Son of John Senior & Cheryl, John is a fifth generation Barossan, growing up on the family farm at Sheaoak Log, and attended Rosedale Primary School and Faith Lutheran College. He worked in the family’s livestock nutrition business Lienert Australia at Roseworthy during his high school years before studying Agribusiness at Marcus Oldham College in Geelong.

Returning home to help his father on the family pig and crop farm, John witnessed the arrival of viticulture to the Barossa’s western edge in 2000 with the development of BIL water, making new vineyard plantings possible. He too was bitten by the grape growing bug and set about gradually converting a broadacre farm to vineyards. By 2024, Lienert Vineyards had 97 hectares under vine at Sheaoak Log and 20 hectares in the Eden Valley.

Regenerative agricultural practices combined with an appetite for exploring the broad possibilities of clonal selections and new varieties drive the vineyard program. Barossa classics now find themselves alongside Malbec, Roussanne, Piquepoul and most recently Macabeo. In partnership with his brother James, this is now a business that grows and sells fruit to local winemakers whilst keeping a portion for a growing portfolio of wines appearing under the Lienert brand.

John is a graduate of Barossa Australia’s Next Crop program, a long serving member of Barossa Vine Improvement Committee and Vice Chair of Grape Barossa. He is a current director and board member of Artisans of Barossa and Barossa Australia, President of the Sheaoak Log community centre and perhaps most prescient of all, curator of Good Shepherd Lutheran Cemetery in Gomersal!

John, his wife Alice and two daughters Sophie and Charlotte reside in Tanunda.