Colin Kidd was born in Renmark in 1925, and spent much of his early years on the family fruitgrowing property. He served in the RAAF during WW2, and returned to private fruit growing until 1965 when the government acquired the family farm for the Chowilla Dam project.

Colin and his family arrived in Coonawarra soon after that to take over from Philip Laffer at Rouge Homme and to continue Lindemans Vineyard Developments at Coonawarra and Padthaway. He was to preside over the 1968 to 1972 Rouge Homme Winery Vintages in addition to managing the company vineyards. Colin later became responsible nationally for Lindemans Vineyard Operations.

During his period in the Limestone Coast Colin presided over key developments including the Lindemans St. George and Limestone Ridge Vineyards, developing the Lindemans Padthaway Vineyards just a year behind Karl Seppelts’ pioneering vineyard at Keppoch, and developing a small pilot vineyard of four wine grape varieties at Mt Benson in 1980.

Colin was an instigator in bringing the Coonawarra and Limestone Coast Wine Industries together through various forums and projects of the time, including the South East Viticultural Council (since renamed the Limestone Coast Wine Industry Council), the Coonawarra Airfield Company, with its land acquisition and development of the McGillivray Airstrip and the introduction of such Coonawarra institutions such as ‘Bottle Nights’ and the local Beefsteak and Burgundy Clubs.

Colin had built his home in Penola and continued his involvement with the Wine Industry and other community interests since his retirement from Lindemans in 1990, and he has more recently retired to Adelaide to remain closer to his family.