Queensland’s Granite Belt Uncorked – Explorations: Boutique Wines, Strange Birds and Cool-Climate Precision

If Ballandean Estate gave me the historical and emotional anchor of the Granite Belt, the region’s Strange Birds concept became my compass for exploring what came next. These emerging and alternative varieties — grapes that make up less than 1% of Australia’s total plantings — are a playful but meaningful expression of the region’s experimental spirit. Yet what struck me during my visit is that this appetite for innovation sits comfortably alongside a strong foundation in the classic international varieties. The Granite Belt produces impressive Chardonnay, Shiraz (or Syrah, as many here prefer), Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon — and, to my surprise, even Pinot Noir thrives in pockets of its high‑altitude, cool‑climate terrain. With this balance of tradition and exploration in mind, I set out to visit four more producers, each offering their own interpretation of what the Granite Belt can be. Together, they reveal a region that honours its past while confidently shaping its future.

1. Tobin Wines — Vineyard Truth and Unadorned Expression

Leaving Ballandean Estate, my next stop revealed a very different side of the Granite Belt: Tobin Wines, a small, quietly focused operation where the tasting counter sits inside the working winery itself. Visiting just before harvest, the space carried that poised stillness — tanks polished, equipment ready, the vineyard doing its final work before fruit arrives.

What strikes you immediately is how little separation there is between visitor, place, and process. You stand among the tools, but the message here isn’t about the machinery or the winemaker’s signature. Tobin Wines is built on the belief that great wines are made in the vineyard, and everything in the winery exists simply to preserve what the season has already written.

The intimacy of the space reinforces that philosophy: no theatrics, no embellishment, just a quiet confidence in the purity and character of the fruit. The tasting becomes an exploration of vineyard expression — clarity, restraint, and an unwavering respect for the land that shapes each bottle.

The Tobin cellar door main customer tasting areas is right inside the winery

My arrival was sadly not long after the passing of founder Adrian Tobin who articulated his philosophy of wine as “undeniably old world…all of the work happens out there in the vineyard”.  I was greeted warmly at the door and after a quick look around the winery with Ian Dopson the Operations Manager, embarked on a generously wide-ranging tasting of the wines. They were all good, but here are a few that stood out for me:

Maisie Verdelho 2025 Unfined, minimal filtration

Pale lemon-straw in the glass with gentle aromas of pineapple, melon, honey and almonds with a mineral edge. On the palate rich yet fresh with a restrained entry, fruity middle and a fresh mineral edged finish. Classy.

Lily Chardonnay 2024. Barrel fermented unfined, minimal filtration.

Light lemon in the glass with distinct peach and butterscotch aromas. On the palate ripe stone fruit and citrus peel, a hint of spice and creamy mouthfeel, the finish is crisp and tinged with toasty vanilla oak, this will reward aging.

Jacob Tempranillo Crianza 2024. Crianza in style i.e. aging in oak 12 months

Bright ruby in the glass with a distinct cassis and cherry cola nose touched with some brown spice. On the palate poised between richness and freshness, dark berry fruits edged with liquorice and clove spice, finishing dry with good length.

Tasting places right in the barrel room area of the winery at Tobin

Max Block One Shiraz 2024

Ruby purple in the glass with aromas of blackberry, pepper and olive tapenade. On the medium-bodied palate, blackberry and blueberry fruit are edged with gentle spice, the tannins are fine grained with a gentle grip, the bright acidity is beautifully balanced, an elegant easy to drink style.

Max Block Three Shiraz 2024

Made only in great years from 65-year-old vines. Dark ruby in the glass with red-fruit aromas laced with Chinese five spice. On the palate, red berry and plum fruit flavours, medium-bodied with soft slightly drying tannins, some cedary oak and a long finish. Quite a contrast to the Block One, needs some time.

Max Block One and Three Shiraz bottles here frame a shot of the old basket press

Leaving Tobin, with its quiet pre‑harvest focus and stripped‑back intimacy, I found myself curious about how other small producers express the Granite Belt’s personality. Just a short drive away, that curiosity led me to one of the region’s tiniest operations — a place where scale, charm, and individuality take on a completely different shape.

2. Pyramids Road Wines — Small, Personal, and Full of Character

If Tobin feels like stepping into a winemaker’s workshop, Pyramids Road feels like being welcomed into someone’s home. The tasting room sits upstairs, perched above the tiny winery below, giving you the sense of being both guest and observer. It’s one of the smallest operations in the region, and that scale brings a warmth and personality that’s impossible to manufacture. Here, the Granite Belt’s boutique spirit is distilled into its purest form — hands‑on, unhurried, and deeply personal.

The Pyramids Road cellar door and to the left the stairs that descend to the winery

One of my enduring joys is the mutual support and encouragement that thrives between different producers within a region. Pyramids Road was already on my itinerary but it was encouraging to hear a recommendation from Tobin before I left. And then the friendly rivalry that accompanies that mutual support as Warren Smith at Pyramids Road shared his Chardonnays while mentioning his wry comment to Ian at Tobin about their “second-best”.

On arrival I immediately descended the stairs from the cellar door to the winery below where I was afforded a barrel tasting of Chardonnay with Warren, founder and winemaker. I did notice the acid addition – as a very slightly hard-edged acidity on the finish which doubtless will have resolved by bottling. Tartaric acid is a common addition in warmer years, that stabilises pH, increases microbial security, sharpens structure and restores balance when grapes are physiologically ripe but chemically soft. Even distinctly cooler climates such as Tasmania or Germany face vintages where acidification is a necessary response when natural acidity is no longer guaranteed.

I was interested when Warren mentioned that he used some citric as well and took the opportunity to further discuss this with him post visit to deepen my understanding as I was aware addition of citric can be considered a little “riskier”. This is because lactic bacteria can metabolise it into diacetyl and it can also add a slightly lemonade flavour to the wines. However, the additions Warren used were tiny and just before the wine was due to be bottled, so while still noticeable to me at that stage, the combination of low addition levels and timing reduces any actual risk to negligible. With a bit of time in bottle for everything to come back into balance, the tartaric addition can be expected to subtly firm the mid-palate and length while the citric lifts the citrus notes and provide a bit more “snap”.

The wine was the 2025 Chardonnay – the finished product oak aged (20% new) and 50% malolactic conversion. Light lemon in the glass it had fragrant peach and lemon curd aromas, in the mouth lovely bright peach fruit a tangy acidity (see above) but the oak balance was impeccable.

Warren was a warm and affable host and something of a raconteur as well. It was truly a delight to engage so personally with the founder and winemaker of this boutique estate focussed on production of small volumes of handmade wine. I was intrigued to see this great little innovation – a wine pump mounted on an old lawnmower chassis, providing easy manoeuvrability and keeping the hoses raised and off the floor – the kind of cost-effective pragmatism a Kiwi would call the No. 8 wire approach.

Warren treated me to a generously comprehensive tasting of 14 wines, all enjoyable but sadly space only allows me to select some personal highlights.

2024 Barrel Ferment Chardonnay.

Fruit sourced from two distinct regional vineyards, aged for 9 months in French oak (30% new) and 70% malolactic conversion. Quite a rich and traditionally styled Chardonnay. Lemon in the glass with peach, nectarine and lemon curd, toasty vanilla and faint brioche aromas. Full-bodied and creamy on the palate with stone fruit and citrus flavours lifted with vanilla and oak spice, nice length – the oak just a little prominent for my palate but this will appeal to many Chardonnay lovers, and I enjoyed it.

2025 Verdelho

An unwooded crisp easy drinking wine, light straw in the glass with citrus, pear and pineapple aromas.  Fresh and fruity on the palate with citrus and pineapple flavours medium length, would match simple seafood dishes but also an enjoyable aperitif.

2023 Merlot.

Picked in two passes a fortnight apart, from a long slow ripening season, matured 9 months in older barrels. Bright ruby in the glass with aromas of raspberries, red cherries and plums with slight mint edge. Medium bodied with soft tannins, good freshness and generous red fruit flavours, I thought this would make a perfect summer picnic or barbecue wine.

Winemaker, cellar door host, story-teller and winery MacGyver, Warren Smith!

2024 Shiraz.

10 months in seasoned French oak. Ruby purple in the glass with pronounced aromas of black and blue fruits tinged with pepper and clove spice. On the palate medium-bodied with silky tannins, succulent sweet Doris plum and blackberry fruit flavours tinged with spice, impeccable acid balance and a long finish that cries another glass please!

2023 Bernies Blend.

An unusual Rhone meets Bordeaux field blend of Mourvedre, Shiraz and Merlot with 10% of the Mourvedre added as whole bunches in the bottom of the fermenter. Ruby purple in the glass with rich ripe dark fruity aromas and some brown spice. The entry on the palate is rich, plush and weighty but the mid palate tightens nicely and there is a savoury edge on the long finish with some dried herbs and soft umami.

After the close‑knit warmth of Pyramid Hill, I was ready to see the Granite Belt from a broader vantage point. The next morning, heading north toward Stanthorpe, the landscape opened up — and so did the scale of my next stop. Heritage Estate offered a striking contrast: a winery where history, ambition, and sheer varietal range converge under one roof.

3. Heritage Estate — Where History Meets Ambition

The next morning took me north of Stanthorpe to Heritage Estate, a winery that feels like the Granite Belt’s other centre of gravity. The tasting room and restaurant blend rustic charm with a museum‑like sense of history — old tools, photographs, and artefacts that trace the region’s agricultural past. Step through to the winery, though, and the contrast is striking: a modern facility anchored by an impressive row of amphorae and a winemaking program that spans an extraordinary 20 varieties. Heritage is a reminder that the Granite Belt is both old and new, rooted and restless, traditional and boldly experimental.

It wasn’t however the restaurant and tasting room that formed first impressions, but rather the immaculate rows of Cottonvale vines, first planted from 1987, stretching up the road beyond, gracefully headed by rose bushes in full bloom. It was a lovely sight which sadly my phone camera lens captured poorly. Since 2009, Heritage has also managed the Winewood vineyard in Ballandean, which includes 65-year-old Shiraz vines.

Cottonwood vine rows beautifully headed by rose bushes in full bloom

Entering the cellar door and restaurant, which felt like walking into a wine bottle lined museum period room, I was warmly greeted by Therese Fenwick, one of the owners who showed me through the colonial artefact-rich cellar door and restaurant part of the building, originally built as an apple store in the 1940s, and the second oldest cellar door building on the Granite Belt. It soon became clear to me that Heritage Wines was not just a producer of an eye wateringly wide range of excellent wines, but a wine-tourism destination offering an appealing variety of gastronomy, tour and accommodation experiences. I must return to explore those offerings, but I was here today for the wine alone.

Centre stage in the main cellar door section is this enormous rosewood and leather table which once served as the oval “roundtable” for Queensland’s early Parliamentary cabinet in the 1860s. In the top left is an old player piano

Shortly we were joined by Therese’s husband and co-owner Robert, who was kind enough to give me a tour of the winery downstairs and the cellar. Two surprises awaited me in the expected collection of stainless-steel tanks, oak barrels and pneumatic press: First, another modern standalone Italian bottling plant. Second an impressive row of amphorae.

“Humpty Dumpty and his whole family”, an impressive row of modern amphorae and an immediate insight to the breadth of winemaking methods

Robert gave me an excellent introduction to the winemaking approach, the extensive range, particularly of “Strange Birds” and the relentless innovation branching from the heritage taproot. It was a delight to meet, albeit briefly, new winemaker Gillian Heathcote, an impressive young Stellenbosch University graduate with a Masters from Bordeaux, described on the website as “deeply accomplished and endlessly experimental…known for her work with amphora, fume barrel ferment…” I was eager to get to the tasting.  

Heritage also has an impressive commitment to sustainability utilising the full range of traditional methods such as minimal chemicals, interrow ploughing, rainwater harvesting, post recycling and composting alongside more recent innovations such as solar power for all energy consumption, wildlife control through lasers, drones and fences, lightweight bottles and brown packaging.  

With the time available and respect for the owners it was not appropriate to taste through the entire range, but I tasted at least ten wines, made notes on eight and here recount some of the wines that made an impression (all were competent and a number exciting!)

Fiano 2025

Pale straw in the glass with a gentle fragrance of mandarin, ginger, apple, and a crushed stone mineral edge . Generously sweet fruited on the near medium bodied palate, yet dry with good freshness, drive and length, some spice lingering.

Left. Owner Robert Fenwick, Winemaker Gillian Heathcote and Vineyard Manager Rob Mandavy

Right. Co-owner Therese Fenwick

Wild and Cold Marsanne 2023

An unusual expression of Marsanne, notable for undergoing a spontaneous ferment at an extremely low 4 degrees C. Pale straw in the glass with distinct herbal, white floral and grapefruit pith aromas. Light-bodied with lean acidity, pronounced citrus flavours and a notable salinity that could almost have you imagining Assyrtiko! Devoid of almost any Marsanne typicity except for the phenolic edge, nonetheless a really interesting and enjoyable wine but not for long aging.   

Sagrantino 2021

A definite “Strange Bird” encounter, this Umbrian grape is known as the most tannic of all varieties and is also characterised by high acidity. It was traditionally made in Umbria in the Passito style but increasingly dry expressions have become dominant. Dark ruby in the glass with dark cherry, violet and nutmeg aromas. On the full-bodied and surprisingly juicy palate are dark cherry, blackberry and bitter chocolate flavours edged with brown spice, the tannins are firm and prominent but not excessive, the acid nicely balanced, good length with a tannic grip that lifts rather than dries.

The cellar door counter where I tasted the wines

Nero d’Avola 2025

From the Sicilian grape once described by Peter Vinding -Diers in ‘Viking in the Vineyard” as “the horror which never seems to ripen and then only to give coarse primitive wines”. Despite that caustic view I’ve enjoyed more than a few Sicilian wines from this grape but perhaps the Heritage example, while not terrible, warns of the challenges. Ruby in the glass with sour cherry, licorice and smoke. Light-bodied with red fruit flavours but slightly bitter and smoky soft tannins, this is eminently quaffable but lacks the herbal grip and darker fruit I know from the best Sicilian exemplars.  

Reserve Old Vine Shiraz 2022

From 65-year-old Shiraz vines on the Ballandean vineyard, ruby purple in the glass with distinct aromas of ripe black and blue fruits, tinged with white pepper spice, a hint of cedar and some violet florals. The palate is medium-bodied with blackberry and blueberry fruit laced with olive tapenade and pepper spice, a touch of cedar and vanilla oak too, with a long clean mineral edged finish.

Leaving Heritage, with its museum‑like tasting room and astonishing breadth of varieties, I wanted to finish my journey with a sense of the region’s cutting edge. That meant heading back toward Ballandean — and upward. The road climbed, the air cooled, and the Granite Belt’s modern face came into view at the region’s highest‑elevation winery.

4. Symphony Hill — Altitude, Precision, and a Modern Edge

My final visit brought me back toward Ballandean, but higher — much higher. Symphony Hill, the highest‑elevation winery in the region, presents a completely different face of the Granite Belt: sleek, modern, and laser‑focused. The architecture, the cellar door experience, the winemaking philosophy — everything here feels intentional and contemporary. If Ballandean Estate embodies the region’s past and Heritage its breadth, Symphony Hill represents its future: cool‑climate precision, altitude‑driven elegance, and a confidence that comes from knowing exactly what it wants to be.

To settle any doubt about whether Queensland’s Granite Belt truly is a cool climate wine region (this was not however when I arrived)!

On arrival I was greeted by founder, owner and CEO Ewen at their modern, almost minimalist cellar door before embarking on a winery tour and generous tasting with son, Hamish. The winery is streamlined, modern, uncluttered and almost zen-like, with a state-of-the-art bottling plant, geometrically laid out stainless, perfectly stacked oak barrels and a minimalist modern collection of alternative fermentation vessels. These include a concrete egg/amphora, newish oak foudre and some Georgia-style earthenware qvevri, overlooked by a stunning piece of modern art and an eccentrically burlesque neon sign next to the upstairs laboratory. Our tasting was set up on barrels in this part of the winery.

Oversight of the winery operations

It was a thrill to meet accomplished South African winemaker Abraham de Klerk who has a 4 year degree in oenology and viticulture from Univ. of Stellenbosch and has worked vintages in Pomerol and St Emilion under famed French consultant Michel Rolland, as well as stints at Sassicaia, Weingut Knipser in Germany’s Pfalz and Weingut Gesellman in Bergunland, Austria. His winemaking approach is summarised as:

– Attention to detail
– Remain humble and respectful to the fruit
– Allow each vintage to express its unique characteristics
– Knowledge is the key to understand how to guide what has been given by nature
– Fully grasp the importance of each and every moment as a moment in time that will never be again
– To fully understand a single vineyard; takes a minimum of 10 years with that vineyard
– What we do in life echoes in eternity …

Me with “top gun” winemaker Abraham de Klerk, and the slightly “camp” neon sign outside the lab.

I was afforded a generous and comprehensive tasting of some very good wines, the following are just some that made an impression.

Reserve Verdelho 2024

Fermented partly in stainless, partly in oak and partly in amphora, pale lemon in the glass with distinct aromas of pineapple, melon, gold Kiwi and gingery spice. Almost a flavour explosion in the mouth, full-bodied, rich and generous ripe peach, dried apricot and pineapple flavours tinged with spice, a lovely slightly chewy waxy texture, nice freshness and excellent length.

Gewurztraminer 2025

I was aware of the reputation and record in Australia but prepared to be underwhelmed. “Gwizz” was my first food match when living in Thailand, I have visited Alsace three times and we have some great producers in NZ, sadly the best, Nick Nobilo’s Vinoptima no longer extant. But in that strange expression of my son’s generation, I have to admit this was the sh##! Pale lemon in the glass with gorgeously distinct but not cloying rose, lychee and jasmine aromas, tinged with oh so gentle ginger spice. On the palate textured, rich and quite dry, med-full bodied lush and long. Wow! Match with my Thai wife’s yam nua – thin sliced medium rare beef fillet on a bed of cos lettuce, red onion, fresh mint, coriander and sour cherry tomatoes with a dressing of naam bplaa (fish sauce) palm sugar, lime juice and birdseye chillis.

My host Hamish with cellar door champion Rebecca

Reserve Pinot Noir 2023

Another wine I approached “on the fence”, having heard doubt expressed by other Grantie Belt producers about the suitability of Pinot Noir to the terroir. Fermented mostly in French oak with 15-20% in amphora, ruby in the glass with bright red cherry fruit aromas, some rose florals and a hint of vanilla. On the medium-bodied palate soft silky tannins, bright cherry and raspberry fruit, slight touch of sous bois, moderate length, very competent if not overly complex.

Amphora Pinot Noir 2024

Entirely fermented and aged in amphora, light ruby in the glass with distinct red cherry, plum and violet aromas. The medium bodied palate has a lovely mouth-filling intensity with red cherry and sous bois flavours, elegantly poised soft tannins perfectly balanced with fresh acidity, the complex and layered finish is long and satisfying. A very smart Pinot Noir proving compelling evidence that the variety can succeed here.

Amphora Shiraz 2021.

If the 25 Gewurztraminer blew my socks off this exploded them into space! Deep ruby purple in the glass with distinct black and blue berry and black pepper spice aromas and a wee hint of ox blood. On the rich and intense palate, again those black and blue berry fruits with some Doris plum, a sprinkle of cracked pepper, fine chalky tannins and a finish that leaves lingering milk chocolate and iodine flavours. It’d be great with any meat but I’d be happy to sit outside on a balmy day with a glass of this and just contemplate the meaning of life.