Granite Belt wineries: Drink and feast your way through next holiday
Drink in the springtime scenery, feast on country fare and enjoy an arms-wide-open welcome at Stanthorpe wineries at next month’s Grazing the Granite Belt event
Brisbane News
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The world’s friendliest dog is the first to greet me in the Granite Belt and it quickly turns into a bit of a theme on my weekend of wine tasting. I discover many cellar doors have unofficial doggie greeters of varying size and cuteness and they even have their own hashtag: #winedog.
It makes each welcome all the warmer in this part of the world where country hospitality is a given.
Though Bella the beagle is not strictly a #winedog. She lives next door to my accommodation at 31 The Rocks, just a few minutes outside Stanthorpe, but spends most of her time with the guests who come and go from the self-contained, family-friendly villas that snake up the side of a huge granite hill.
We arrive at the bush idyll just on dusk after a leisurely three-hour drive from Brisbane. On the border between Queensland and NSW, the Granite Belt sits at an elevation of about 1000m above sea level and the landscape is dramatic and diverse, with Triassic granite formations emerging from thick forests, and strawberry fields, vineyards and apple orchards intersecting in a living, patchwork quilt.
The air smells clean and fresh as Bella, together with 31 The Rocks owners Scott and Debbie Bradburn, lead us to our modern, two-bedroom villa.
Entry is via a large timber deck, with barbecue and outdoor dining setting, with glorious bushland views. Inside is a small kitchen and dining area, living room, bathroom and two bedrooms. It’s all so cosy and comfortable.
While Debbie, basket in hand, stocks the kitchen with fresh bread, milk and juice for breakfast the next morning, Scott explains how the pot belly stove works – easy as pie, even for us city dwellers. And given it’s chilly mid-May when we visit, and Stanthorpe is famous for its brittle winters, we cannot wait to get that fire crackling.
We get the stove well stoked before dinner at Varias Restaurant at the nearby Queensland College of Wine Tourism, where our cauliflower schnitzel with beetroot hommus and homemade porky sausages with apple and pear slaw are expertly made by the students, using local ingredients. Perfect on a chilly night.
My wintry sojourn is difficult to reconcile with the Granite Belt’s recent bushfire crisis, but thankfully only relatively small areas were affected, and the majority of the beautiful landscape around Stanthorpe and nearby Ballandean – home of the award-winning Ballandean Estate winery – was untouched.
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“We’re rising to the challenges of fire and drought and the best donation you can give us is to take a holiday – oh, and bring your friends too,” says Ann Bourke, Granite Belt Wine & Tourism president. “Now, more than ever, the Granite Belt is inviting you with open arms to explore and unearth some amazing experiences this springtime.”
One of the best ways to see the area is by Grazing the Granite Belt, a weekend event (the next one is Nov 9-10) that allows you to indulge in local wines and dozens of gourmet dishes. The ticket price of $125 buys you a book of food and wine vouchers to use at 10 cellar doors, and hop-on, hop-off buses ferry you between the vineyards.
The ticket includes a barbecue breakfast back at the Stanthorpe Visitor Information Centre – on picturesque Quart Pot Creek – on the Sunday morning, where you can chat with winemakers who cook breakfast and bring the wines you purchased the day before.
It’s a glorious outing – ideal for a girls’ trip – and on my visit the vines looked splendid dressed in their autumnal red and gold foliage.
We start with a sangiovese rose and morning coffee at Jester Hill Wines before heading to Ballandean Estate, founded by Queensland wine industry “father” Angelo Puglisi, where we sample and buy bottles of the 2017 Opera Block Shiraz and 2017 Malbec.
The winery’s The Barrelroom restaurant is serving up all manner of delicacies (including Nonna Mary’s tiramisu) – each dish paired with one of their drops – and we opt for the oyster Kilpatrick spring rolls with lime and soy dipping sauce.
Our visit is made all the more special when Robyn Puglisi-Henderson pulls up
a chair and fills us in on her family’s winemaking tradition which dates back to 1930 when Salvatore Cardillo, an Italian immigrant, brought his family to the region and planted table grapes.
Salvatore made wine from the fruit, which he sold locally. His son-in-law Alfio Puglisi then took up the baton before passing it to Robyn’s parents, Angelo and his wife Mary. The couple decided to make wine commercially, replanting their vineyard with wine grapes, and were the first, in 1970, to establish a cellar door on the Granite Belt.
Ballandean Estate is now one of the region’s leading wineries and it is Robyn and her sister Leeanne Puglisi-Gangemi who now manage the business.
With all the chatting we have missed the bus but, never mind, another one rolls along a few minutes later and we’re off to Balancing Rock Wines for steamed mussels in a cream and white wine reduction paired with the winery’s 2017 Joy Chardonnay.
Balancing Rock is owned by Brisbane-bred David and Lori Broadbent who fell in love with the Granite Belt after holidaying in the Stanthorpe district. The pair bought a vineyard and in 2016 established their Balancing Rock label, which takes its name from a huge granite structure which sits among the shiraz vines.
The couple’s wonderful cellar door, a quaint corrugated iron structure with tasting tables made from upcycled vintage doors, was named Best Small Cellar Door 2019 by Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine. The fine wines and heavenly setting make Balancing Rock a must-visit.
The lazy day continues with visits to Twisted Gum Wines for potato gnocchi with pulled mallow lamb and a 2015 Shiraz and, lastly, to Casley Mount Hutton Wines + Cafe for Stanthorpe apple pie cake with whipped cream and a 2016 Sweet White Muscadello.
It sounds like a packed day, but it’s not.
The pace is easygoing and we laugh a lot, and relish our lively chats with the passionate winemakers. There is even a singalong on the bus (at least I think there was; my memory is hazy) and we wind up back at the visitor centre feeling flushed and happy from a wonderful day in the vines. Any leftover wine vouchers can be used on the Sunday and, after our barbecue breakfast with the winemakers, we find ourselves at another iconic winery.
Whiskey Gully is set in historic Beverley Homestead overlooking the Severn Valley where owner John Arlidge – a larger than life character – performs for dinner guests on his impressive collection of guitars.
After that, there is time for a quick lunch at Jamworks Gourmet Foods, a top spot to experience a locally-grown produce menu and jam tastings, and we depart with gluten-free pasta, tomato relish and, of course, jams.
Driving home we are already plotting our return to Queensland’s own wine country, where a weekend is simply not long enough. We’ve barely scratched the surface.
The writer was a guest of Granite Belt Wine & Tourism
SAVE THE DATE
Spring Grazing the Granite Belt
Bus tour of vineyards with gourmet food and wine tastings at cellar doors, Nov 9-10, various locations. Book at granitebeltwinecountry.com.au
Granite Belt Art and Craft Trail
Artists-in-residence at cellar doors, open art studios and art workshops in various locations across the Granite Belt; Oct 19-20 and Oct 26-27.
Stanthorpe Apple and Grape Harvest Festival
Grape crushes, Italian long lunches, apple day and more features in this festival held every two years, Feb 28-Mar 8, 2020, various locations.
Australian Small Winemakers Show: Public Tasting
Savour four hours of tasting award-winning wines from across the Granite Belt as well as other regions of Australia and New Zealand, Oct 26, Stanthorpe Showgrounds.
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