For sale: city des res with cab sav galore
Credit: Maurice Dunlevy and Meagan Weymes
"YOU wouldn't confuse it with Grange, but it's been good fun."
Brendan Bannan is refering to the backyard vineyard adventure he and wife Jennifer have enjoyed less than 6km from Melbourne's CBD.
The Bannans' private 3032 label, named after their Ascot Vale postcode, supplies family and friends with up to 350 litres a year of shiraz and cabernet sauvignon from vines planted on a backyard plot eight years ago.
Now the vineyard, along with the couple's historic St Leonards Avenue home, is up for sale by auction this month, ripe for an aspiring vigneron who doesn't want to give up the city lifestyle.
It won't come cheap, with bids from $1.8 million.
Both the 365sq m vineyard and renovated 1889 home are the work of the current owners, who bought the then derelict property known as Lauriston for more than $500,000 in 1999.
They established the vineyard two years later, and by 2007, despite grape problems with birds and mildew, were drinking their own wine.
As well as having inner-Melbourne's largest vineyard, the home has a strange and fascinating history, having housed a former local mayor, wives of World War I soldiers, an elderly squatter, an illegal dentist and a group of Ukrainian alcoholics, before being left vacant for years.
"It was such a dump we opened the doors and just left it for a week to try to air it out to get rid of the stench," Ms Bannan said.
It comes with two underground wine cellars, one discovered by Mr Bannan while he was working on the renovations. He found the entrance under an old lino floor, which was further hidden by old newspapers.
"I was reading about Hitler marching into Poland and all those things in 1938, when I found this knob on the floor," he said. "I pulled it up, and there's the cellar."
The Ascot Vale auction is scheduled for October 23, when the traditional spring selling season will be in full swing.
After a decade of renovation work, Mr Bannan said he hoped the new owners would appreciate the property.
"It's fairly romantic for us to think someone will want to have a vineyard, but they might want to put in a tennis court or a swimming pool, or build on it."
