The Ultimate Guide to Australia’s Must-visit Wineries

Premium tastings, extraordinary locations and fabulous food – Australia’s cellar doors have it all. From blending masterclasses in Margaret River to helicopter tours over the Orange region and open-air galleries and degustation dining in the Mornington Peninsula, sample the country’s finest drops with our pick of the best winery experiences in the land. 

Sample acclaimed and rare wines

There’s no shortage of luxe tastings to be had in Australia. In the heart of South Australia’s Barossa Valley, an hour’s drive from Adelaide, the historic Seppeltsfield Winery and Estate awaits. With vineyards that sprawl over 170 hectares, it is home to the world’s longest continuous lineage of vintages. On the Seppeltsfield Centenary Tour (pictured) you can taste the 100-year-old Para Vintage Tawny and sip wine from your birth year straight from the barrel. 

The region also hosts tastings of the acclaimed Grenache Project – a collaboration between local winemakers that showcases the diversity of the Barossa’s wine, all stemming from a single varietal – at Artisans of Barossa. On the Penfolds Iconic Experience, take a tour of Magill Estate and enjoy a three-course lunch paired with some of the label’s best drops. Further south, Tasmania’s House of Arras – the state’s most lauded producer of sparkling wines – dazzles with a flight of rare and exclusive Museum Cellar EJ Carr Late Disgorged Editions.

Further afield, go behind the scenes at Sirromet, a state-of-the-art winery located on Mount Cotton in Queensland, to sample plonks from the Le Sauvage range that have been fermented with wild yeast. In Victoria’s King Valley, soak up Pizzini’s Italian heritage and pit old vintages against new in a tasting that illustrates the history of the family or head to Dominique Portet in the Yarra Valley, where an experienced host will guide you through three types of rośe matched with charcuterie and cheese. 

Master tasting and winemaking across the country

Vinophiles and amateur sommeliers have the chance to get hands-on at wineries such as St Hugo in the Barossa Valley. Through a tasting of four of the cellar door’s most popular tipples – served in specially designed Riedel glassware – you’ll learn how the shape of your drinking vessel can draw out different characteristics and flavours from each drop. 

Winemakers Stanton & Killeen in Rutherglen, Victoria, put you in charge with a Blend Your Own Muscat experience (pictured)  where you’ll create your own bottle from different Muscat parcels, label it and take it home. Similarly, Brown Brothers in Victoria’s King Valley region and Mandoon Estate in Western Australia’s Swan Valley both host masterclasses where you can blend varietals such as shiraz, merlot and cabernet before bottling your creation as a souvenir. 

Hardy’s Tintara, in South Australia’s McLaren Vale, gives new meaning to ‘feast for your senses’ with their Tasting in the Dark. With the lights dimmed and a blindfold on, you’ll sample four varietals from Hardys and let your taste buds go to work. Bubbling away in Northern Tasmania’s Relbia, Josef Chromy is where you’ll get an introduction to the traditional method of making sparkling and a sumptuous two-course lunch with matched wines at the hatted Josef Chromy Restaurant.

Discover extraordinary locations

From coast to coast, Australia’s wineries offer some impressive scenery. In Orange, NSW, the best way to see Printhie Wine is by heli-tour (pictured). After being driven by a chauffeur from your accommodation to the cellar door, you’ll hop on a helicopter and soar over the vast tablelands of the region. Once back on land, Printhie’s flagship vinos and a four-course lunch with matched wines of freshly shucked oysters, Murray cod and gnocchi with guanciale beckon. 

Want to stay on the ground? Vasse Felix in Western Australia takes guests on a guided coastal walking tour along the limestone cliffs of the Margaret River cape before finishing up with a visit to the onsite museum and tour of the attached vineyard and winery. A tasting and five-course lunch with paired vinos is a worthy reward for your exertions. Over in McLaren Vale, Gemtree’s Biodynamic Hut offers a uniquely off-piste sampling of five varietals, a self-guided walk along the one-kilometre Gemtree Eco Trail and a chance to refuel with a three-course lunch.

Head up to Lights Pass at Yalumba in Angaston, South Australia, on the winery’s Signature Tour. Here, you’ll drink in spectacular views over the Barossa – and some of the iconic cellar door’s Signature range – before a private sampling session of yet-to-be-released drops. Or go at your own pace at Audrey Wilkinson in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley on a self-led tasting expedition. Afterwards, you’ll be handed a bottle of wine, a picnic hamper and etched glassware, which is all you’ll need for a leisurely afternoon on the grounds.

Get a culture fix

Like shoes and socks or fish and chips: wine and art are meant for each other. One of the more elevated ways to experience this combination is at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Tasmania. The ferry, departing from Hobart, will take you 11 kilometres up the River Derwent to Mona, where you can wander around the exhibitions at your leisure. Afterwards, join your fellow aficionados on a tour of neighbouring Moorilla winery, which includes sipping signature blends in an underground wine bunker.

Aside from spoiling yourself with a barrel tasting and lunch (with matching drops) at Montalto in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, the Behind the Scenes tour takes in the property’s expansive contemporary sculpture collection – many of which are winners of the winery’s own sculpture prize – set amongst the vineyard’s natural wetlands. There are even more artworks to see from the likes of Yayoi Kusama and KAWS at nearby Pt Leo Estate (pictured), home to a 6.5-hectare outdoor gallery, before popping into the vineyard’s cellar door and restaurants. 

Looking west to South Australia, d’Arenberg’s dramatic Cube is just the first piece of art you’ll admire at its McLaren Vale estate. Inside, you’ll sample vintage wines, enjoy a two-course lunch at Singapore Circus and explore the Cube’s Salvador Dali exhibition. At WA’s Leeuwin Estate in Margaret River, the Art, Wine & Farm to Fork experience takes you through the onsite art gallery filled with works from contemporary local artists, including John Olsen, Arthur Boyd and Sir Sidney Nolan, before winding down with the opening of a few bottles of Art Series wine for a tasting session. 

Indulge in degustations and first-rate dining

The ultra-polished, minimalist design of Ten Minutes By Tractor belies its rustic name. Found on the Mornington Peninsula, just over an hour’s drive southeast of Melbourne, the winery hosts a tasting, an introduction to high-density viticulture and a tour of the Gabrielle vineyard while sipping a blanc de blanc – all before lunch. Then, you’ll sit down for a five-course tasting menu at the two-hatted Ten Minutes by Tractor restaurant. Expect dishes such as Jetty Road pale ale loaf, tomato and coffee, house butter, foie gras and green pepper. Naturally, signature wine pairings to match each course are on offer, and you’ll even receive a bottle of 10X Pinot Noir to take home.

Overlooking the rolling vineyards of the Yarra Valley, Chandon hosts a seven-course degustation menu featuring caviar, crayfish, and prawns, accompanied by its new master blend, Chandon Ètoile and decadent Chandon Ruby Cuvée. At nearby De Bortoli, Locale is the ideal place to savour a glass matched to a delicious two- or three-course lunch of Italian-inspired cuisine, including the internationally acclaimed Noble One wine with dessert.

Long lunches are de rigueur at Swinging Bridge in Orange, NSW, where you’ll explore the Hill Park Vineyard before a five-course degustation lunch that could include dishes such as chorizo and ricotta raviolo paired with a 2021 Mrs Payten Chardonnay. There’s a similar pattern at Voyager Estate in WA’s Margaret River where a hosted tasting of six wines is expertly paired with a farm-to-table lunch.

Enjoy an in-depth guide to Jacob’s Creek’s Double Barrel range – the blends are finished in second-use spirits barrels, including whisky, cognac and even tequila – complete with lunch at Harvest Kitchen. Here, the ‘Feed Me Like a Barossan’ menu focuses on local produce, plating up Buttermilk fried chicken, chicory slaw and nduja oil, along with two glasses of Double Barrel wine.

SEE ALSO: 30 Winery Experiences That Don’t Stop at The Cellar Door