This busy highway stretch is a surprising spot for a vineyard, but the compact Mount Majura makes the most of their hillside block, specialising in cool climate chardonnay and shiraz, plus pinot gris, pinot noir, tempranillo and a few surprise varieties, like the French mondeuse, the Spanish graciano and the Portuguese Touriga. Get here in the early afternoon when winter sun streams into the glass-fronted tasting room that looks out onto the vines, and order a cheese plate – washed rind, ashed brie, fetta and walnuts – or a local tasting plate with beef and kangaroo prosciutto, semi-dried olives, chutney and a semi-hard Spanish cheese.
Now it’s wine time. They’ll kick things off with their dry, acidic Siluria sparkling that’ll cleanse your palate with crunchy apple and lime zest. Their chardonnay has soft peach on the nose but a clean freshness to the finish, not at all like the buttery oaky chardonnays you might be used to.
Their pinot noir smells like fresh strawberries cooked in liqueur but has a gentle, insistent earthy finish that stops you slamming down the bottle like a can of Solo, which you could easily do with something so light and fruity. But their star properties are their tempranillos and shirazes. They make tempranillo from three different blocks of vines to bring out the terroir flavours and you can buy them separately or blended into one red to rule them all.