We can’t quite believe it but both our Fiano Classico 2013 and the Reserve Graciano 2012 have won Gold at the 2014 Australian Alternative Varieties Show in Mildura Victoria.

This is perhaps the most important Wine Show for alternative or emerging varieties, which we know as Strange Bird here on the Granite Belt. It attracts entries from big and small producers all over the country and several international judges are included on the judging panel. We are the only winery that grows Graciano in Queensland as far as we know. The variety has a long history in Spain where it is believed to be the ancestor of many of the wine grapes that now flourish throughout the Mediterranean

We had no expectation of winning a medal but entered a couple of our wines to benchmark them against Australia’s best non-mainstream wines.

And all this just a week or so after our gold and double trophy win at the Australian Small Winemakers’ Show for our Old Vine Shiraz, (Best Queensland Red Wine and Best Queensland Shiraz). It’s a wonderful beginning.

Our new cellar door and underground wine store, which was blasted from a small granite promontory overlooking the vineyard, is still on track to open around Easter 2015.