Granite Belt winery left dry with no wine

Twisted Gum’s cellar door is set to reopen after it was forced to close last year due to a serious shortage of many of their most popular drops.

Drought, COVID and tourism were all contributing factors that drove the owners of Twisted Gum to temporarily close their popular cellar door. Picture: Twisted Gum

Twisted Gum was forced to close for an extended period during the past year after being unable to meet the demand for their popular wines.

Drought, COVID and tourism all contributed to a decision by owners Tim and Michelle Coelli to close their cellar door at the end of last August.

Twisted Gum owners Michelle Coelli and Tim Coelli decided to close their cellar door in August last year.

The couple is now looking forward to reopening their cellar door and welcoming back customers next week.

“We had our highest sales ever last year after COVID restrictions eased, where we sold out of every last bottle of white and pink wines,” Mr Coelli said.

“Cellar doors are an important part of Granite Belt tourism, and we just knew we wouldn’t be providing an authentic experience if we only sold red wines.”

Twisted Gum harvest their own grapes and make and bottle the wines themselves specialising in classic dry reds and whites and sweet pink moscato.

Mr Coelli said if it weren’t for the production of red wines, which have to mature for three years, he would have been left completely dry.

“We probably wouldn’t have survived without them,” he said.

Twisted Gum harvests its own grapes and makes and bottles its wines, specialising in classic dry reds and whites and sweet pink moscato.

Mr Coelli said he was grateful for the ongoing support of local bottle shops.

“When our cellar door closed, three bottle shops in Stanthorpe were able to stock our red wines,” he said.

“Having people be able to buy our red wines locally has been phenomenal.”

Co-owner Tim Coelli said it has been a tough few years for all Granite Belt vineyards due to the droughts.

Mr Coelli said it had been a tough few years for all Granite Belt vineyards, due to the droughts.

“We are quite pleased as we only lost a handful of badly affected plants,” he said.

“We use a lot of mulch and minimal irrigation, which seemed to contribute to our vineyard surviving better than others in the region.”

The Coellis were also thankful they didn’t have to lay off any staff.

“Because we do 99 per cent of the work ourselves, we were lucky we didn’t have to let go of anyone during this difficult period,” he said.

Twisted Gum will reopen Saturday May 29 (Pictured: co-owner Michelle Coelli doing a wine tasting).

After a successful grape harvesting season during February, March and April of this year, Twisted Gum’s cellar door will reopen on Saturday, May 29.

“We are bottling white wines on Friday and pink wines on Monday in preparation for our reopening,” Mr Coelli said.