A Guide To South Australia's Best Winery Experiences

South Australia’s wine regions cater to all tastes – from its robust shiraz to aromatic whites and experimental drops aged in buried amphorae.

Hundreds of wineries across the state make every imaginable type of wine, and cellar doors these days do far more than just sell the finished product. Visitors can find a growing range of unique experiences on offer alongside the wine: here are six of the best.

1. The Home Of Grange

Penfolds Magill Estate is more than just the spiritual home of Australia’s most famous wine. The original winery on the edge of the Adelaide foothills has a 175-year history, and it was there that pioneering chief winemaker Max Schubert began experimenting with a new red blend in the 1950s. Initially, the new red was so poorly received by critics and the public that Schubert was ordered to stop production. Instead, he continued to make Grange in secret, hiding several new vintages in the depths of the cellars until management saw the wine’s potential.

The Ultimate Penfolds Experience lets you tour the original working winery and famous bluestone cellars, including the otherwise unremarkable cupboard where Schubert hid his forbidden fruit. And most importantly, you can then retire to a private tasting room to sample a range of Penfolds’ super-premium wines, including the iconic Grange.

Penfolds is more than just the spiritual home of Australia’s most famous wine

2. A Surreal Degustation

The five-story d’Arenberg Cube is the most eye-catching building in McLaren Vale, and the views out over the lush Lofty Ranges and cliff-ringed beaches of the Fleurieu are worth the trip alone. Amazingly, what’s inside is even more memorable. Shockingly bright harlequin-covered chairs and lurid artworks are just a hint of what awaits in the Cube restaurant.

The chefs’ mission is to engage the imagination and challenge convention, and they succeed abundantly at their task. Fusing Heston-style molecular gastronomy with Lewis Carroll’s creativity, some of the offerings include “coals" of barramundi and vegemite, sherbet that’s sucked off a mirror through a rolled hundred dollar bill and 3D printed dishes. In comparison, the Dali exhibition being displayed on the grounds looks downright conventional. Whether you think it’s unfiltered madness or pure inspiration, it’s impossible to deny that the result is one of the most memorable meals in the country.

3. Tawny Time Capsules

If Chester Osborn at d’Arenberg is the wine world’s mad hatter, Warren Randall must surely be its master perfumier The olfactory wizard has created a sensory paradise at his Seppeltsfield complex in the heart of the Barossa.

The soothing scent of olive oil soap at Vasse Virgin is enhanced by hints of sandalwood and essential oils, while the kitchen at Fino Seppeltsfield is responsible for a range of tantalising aromas. But entering the Centennial Cellar is like ascending to a loftier plane. Walk into this magical space and you’re immediately be engulfed by a warm cloud of toffee and almonds. This is the angel’s share of barrels representing every vintage of tawny dating back to 1878, a collection that is unrivalled anywhere in the world. You can only enter on a guided tour and, fortunately, all of them include at least one tasting. Taste your birth year direct from the barrel, sample a 100-year-old tawny or embark on the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure with This Is Your Life , a selection of five vintages that can go back as far as 1902.

Seppeltsfield complex in the heart of the Barossa

4. Be A Winemaker For A Day

Plenty of wineries allow you to blend your own wine, but Coonawarra’s Raïdis Estate goes one step further and gives you control over every step of the process. Each vintage, a select few wine enthusiasts gather at the friendly-family winery and help to make that season’s Kefi. And they’re in charge of everything, from picking the grapes to deciding what kind of oak and fermentation method to use (with a little guidance from the winemakers).

The day begins with a strong Greek coffee before you head out to pluck grapes directly from the vine. After crushing the fruit, the hard work is done and you can indulge in an elaborate Greek feast accompanied by plenty of Raïdis back vintages. Then you can sit back and wait for updates on how the wine is progressing and, once it’s ready to be released, you’ll receive a bottle in the post so you can see just how well you did.

5. Learn From The Best

The Adelaide Hills is the land of the long lunch, and few are more satisfying than Shaw + Smith ’s. Perched above a beautiful lake near Balhannah, the cellar door is one of the most picturesque in the region, and the views from the vineyards are even better. After beginning the Friday Table experience with a walk through the vines, venture behind the scenes of the winery with a tour through the barrel halls and fermentation rooms as you learn the craft of winemaking and sample wines in various stages of maturation.

Retire to a private room for a guided tasting of some limited edition single site wines and sit down to a meal where each of the courses is paired with two vintages for side-by-side comparison. Shaw + Smith is the only winery in Australia that’s home to two Masters of Wine, and you can see if some of their expertise has rubbed off on you by finishing with a blind tasting opposite one of the winery’s top guns.

This cellar door is one of the most picturesque in the region

6. The Ultimate Cellar Door

You won’t find a more convenient vineyard than the one at the National Wine Centre of Australia , in the Adelaide CBD. Seven varieties are grown here, but they’re mostly for educational purposes and the 120 wines on offer in Australia’s largest tasting room represent all 65 wine regions around the country.

That means there’s something to suit every taste and budget on offer from the Enomatic dispensers (which represent a small selection from the 18,000-bottle cellar). If the choice is overwhelming and you need a little assistance, ask one of the centre’s sommeliers to take you on a tour followed by a master class that takes you to any wine region in the country.

Architectural facade of National Wine Centre of Australia

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock , one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915 . Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore , one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

A guide to South Australia’s best winery experiences