Originally named the Koppamurra Vineyard, this unique vineyard was planted in 1974 on red soil over limestone (terra rossa) on the eastern edge of the West Naracoorte Ranges, 20 kilometres north of Coonawarra. At that time, it was a lonely vineyard on the edge of the Naracoorte Caves National Park and the Kanawinka Fault, then just one of two vineyards in the region now known as Wrattonbully. 

In 1980, Brian made his first vintage from this vineyard, in the young two-year-old Petaluma winery, for his friend Geoffrey Weaver, a wine that still in 2025 opens beautifully.

In 2002 Tapanappa purchased the Koppamurrra Vineyard from the band of founders and renamed it the Whalebone Vineyard, due to the discovery of an extensive cave system in the 34-million-year-old limestone under the vineyards with the skeleton of an ancient whale exposed in the wall of the cave.

From the first Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard in 2003, depending on the vintage, Tapanappa has produced a straight Merlot, a Cabernet-Shiraz blend, a Merlot-Cabernet Franc blend and in the recent small crop years, an all in Cabernet-Merlot-Cabernet Franc blend.