The Auswine Forum

So we're making a trip to Canberra in a couple of weeks and thought we'd spend some of the time visiting their vineyards. Problem is we have very little experience with the region so don't know where we should see.

We appreciate it's not necessarily the jewel in the Australian wine making crown, but there must be some great places to visit.

Love to hear your suggestions!

Clonakilla
Helm
Eden road
Mount majura
Lark hill

Bit spaced out so get a winery map and plan your day.

Map is here:

http://www.canberrawines.com.au/map.html

Hi precariousb,

There a few forum members down in Canberra, including myself.

I'll rattle off a few of my favourites and I'm sure a few others will make some suggestions.

Clonakilla is obviously a must visit. Four winds is just around the corner from clonakilla and has a pizza oven so if the weather is nice you can sit outside for lunch and glass of wine. The Capital Wines 2014 Gundaroo Riesling just won an award at the Canberra wine show so they could be worth a visit (although I've never been myself). Helm, Lark Hill and Eden Road are some of my other favourites. Closer to Canberra there is Mount Majura which do a pretty good tasting and have some different wines compared to what else other locals offer (think Tempranillo, Graciano etc).

Nick O'leary don't have a cellar door but you should try to track down some of his riesling and shiraz (both Canberra specialties).

Let me know if you have any questions

Cheers

I was just at Lerida today for lunch and a tasting. Beautiful views of Lake George. Good food, great wine.

Hello and welcome to our beautiful wine region here in Canberra! I've visited Barossa, Clare, Mclaren, Yarra, Mornington, Hunter, Coonawarra and Tassie and it's still my favourite. The wines here won't blow you away but I find they can have a beautiful balance and drinkability.

My favourite cellar doors here are:
Clonakilla
Helm
Lark Hill
Lambert
Mt. Majura

Also recommend Gallagher, Yarrh and Four Winds. There's lots of other nice little ones dotted around, eg Tallagandra Hill and Little Bridge. Not a big fan of Eden Road (I used to like them but prices have gone up quite a bit now), Lerida (truffle butter bread is delicious but the wines are underwhelming) or Nick O'Leary (my wife was very disappointed in the shiraz after hearing the reputation).

qwertt wrote:Map is here:

http://www.canberrawines.com.au/map.html

Surveyor's Hill, Pankhurst and Brindabella Hills off the Wallaroo Road are worth the effort too. SH has a nice relaxed bistro.

Eden Road for quality wines
Four Winds for great value wines, fantastic people, wood-fired pizzas and a unique recycled, re-purposed cellar door.

Just popped out to the Eden Road cellar door on the weekend just gone for a quick tasting through the current line up (Thanks Paul!).

For my palate the whites held more interest than the reds. Don't get me wrong the reds are pretty solid I just thought that the whites offered more points of difference. I grabbed some of the 2014 riesling (love the aromatics on this!) and the 2013 Maragle Chardonnay (Difficult to split this from the Courabuyra - both were so good! Hindsight says I should have bought both).

FWIW...

Clonakilla has great wines but the cellar door experience can be a tad sterile if there are a million people there.
Helm love going to Ken's school house. Pretty solid rieslings - spectacular some years. The range is getting bigger - he's making rieslings from different regions with some regularity now. He does a respectable Cab Sav too.
Mount Majura - Temp and Temp blends. Also do some funky but interesting white blends - 'Molli' springs to mind.
Lark hill - Gruner Vetliner - yum! It's a bit of a hike to get there though.
Gundaroo - Great cellar door - good food. The wines have taken a quantum leap in recent years. Riesling won wine of the Show (Canberra Wine Show)
Four Winds - riesling is usually pretty solid. Is this the pizza place? Newish cellar door.
Gallagher & Lambert - Wines are improving on what they were so worth a visit to see where they're at. Does one of these do twilight movies? Can't recall.
Jeir Creek - When it's available - Muscat...mmmm.
Lerida - Great food/location if you're driving back to Sydney. Pinot no go....Not sure about this as a vineyard site although other will disagree.

Looking forward to hearing how your trip went.

Cheers
Matt