Scott Hicks' Fleurieu Hideaway: With Keith Conlon in the Fleurieu Peninsula region of South Australia

The brilliantly coloured rolling vineyards of the southern vales, wineries, cafes and coffee shops in peaceful places like McLaren Vale... and the hustle and bustle of New York. Hang on - New York? What's that got in common with the Fleurieu Peninsula?

The answer is film director, Scott Hicks and his producer wife, Kerry Heysen. Since the Oscar winning success of Shine, Scott and Kerry have been making big Hollywood movies... but when they aren't doing that they relax and unwind in their own private high country vineyard on the Fleurieu. Welcome to Yacca Paddock.

Hidden away in the hills near Kuitpo, Yacca Paddock is where Scott and Kerry come to get away from it all. And what a place to do it. They live and work in town and all over the world of course, but here in their own patch Aussie bush they're eons away from the heady world of multi-million dollar deals and high maintenance film stars.

Sitting on the deck overlooking their own lake, Scott reckons it's hard not to yield to the calming nature of the classically Australian surroundings.

"The great thing about being here is that's there's no TV, no phones, no fax, no email or computers. There's no sound system just the sound of frogs in the pond... and us," Scott laughed.

At the centre of Yacca Paddock is "the shed". Not just any shed of course... this one would look equally at home on the set of the Lord of the Rings. A heard of dairy cattle used to graze the surrounding paddocks. Now exotic grape varieties like dolcetto, tannet and durif thrive in the cool climate.

Scott looks quite at home zipping around on his favourite toy, a four-wheel farm bike, chasing the kangaroos out of the vines but he reckons winemaking is a bit like making a good movie - you need a good team.

"The vineyard is our vision together," said Kerry. "I'm mad on growing things and Scott takes care of the quality control he has to taste what we grow. Somebody has to do it!"

To complete the cast they had to find the 'Academy Award winners' of winemaking - that gong went to master vigneron, Geoff Hardy and genius winemaker, Ben Riggs. The result is a wine worthy of Hollywood stardom. Their 2002 Dolcetto stars in their latest film, No Reservations starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart and Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin.

"No Reservations is the story of a chef in a high end restaurant played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, who believes her life is completely organised," said Scott. "She's an absolute perfectionist and suddenly this is completely turned on its head when she inherits her nine year old niece..."

Scott and Kerry spent eight months living in New York working on the film which was shot in a vacant Manhattan restaurant.

"We found a disused restaurant in the Village, a very historic part of down town New York," said Scott. "My Production Designer completely regenerated it so much that we were turning people away. We had to says there are no reservations!" he laughed.

There are certainly no reservations at Yacca Paddock either - it's strictly a private hideaway but you can sample its sunshine in a bottle if you look hard enough. Their movie, No Reservations opens in Australia on Thursday the 23rd of August, 2007

Published 29th July 2007

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