The Auswine Forum

Would anyone know if Giaconda and Sorrenberg have cellar doors and can you buy from the vineyard? I will be in the Beechworth area for a couple of days and thought I might check out a few wineries.

Hi Tony

Yes Sorrenberg have a cellar door, it's basically in the cellar of the house, best to give them a ring beforehand though, make sure someone will be there.
Giaconda doesn't have a cellar door, but sometimes take visitors by private appointment. Most definitely requires a phonecall or email well in advance. If you can arrange a visit and demonstrate you're familiar with his wines, it's a fantastic experience. The cellar is amazing.
Fyi, If Giaconda isn't available, Savaterre is literally across the road and take visitors with advance notice.

Beechworth itself is very nice Tony, hope you enjoy it.

I haven't been for a few years, but I remember visiting Pennyweight and I think they gave us the number for Sorrenberg. If you like a beer make sure you get to Bridge Road Brewery, which is behind Tanswell's hotel in Ford st. Ben Kraus and crew make some excellent and innovative beers there.

If you get the chance, I can't recommend Provenance strongly enough for dinner. One of the best meals I've had this year, with Sorrenberg and Savaterre reasonably priced by the glass.
Cheers
Nick

Nick wrote:If you get the chance, I can't recommend Provenance strongly enough for dinner. One of the best meals I've had this year, with Sorrenberg and Savaterre reasonably priced by the glass.
Cheers
Nick

Indeed, I've been there a few times and they have all been memorable meals.

Also, call into the Beechworth Cellar Door, a great selection of wine and beers.

Thought I'd revive an old thread to get some updated information.

The wife and I are heading up to Beechworth for the upcoming long weekend.

I'm trying to arrange some cellar door appointments and had the following wineries in mind:-

Domenica
Castagna
Savaterre
Sorrenberg
Giaconda

Have locked in a dinner reservation at Provenance too.

Anywhere else worth adding to the list?

Thanks in advance.

Eldorado Road have a small tasting room in the main street, just up from the wine store. Good wines. Baileys on the trip up is also a pleasant stop.

They are a pretty new and small operation, but if Schmolzer and Brown will let you visit with an appointment I would recommend (I haven't been so nonidea at all if they do visits). Very smart rose, Chardonnay and Pinot and a fun field blend white. Seem like very nice people too.

Fighting Gully Road also worth a drop in IMO.

Pennyweight have an excellent cellar door on the bike path as well, quite near the Smith's Vineyard that A Rodda is now using - if I have my geography right

When I went I phoned ahead and made an appointment before hand at Giaconda and Sorrenburg and just called into Amulet, Pennyweight and Indigo. Giaconda was worth the trip by its self. We also called in to Brown Bros at Milawa.

via collins wrote:Pennyweight have an excellent cellar door on the bike path as well, quite near the Smith's Vineyard that A Rodda is now using - if I have my geography right

I found these guys insufferably arrogant especially for such average wines. I made the mistake of saying we had spent a great afternoon the previous day with Julian as Castagna Wine and how much we had enjoyed the area. After that i think the little green giant took over the owner i was talking to. Julian on the other hand was one of the most enjoyable hosts along with the owner of Curly Flat i have ever met. He shared barrel samples, opened endless bottles to the point I was embarrassed.

Diddy wrote:Thought I'd revive an old thread to get some updated information.

The wife and I are heading up to Beechworth for the upcoming long weekend.

I'm trying to arrange some cellar door appointments and had the following wineries in mind:-

Domenica
Castagna
Savaterre
Sorrenberg
Giaconda

Have locked in a dinner reservation at Provenance too.

Anywhere else worth adding to the list?

Thanks in advance.

Diddy

it is also worth stopping into the local pub and trying the range of beers they brew on site. They do beer tasting flights.

Mark

Rooman said:

I found these guys insufferably arrogant especially for such average wines. I made the mistake of saying we had spent a great afternoon the previous day with Julian as Castagna Wine and how much we had enjoyed the area. After that i think the little green giant took over the owner i was talking to. Julian on the other hand was one of the most enjoyable hosts along with the owner of Curly Flat i have ever met. He shared barrel samples, opened endless bottles to the point I was embarrassed.

Really sad to read that. I've not been up for a few years, and Elizabeth Morris could not have been more charming. You'd think that with social media so omnipresent, it would be best behaviour at the CD at all times. I won't debate the quality of their wines, aside from the suggestions that their fortifieds are absolute top shelf, and some of the table wines cellar really well.

Good news about Castagna - certainly a generous family all the way through the generations. And wines of some brilliance!

Thanks all for the suggestions - looks like I'm in for an action packed weekend.

Will report back how I go.

So, as promised, here are some brief notes from my visit to Beechworth this long weekend. We've had a really enjoyable trip, with the perfect combination of wine, food and sun!

Day 1

With my itinerary of visits all locked in by prior appointment, we excitedly set off from Melbourne early on Australia day. The drive up was fairly nondescript - basically 3 hours on the one road. Thank god for cruise control as there's an awful amount of speed cameras along the Hume Freeway these days.

Our first wine stop for the trip was at Savaterre, which is traditionally known for its Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. To be honest I hadn't experienced their wines before, but they came highly recommended. Incidentally, their wines are now being served on Emirates first class which is pretty impressive.

Savaterre have an amazing view from their mountain-top position at about 400m above sea level:-



The winemaker/proprietor Keppell Smith was away on business, so we were looked after by his lovely wife who had a great perspective on the wines from her time working as a sommelier at some pretty amazing restaurants.

I didn't take any formal notes, but the standout wine for me was the 2012 Savaterre Pinot Noir. It's made in a Burgundian style as a homage to Pommard. The warmer region did show through, but not in a negative or detracting way - really enjoyable drop at ~$65 a bottle.

Our second and final stop for the day was at Domenica Wines with the wonderful and affable Peter Graham, who has family connections with Giaconda.

This was a fantastic and intimate visit which included a 4wd tour around the property and a walk through the vineyards before finishing with a really personal tasting in the barrel room.





We tasted his 2015 Rousanne Marsanne, 2015 Chardonnay, 2016 Rose, 2014 Shiraz, and 2014, 2015 and 2016 Nebbiolo (all from barrel).

I loved the Chardonnay, which for me represented a real beautiful intersection of the mineral/buttery styles of chardonnay - capturing the best parts of both.

He's also doing some amazing work with nebbiolo too. I jumped on his 2013 release after strong reviews from The Wine Front. Unfortunately that was sold out and not available for tasting, but the barrel samples more than made up for it! The 2014 vintage was frost affected and yields were well down resulting in a stronger, more tannic expression. The youthful 2016 by contrast had a softer floral deftness, whereas the 2015 was my pick of the bunch and a damn good representation of Langhe nebbiolo. For the nebbiolo-nuts, I'd highly recommend keeping an eye on Peter's wines - they're really something special and undoubtedly at the forefront of the Australian takes on this variety.

Dinner was at the mightily impressive Provenance, which is kind of like Beechworth's answer to the Royal Mail Hotel.

We went with the 6-course degustation which came in at around $115/person + public holiday surcharge.

I started off a little concerned about the small portion sizes, but it lacked in quantity it well and truly made up for with taste and flavour - absolutely beautiful!

I didn't grab any pics, but the dishes were a pumpkin & hazelnut risotto, grilled octopus, kangaroo, duck, beef and strawberry dessert. Clearly my descriptions don't do the food justice - but suffice to say Provenance would give most of Melbourne's fine dining restaurants a good run for their money.

Day 2

After a quick and hearty country breakfast we started the day with a visit to see Julian Castagna at Castagna.

We were joined by another group of visitors, which ended up being a bit of a blessing as it only encouraged Julian to open more bottles for us all! He's a really interesting and passionate character - could have spent all day there talking about his wines and wine-making practices - including the horns filled with cow manure!

It was a pretty epic tasting and I'm struggling to remember all the wines now, but I'm pretty sure we had:-

2015 Castagna Growers' Selection Roussanne
2014 Adams Rib The Red (Nebbiolo/Syrah)
2014 Un Segreto (Sangiovese/Syrah)
2014 La Chiave (Sangiovese)
2012 Genesis Syrah (we chose the museum release over the current)

The Genesis was just superb - wonderful cool climate pepper and an amazing gamey, savouriness. The finesse on this wine really stood out for me. Interestingly, Julian said he tries to make his shiraz in a burgundy 'style' and the 2012 was the closest he's ever gone to achieving that goal - it really showed in the finished product.

The Italian wines were also magnificent, with the Chiave the pick of the bunch - a real beautiful earthiness shone through. Later this year they're releasing a straight nebbiolo which should be pretty exciting, given it's the first time they've deemed the fruit to be worthy of a single varietal release.

The second stop for the day was with Rick Kinzbrunner at Giaconda.

I had heard the cellar was pretty spectacular, but I wasn't quite prepared for the awesome underground caves which had been blasted 70m deep into the granite hillside. Pretty unique in Australia and a truly amazing tasting room.

Rick was lovely to visit with and took a real interest in sharing his story and knowledge with us.

We tasted his soon to be released 2015 Chardonnay which, while still just a baby, oozed obvious class - really flinty and match-sticky.

Next up was the 2014 Estate Shiraz which was just phenomenal - so much power, but with sheer restrained elegance - close to my favourite wine of the trip.

We finished with a number of barrel samples of unfinished shiraz and nebbiolo - I forgot to write down the vintages (I think 2015 and 2016). Was interesting to see the difference between the Estate shiraz and the Warner Vineyard shiraz - the latter having more prominent whole bunch stalkiness, but not quite as much complexity. The nebbiolo was really nice, although not quite as much structure as some of the other examples we had seen.

Our final stop for the day was at Sorrenberg, which unlike all the other wineries, was set almost within the town itself alongside the golf course. Certainly a lot more lush and green looking than some of the others.

By this stage I think fatigue had set in, partly due to the 34 degree weather, so my overall engagement with the wines was somewhat diminished.

We tried their 2015 Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, 2015 Chardonnay and 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc/Merlot blend.

The whites were nice without blowing me away and the Cabernet was quite enjoyable, partly because it was the only example of the varietal on the whole visit. Would be great to try their Gamay (sold out) as I understand they do a very good example of it.

We finished off our trip with dinner at Ox and Hound which was a sensational bistro just on the main street in town. The pastas were brilliant as was the rib eye - I wish we had more restaurants in Melbourne like this!

All in all, it was a fantastic little getaway. We didn't visit any of the public cellar doors (thanks for the recommendations nonetheless), so it was a really intimate way of getting to know the region and the people behind the wines. There's a lot to be said of this type of wine tourism - you certainly get that connection with the land, the site, the vines and the personalities that all combine to create that magical juice we're all captivated by.

Awesome write up Diddy, thank you.

Well done! I've never been to the wineries up that way. Sounds fabulous.