The story behind the cellar door

Gurney’s Cider

Gurneys Cider occupies a special place in Foster at the gateway to South Gippsland’s spectacular natural attractions. Located on a 70-acre farm, it overlooks incredible views of Wilsons Promontory and Corner Inlet and was voted best cidery in Australia in 2022. Family-owned and operated by the Gurnett’s, they’re a British family making it big in Victoria’s rolling hills. Gurneys makes and sells unique small-batch craft ciders from their orchard of 7,000 heritage cider apple trees. The new cellar was completed in 2022 and has been constructed using 208-tonne concrete panels repurposed from the closed Hazelwood Power Station. It’s created an experience like no other, where visitors are invited to descend through the cellar’s custom-made arches to experience the taste, sight and sound of the cider making process.

All Saints

All Saints Estate’s new cellar door is set within a heritage listed 1889 castle built by its original Scottish owners. Established in 1864 at Wahgunyah near Rutherglen in Victoria’s northeast, All Saints was one of Australia’s first wineries. The original Scottish owners settled in the area on the southern banks of the Murray River where they began growing vines on the 40-acre site. They built the All Saints castle which is designed to look like the Castle of Mey in Scotland. Today All Saints is owned by fourth-generation siblings Eliza, Angela and Nicholas Brown from the well-known Brown Brothers winemaking dynasty. Set within the heritage-listed castle, the newly renovated cellar door features a large wrap-around bar with three premium tasting experiences on offer.

Lancefield Brewery

Lancefield’s Lost Watering Hole Brewery can be found nestled in the Macedon Ranges, with nods to the history of the area. The brewery is close to one of Australia's major fossil deposits of extinct species including a Macropus Titan (giant kangaroo), Diprotodon (giant wombat) and Genyornis (giant flightless bird). Home to several megafauna fossils, Lancefield’s history is celebrated through its annual Extinct Megafauna Festival - it’s Jurassic Park meets beer paradise. 10 dedicated Lancefield locals got the project moving to make it become the venue it is today, and with fossil replicas embedded in the polished concrete floor, you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back in time. The megafauna themed beers including Big Roo Pale Ale and Swamp Rat Dark Lager add a nice touch for prehistory buffs.

Itinerant Spirits

A Ballarat born distillery is breathing new life into the historic bluestone walls of the Ballarat Goods Shed. Itinerant Spirits is expected to open later in 2023 with the capacity to produce more than a million bottles of gin, vodka and whisky each year.

The Ballarat Goods Shed is from Victoria’s goldrush era and is more than 160 years old. The blue-stone building was once used to store goods bound for export, a nod to the travelling theme in the distillery’s name. The name celebrates and acknowledges the former use of the building and the many itinerant workers who passed through Ballarat Train Station.

Oakdene Cellar Door

Oakdene is a boutique, family-owned vineyard producing small batch, cool climate wines on the Bellarine Peninsula, just 20 minutes from Geelong. The Oakdene ‘Upside Down House’ Cellar Door will catch your eye as you walk up the path, an example of the owner’s interest in art. It takes you on a unique and wondrous journey and is a great place to start a wine tasting voyage of the region. Enjoy a relaxed seated tasting experience inside the cellar door and create your own selection of premium wine samples to try from the range.

And there’s more to come. Oakdene is opening a cellar door, restaurant and gallery encompassing a private collection of First Nations artworks at a new location on the Bellarine in 2024.