Five places you need to visit in the Granite Belt
You’ll find 50 wineries in this region about three hours from Brisbane. Enjoy a drop among the vines or hunt for truffles when they’re in season.
There are more than 50 wineries and cellar doors in this region three hours from Brisbane. You’ll also find truffles when they’re in season.
The Ginyard
The food bowl that is Queensland’s Granite Belt, about three hours’ drive from Brisbane, is home to dozens of passionate food and wine folk. People like Brisbane engineers Phil Gordge and partner Nicole Jackson, who were making moonshine during the pandemic on their hobby farm at Eukey, southwest of Stanthorpe, with zero expectations. “Then we thought, ‘this is starting to taste pretty good’,” says Phil. The experiment continued with local botanicals, including shiraz grapes, lavender and rosemary, and a new distillery was born. Though the lemon myrtle and pepper gin is The Ginyard’s bestseller, I preferred the sweetly seductive feijoa gin. Phil reckons they are the only producers making gin from feijoas. “They grow really well here … when we threw (them) in the still … it was just magic,” he adds. Enjoy tasting flights, G&Ts and wood-fired pizzas as you watch a herd of 30 alpacas roam the property. Want to stay overnight? Gin House, created from two stylishly renovated shipping containers, opened for stays earlier this year. Gin tasting flights $15. Open Saturdays during gin season (March to November).
View Wine
The Granite Belt’s elevation at 1000m above sea level makes it Queensland’s coolest location. Sometimes, it even snows. The region has more than 50 wineries and cellar doors, many showcasing “Strange Birds” such as fiano, viognier, nebbiolo and sangiovese. Growers define these as alternative or emerging varieties, representing less than 1 per cent of Australia’s vines. So, while there’s plenty of places to savour a tipple, it can be harder to find a spot offering food, too. Enter View Wine, which offers a food and wine tasting class. For 90 minutes, Stacey and Brad Allan lead us through a menu with matching wine – from alvarinho, which cuts through creamy pea risotto, to the stone fruit and floral notes of gros manseng, which enhances earthy sweet potato. Food and wine pairing classes on Thursdays, from $75; cellar door open Friday-Saturday, wine tastings $10.
Dear Vincent
I bite into the albondigas (Spanish meatballs) that have just arrived and sip on Dear Vincent’s 2023 cabernet durif. “It’s a really juicy style of cabernet,” says winery owner Adam Penberthy, who bought long-established St Judes Vineyard in 2021. He explains that this palate-pleasing blend had a bumpy start, thanks to a hailstorm that wiped out 70 per cent of that year’s fruit. Our ebullient host shrugs off such challenges as simply part of the territory. A nod to Saint Vincent, the patron saint of winemakers, Dear Vincent is one of the Granite Belt’s newest labels. It’s also one of the most irreverent and down to earth. At the cellar door, visitors can pull up a table inside a corrugated iron shed, dine among the vines, or indulge in a tasting off the back of Penberthy’s ute. An onsite food truck provides lunch from Thursday to Sunday. Wine tastings $10.
The Folly Truffles
Visitors can get hands-on during the Granite Belt harvests. Collect strawberries in the warmer months, and stomp grapes or pick apples as the temperature drops. When the first frost of winter descends, it’s time to hunt for truffles – fragrant fungus that grows among the roots of oak, acorn or hazelnut trees. At The Folly Truffles, a 680ha farm that grows French perigords, spend a morning with truffle dog, Barry, to unearth the black gold. Afterwards, retire to the onsite cottage for a tasting. Bite into a three-cheese toastie “made just a little bit bougie with truffle”, says host Maple Egerton, or try the cherry tomatoes doused in truffle oil, salt and hot sauce. Outside truffle season, enjoy a farm tour and tasting (from $45). Truffle hunts $175.
Quaffers
On rising early one chilly morning, I wander to the deck of my cabin at Quaffers to watch a lone rower cut across the surface of Storm King Dam, a popular fishing spot for those with a permit. Cattle nearby low as the rower glides through the mist. I draw a blanket more firmly around myself and retreat inside to the warmth of the fire (and the reverse-cycle airconditioning). Quaffers comprises seven fully self-contained cabins amid 12ha of bushland. This affords all cabins both privacy and water views. Unusually, they are more spacious and luxurious than they appear in brochures. The bathroom is stocked with Washpool products and equipped with a heat lamp, which facilitates a long soak in the tub. One-bedroom, self-contained cabin (sleeps two, includes breakfast) $370 a night, minimum two nights.
Denise Cullen was a guest of Granite Belt Wine & Tourism.
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