Kalgoorlie vineyard makes dessert wine far from WA's viniculture heart

It's just before six in the morning, but the grape harvest is already well underway.

Bright green leaves are a stark contrast from the dusty red soil the vines climb out of.

While the sun has only just begun to rise over the vineyard, it's already close to 30 degrees.

But the scene is taking place hundreds of kilometres — 834 kilometres, to be precise — from the heart of WA wine country.

Kalgoorlie winemaker Geoff Paynter is expecting about a dozen of his friends to show up to help pick the year's vintage.

He wouldn't be surprised if there's a couple of no-shows.

"It's going to be a hot day, I think they're predicting 46," he says.

Winemaking tradition

WA's largest, and only, inland city Kalgoorlie-Boulder is best known for its gold mining, arid climate and plentiful pubs.

It's probably the last place you'd expect to find a vineyard.

Mr Paynter begs to differ.

"Kalgoorlie-Boulder's always had a big history of Italians, and they all had vineyards in their backyard," he says.

"Over the years that's probably died out, but it was certainly not uncommon for Kalgoorlie."

A mining surveyor by trade, Mr Paynter can generally be found tending to his vines at weekends.

A week before harvest, he stops watering the grapes and lets the skin become slightly raisined to increase the sugar content.

It's a critical step in producing the port that Mr Paynter's vineyard Binduli is best known for.

Growing a vineyard in a water shortage

Despite its isolation, Mr Paynter says the region's overall climate is similar to high-profile wine regions such as South Australia's Riverland and the Riverina in New South Wales.

But the lack of a regular water supply remains a challenge.

"Only difference is they have a big river going through the middle, we don't even have groundwater here we can use," he says.

"If you go 150 metres down you might hit super hyper-saline water, which you can't use for anything."

Keeping a vineyard alive in an arid climate is not without challenges.

Mr Paynter has gone from watering the vineyard every day to once a week, amid city-wide water shortages.

"When I first moved here, there was a dairy, there were veggie patches," he says.

"The oval just up the road was an orange grove.

"I had bigger plans, but water is the biggest issue in Kalgoorlie, so I'm a bit limited there."

Tribute to late wife

Inside the winery, the floor is starting to fill up with buckets of grapes.

Mr Paynter fires up the de-stemming machine.

He lifts the buckets above his head, tipping the grapes into a chute at the top.

The crushed grapes trickle into a large steel vat, filling the warehouse with a sweet smell. 

Empty stems funnel out the side.

Mr Paynter originally established Binduli Winery in 2001 with his wife Kathryn.

"I was making the wine, and Kathryn was trying to sell it, and market it and the like," he says.

"When she passed on, that sort of stalled a bit. So now I'm trying to regroup and get going again.

Friends and family on hand to help

Helping hands continue to rustle through the leaves to find hidden bunches of grapes.

Friend and former federal MP Tony Crook is one of them.

"It's always nice to come back here and remember Kathryn fondly," he says.

Mr Crook has helped with the annual harvest for more than 20 years.

"Every year this is a bit of a ritual for us," he says.

With few grapes left to prune, Mr Paynter's reinforcements gather in the air-conditioned winery to find reprieve.

It will be a while before they can try the fruits of their labour.

The grape juice will spend time fermenting before it is aged in oak barrels for months.

But they aren't too worried, with cold cans of squash and ginger beer on offer.

"Kalgoorlie is all about friends, there's a lot of people I call friends here in Kalgoorlie," Mr Paynter says.

"Kalgoorlie's good for that."