Brian and Ann Croser have long considered the west coast of the United States as “home away from home” since their 18-month stay at the Davis campus of the University of California in the early 1970s where Brian studied in the Masters of Enology program and Ann worked as a research biochemist. Brian’s classmates at Davis became some of California’s most successful winery entrepreneurs while he and Ann returned to the Piccadilly Valley in South Australia to found the Petaluma wine company in 1976 (named after the Sonoma township to the north of San Francisco in recognition of the life-defining time spent there).

To maintain the working lifetime association with the west coast of America, in 2002 Ann and Brian also purchased the 50-acre Christmas tree farm at the southern end of the Eola Hills on the western boundary of Cristom winery’s distinguished Pinot Noir vineyard sites, cementing the strong relationship between the Croser family and the Gerrie family of Cristom. In 2005 Brian and Ann planted 3 acres of Riesling and christened the vineyard Tunkalilla, after the beach adjacent to their farm on the Southern Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia.