South Australia (Southeast Region)
Coonawarra Wine Region
With most wineries located on a 90km stretch of highway between Penola and Padthaway, this is one of the easiest wine areas “to do” and it’s low key and pretty. The region is renowned for the quality of its reds, which have been compared to those of Bordeaux; they account for about eighty percent of production, with Cabernet Sauvignon being the favourite variety, lauded each October at the Cabernet Celebration. The soil and drainage is ideal, classic Terra Rossa over limestone, and the climate is perfect – and as the weather is not really variable from year to year, the wines are consistently good.
There isn’t much to what is called COONAWARRA TOWNSHIP, a settlement which developed to house and service the adjacent Wynns Coonawarra Estate, but it does make a good base if you’re touring local vineyards. Cottage accommodation here includes Skinner Cottage (tel 08/8736 3304; $61–74), a quaint tin-roofed bungalow just around the corner from the old Coonawarra school, now Nibs Bistro and Grill (tel 08/8736 3006; licensed and BYO; bookings on Sat night recommended), which is a fun place to eat – choose from a display of marinated meats and grill them yourself.

Coonawarra wineries
There are twenty Coonawarra wineries that do tastings, most open Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–4pm. A few favourites arranged in directional order as if you are driving along the Riddoch Highway from Penola towards Coonawarra Township include Hollick Wines, in a tiny restored 1870s slab wood and stone cottage; Balnaves, with its innovative award winning architecture; Leconfield, with very well-regarded Cabernet Sauvignons and, unusually, a female wine maker; and Zema Estate, a small family-run winery with Italian roots and an old-fashioned hands-on process. 

Wynns Coonawarra Estate, west of the Riddoch Highway on Memorial Drive at Coonawarra Township, is the Coonawarra’s longest established (1896) and most well-known winery, with wines exported worldwide. Its stone gabled building, with vineyards stretching out in front, is just as depicted on all its wine labels.

Continuing back on the Riddoch Highway towards Padthaway, Brands Coonawarra are an old family of wine makers who notably make a sell-out Shiraz from the original vineyard planted in 1896, while the down-to-earth Redman family of Redman have also been making wine for generations, but only red, focusing exclusively on three varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. 

Beyond Redman, the modern winery complex of Rymill, attractively located on Clayfield Road, west of the Riddoch Highway, includes a glass-walled tasting area overlooking the winery, and platforms upstairs for viewing the testing lab.

There’s no public transport to the area, but you can go on a tour from Mount Gambier with Coonawarra Grape Escape (10am Tues, Thurs & Sun during school holidays; $50; 6hr; tel 08/8724 9978).

For more regional information on the Coonawarra Wine Region, go to: