time.
But this oasis of rustic style is no ordinary Barossa home. This is Wonderground, a sophisticated art gallery in the heart of the famous wine region.
It’s also the inviting setting for tonight’s dinner party, hosted by the creators of Wonderground, Kirsty Kingsley and Renee de Saxe.
The talented duo, both artists, has transformed what was a rundown family home (which had been in the same family for 100 years) into a slick and thriving modern art gallery with five rooms of art by local and interstate artists.
“We launch a new exhibition every seven weeks with more than 50 art works from a range of artists,” Renee says.
And this is a family affair with Kirsty’s husband Nick Radford and Renee’s husband Luke Edwards, both viticulturists, also central to the success of what has been achieved at Wonderground.
As well as providing hands-on help in the creation of the gallery, Nick and Luke have also been hard at work creating something of their own – Mirus Wines. Around 12 of the 32 hectares here are under vine and Nick and Luke have spent the past few years creating their Mirus label, as well as the Wonderground wines which include reds, whites and rosé.
Tastings take place in the renovated Petite Boutique cellar door at the back of the gallery, the Barossa’s smallest cellar door with room for groups of four.
Even the couples’ children have played a part in bringing Wonderground to life.
Kirsty and Nick’s children, Finn, 19, and Remy, 17, and Renee and Luke’s children, Sia, 17, and Ari, 15, have all pitched in over the years, from serving food at exhibition openings to washing dishes and helping with general maintenance.
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“We’ve done 27 exhibitions since we opened in 2022, and in some form, the kids have been at every single one,” Renee says. “I think it’s important that they’re part of it and I think it’s important that they see us working together to create something meaningful for the region. Especially when it’s every weekend, I mean, it’s been a huge commitment, but at least we are doing it all together.”
Today’s action is taking place around the property’s rustic firepit, which Luke and Nick built from wooden sleepers salvaged from Port Adelaide, beside the enormous hanging barbecue, which the men also sourced second-hand from a local blacksmith.
“They actually bought it and moved it here on the day we opened the gallery,” Kirsty says. “We had 400 people coming and so much work to do and Renee and I looked out the window and saw the two of them with a tractor moving this enormous thing.”
As this awesome foursome set to work today on pre-dinner preparations, it’s clear they’re a well-oiled machine. Kirsty and Nick are mixing the dough for their signature pulled pork tortillas with avocado and lime, Luke is marinating the lamb cutlets with his homemade chimichurri sauce, while Renee is busy preparing the stracciatella salad with heirloom tomato, basil and vin cotto.
The couple’s good friend Sandor Palmai, a renowned local chef, arrives holding a basket bursting with his homegrown produce, which he’ll use to create his grilled peach salad on tonight’s menu.
As they work away, and sip on their Wonderground chardonnay, Renee tells the story of how the two couples first stepped foot on this beautiful property in 2021, keen to find a place for both a designated art gallery and a winery.
“We stood on the ridge, with its 360-degree views, and we looked behind us, to see these river pebbles sitting on top of the soil, and you look out in front, and you’re looking towards Marananga, across to the Laird vineyard, and then you walk past these 100-year-old bush vine grenache, it was just incredible,” Renee says. “We just fell in love with this place straight away.”
While art and wine were at the heart of this venture, the vision for Wonderground was always about so much more. What these four driven and can-do creatives have established is a community hub, a soulful meeting place where locals gather to take part in yoga, art classes and artists talks, all in the gallery space.
What has been created here is a celebration of place and purpose, of connection and community.
Kirsty, Nick, Renee and Luke have experience when it comes to tackling creative projects in the Barossa. They are the driving force behind the reimagining of the old Marananga School. The couples bought it in November, 2021, transforming it into the Marananga School Precinct. It is now home to restaurant staguni, Goldie Pottery Studio, the Barossa Gin Lab and the Hidden Flower Farm run by Kirsty’s brother Wade.
“They are super human,” says another of today’s guests, Meg Ker, a talented florist who has created all the arrangements for today’s gathering and who also works at the gallery.
“They just work so hard and manage to get things done, all while raising families and leading busy lives.”
Other guests today include Annabel Ingoldby, who also works at the gallery, and friend Sarah Day, a wine educator, who is keeping glasses topped up with Mirus wines.
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Sarah is also part of the Wonderground team and will soon be launching the new Art of Wine School at Mirus, immersive wine education courses.
Everyone tucks into the impressive cheese board, which includes Barossa Cheese aged goat’s cheese, figs, pistachios, grapes and Luke’s homemade salami, as Nick and Luke stoke up their barbecue to chargrill the chicken wings with smoked paprika.
Chef Sandor will also soon be joining the Wonderground team when the business launches its latest food and wine venture Eight (8). This will be an exclusive private dining experience for eight people to be held in the 100-year-old dining room, now named the Mirus Room, a standalone space at the rear of the gallery.
Sandor, formerly of Rockford Stonewall, will create a seasonal menu inspired by the Barossa landscape, perfectly matched to Mirus Wines.
It is in this rustic Mirus Room where tonight’s guests take their seats to enjoy main course. Colourful and contemporary artworks from the gallery’s latest exhibition, fittingly called Gathering, hang on the 100-year-old walls, adding bursts of colour to this historic setting.
Giving back to the community means a lot to Kirsty, who grew up in Angaston, and Nick, a sixth generation Barossa winemaker, after several years of living away, including in California’s Napa Valley.
Kirsty’s eclectic career includes working in a bank, running training and recruitment for British Airways in Europe, and studying complementary medicine.
“I was always creative but I guess you get a job when you leave school and you don’t think you can earn a living from being creative,” she says.
Renee, meanwhile, grew up in Griffith, NSW, where she met Luke, who hails from the Clare Valley. Renee was working in wine marketing when she and Luke moved to the Barossa 10 years ago.
It was through mutual friends that Kirsty and Renee first crossed paths and immediately hit it off, sharing not just an artistic sensibility but also a drive to support their local community and create new opportunities.
One of their first artistic projects was organising a showcase of the year 12 artwork from the two local high schools, something that hadn’t been done before.
“We felt like sporty kids know sporty kids, but the artists don’t know the artists in the other high school, there are no clubs for artists,” Kirsty says.
The women also started a project called 100 Barossa Artists, part of the SALA Festival, shining a light on the depth of artistic talent in the Barossa.
All of these artistic pursuits paved the way for Wonderground, which embodies each couple’s values of family and friendship, community and creativity.
Those sentiments are on display today as the dinner party draws to a close as everyone samples the delicious dessert created by Sandor – a caramel salted popcorn which has been paired with the Mirus Golden Orb Cane Cut Semillon.
It seems fitting that taking pride of place in the Wonderground garden is a huge art installation titled “Harvest Hands”. The metal sculpture was designed by artist Roland Weight and is comprised of two hands cupped together in “a gesture that represents gathering and offering”.
Gathering and offering are at the centre of everything that happens at Wonderground, all thanks to two hardworking families who simply had a vision to create something extraordinary in this slice of Barossa Valley country.
“Plus, Renee and I are both still both painting, so I think that’s a success,” Kirsty says. “And it has to be fun right, otherwise, why would you turn up?”
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