Detour 15 minutes up and over the eastern ridge of the Clare Valley and down into Mintaro. Settled in 1848, this heritage-listed town (pronounced Min-tair-oh) is a real time-traveller: the well-preserved old stone cottages here, most of which feature slabs of local Mintaro slate in one form or another, look like they’ve been lifted straight out of Country Life magazine.
Aside from the pub, the town’s food-and-drink mainstay is Reillys, an endearing stone cellar door that’s as well-loved for its restaurant as its wines. Plucked from four old-vine vineyards around Watervale and Leasingham, most of Reillys grapes are dry grown (irrigated only by rain) – smaller fruits that are chock-full of flavour, not water.
Reillys wines follow suit: fulsome semillon, grenache, shiraz, riesling (and others) that don’t skimp on intensity. Sip some at the tasting counter, order a gourmet platter, or book a seat for an indulgent long lunch, featuring and as much that can be sourced from Reillys’ back garden as possible. If you’d rather not move too far afterwards, Reillys also have a few heritage B&Bs out the back.
