Wine travel: Finding Strange Birds in Granite Belt Wine Country

One of the things wine lovers love to do is try something new, something different, something unique. It seems like we’re on an endless quest to find the holy grail of wine. We know we’ll never find that one perfect wine, but the journey is really what we’re after. We want to have unique, exclusive experiences. We want to discover something special we can share with our friends. We want to get beyond the juice and bottle up the culture, the place, and the people into the wine.

With that mindset, I love what I found in the Granite Belt Wine Country in Queensland, Australia, which I visited with a group of writers attending the Wine Media Conference in Australia this year.

The Granite Belt is a relatively small wine region in Australia and is under the radar and under appreciated in many ways. As an often overlooked region, producers there have embraced what they call Strange Birds — which are wine varieties so rare they represent less than 1% of total vines nationally in all of Australia. In other words, Granite Belt wine producers have embraced taking chances, being unique, experimenting and providing alternative choices.

While many other wine regions around the world focus primarily on one or two signature grapes for their region, the non-signature has become the signature of the Granite Belt. This is a dream come true for curious, adventurous wine lovers, like me, who crave something different.

Those who know me, know I’m a bit unique. I pride myself in being an independent thinker. I don’t like following the crowd. I despise homogeneity. I’m a bit of a punk rocker. Creativity, originality, experimentalism, curiosity, going against the grain and being the underdog are all things I cherish. As such, the Strange Birds movement and the Granite Belt wine region are inspiring to me.

Strange Birds are not necessarily rare grape varieties in an international sense, but they are rare in Australia. Wines like Alvarinho, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Malbec and Tempranillo are varieties you may be familiar with, but won’t find common in Australia. There are also some adventurous producers, like Ballandean Estate, making more unique and rare wine varieties, such as Saperavi — a variety I’ve never seen outside the country of Georgia, until this trip.

The Granite Belt is a high altitude, cool climate region. This comes as a surprise to some, as the Granite Belt is within Queensland, which is generally a hot place. Think of Queensland like the Texas of Australia, with a bit of Florida on the coast. But as you head inland from Brisbane and cross the Great Dividing Range, the elevation creates cooler conditions. As a wine lover, I’m generally drawn to high altitude and cool climate regions as I’ve found they tend to produce more elegant and more interesting wines. Many white wine varieties thrive best in these conditions and even red wine varieties, like shiraz/syrah, come to life in a more lean and elegant style when produced from cool climate vineyards.

Strange Birds are the future

While there is an edgy, experimental aspect to the Strange Birds concept, there’s also a pragmatic aspect — global warming. Although the Granite Belt is a “cool climate” region, they are feeling the effects of climate change. There are more extremes to the weather than in the past. The sun is becoming more harsh, weather patterns are changing and droughts are a reality. Therefore, winemakers are experimenting with different grape varieties to figure out what will work well in these evolving conditions. For example, they’re looking for varieties with thicker skins on the grapes, which makes them better suited for the harsh sun.

You’ll hear some people refer to Strange Birds as “alternative” varieties, but given the pragmatic angle, others prefer to refer to Strange Birds as “emerging” varieties. In other words, while they may be Strange Birds now, they could become common varieties in the future.

I had a fascinating conversation with Mike Hayes, Director of Viticulture and Chief Winemaker at Sirromet as well as President of the Queensland Wine Industry Association, about this idea. He is a strong proponent for this experimental approach, not just to find varieties that will perform well in the evolving weather conditions but finding what appeals to the evolving tastes of consumers. He believes varieties from Italy and Georgia are particularly promising, such as Vermentino and varieties you’ve likely never heard of like Saperavi and Goruli Mtsvane.

Hayes believes so strongly in this vision for the future, he’s been a driving force behind a Vineyard of the Future project in the Granite Belt, where they have over 100 different grape varieties planted in order to figure out which perform best. The project is a collaboration between the Queensland Wine Industry Association, the Queensland College of Wine Tourism and Wine Australia. As a part of this initiative, Hayes and others are not only exploring varieties in the vineyards but also producing small batches of wine in order to see the potential of these varieties.

How you can taste the Strange Birds

Rare, unique wines are not always easy to find. You won’t find these wines at your local grocery store or even your neighborhood wine shop, unless you’re extremely lucky. In fact, the vast majority of the wine produced in the Granite Belt is sold at cellar door. So if you want to try these wines (which you should), you need to go to the cellar doors.

What the hell is a cellar door, you ask? That’s a term Aussie’s use for “tasting room.” So when an Aussie winemaker tells you to stop by their cellar door, she or he is not suggesting you go to the entrance of their basement. It’s a tasting room.

Going to the Granite Belt might seem challenging, particularly to those who haven’t even been to Australia, but it’s not as hard to get to as you might think. And it’s worth the effort, particularly if you can stay a few days in the region.

Stanthorpe, the largest city in the Granite Belt, is a good location to stay if you visit the region. It’s a 2.5 – 3 hour drive from Brisbane. If you don’t want to drive, you can get there by bus via Crisps Coaches. If you go by bus, be sure to make arrangements for local travel once you arrive. We used Filippo’s Tours to get around and they were wonderful. They have predefined tours you can do, or they can set up a custom tour of the area for you. There are also other local tour providers in Stanthorpe you can consider.

Where to visit

Your options are extensive with dozens of tasting rooms cellar doors in the region. Most of the producers here are small, independent producers — some with just a couple people doing everything themselves. Don’t expect massive, lavish wineries. Instead you’ll find quaint places with some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet.

I’m an advocate for not rushing through tastings but taking time to relax and experience the ambiance. Be sure to give yourself adequate time. I was able to visit ten producers in our two day visit, but that was a whirlwind.

While there are several I didn’t have a chance to taste, a few highlights from my experience were:

• Ballandean Estate Wines: Go here and try the Saperavi, as well as some of their other wines. And have lunch or dinner too as they have a lovely restaurant at their cellar door.
• Golden Grove Estate: Just across the street from Ballandean you’ll find a wide variety of well-made wines at Golden Grove. In fact, in 2019 they were named Queensland Winery of the Year, while their winemaker was named Winemaker of the Year and their viticulturist named Viticulturist of the Year. Try their sparkling Vermentino and their Tempranillo.
• Heritage Estate Wines: A 5-star winery in James Halliday’s Wine Companion, they have some amazing wines. I’d recommend their Pinot Gris, which was made with heavy skin contact and is incredibly aromatic. Their Verdelho is also quite perfumed and offers luscious tropical fruit flavors. And at their Cottonvale cellar door you can sit at the table that seated the Executive Council when Queen Victoria declared Queensland a colony in 1859.

• Hidden Creek Winery: They were named Queensland Winery of the Year in 2018. Their Verdelho is amazing. It’s wild fermented in barrel resulting in a complex, bright and delicious wine.
• Jester Hill: Owners Michael and Ann Bourke do everything themselves here. Try their sparkling Roussanne, which Michael told me he created when he was trying to create a still Roussanne and realized the acidity and sugar levels were better suited for a sparkling wine.
• Twisted Gum Wines: This is one of the smallest wineries in the Granite Belt and one of the most interesting to me. They dry farm their vines, meaning they don’t irrigate them. Instead they add organic material to the soil to help maintain moisture. Given the current drought in the region you would think they have no chance, but their vines looked stronger than most of the irrigated vines I saw in the region. Their wines were also beautiful.

That’s just a handful of the cellar doors in the Granite Belt. There is a Strange Bird map listing 31 different cellar doors throughout the region along with some of the Strange Bird wines available at each. It’s a handy tool for planning a visit.

As a side note, I previously mentioned Sirromet. I have heard they’re opening a cellar door in the Granite Belt, but their main cellar door is actually in Brisbane — so if you’re in Brisbane and want to taste some of these wines without traveling out to the Granite Belt, that’s an option. Sirromet makes about 40% of all the wine produced in Queensland, so they’re a big deal.

What else to do in the Granite Belt

In addition to wine, and of course food, the Granite Belt is a great place to get outdoors and see some nature.

We visited Girraween National Park, where you can see some amazing granite boulders, surrealistically balanced in place. There’s plenty of hiking there too. The picture at the top of this post is from the peak of The Pyramid, where you can hike up for some incredible views.

What about the drought and the bush fires?

The Granite Belt is in the midst of a 2+ year drought that has been difficult for the region and there have been some bush fires as a result. I’ve heard some people are reluctant to visit because of this, but they need you now more than ever.

Two years ago, I visited Napa and Sonoma in California shortly after devastating fires in that region. I discovered that while the wineries were open and most were minimally impacted by the fires, if directly impacted at all, tourism was down significantly. What I heard from them was, “tell people we’re open for business and tell them to come visit.” That’s the same thing I heard in the Granite Belt.

If you want to visit the Granite Belt but you’re reluctant due to the drought, call or email some of the cellar doors you’d like to visit and ask. I’ll bet they’ll encourage you to visit.

If you want to help the Granite Belt region while they deal with the drought, here are some suggestions from Christine Retschlag, one of my fellow writers who traveled there with me to the Granite Belt.

More about the Granite Belt 

To read more about the Granite Belt Wine Country, check out these posts from others who traveled there with me:

• Travel Bug Within: Where to find the love in the Granite Belt Region
• The Global Goddess: Bursting Back from the Brink
• Chinese Food & Wine Pairings: A Roadmap to Explore the Granite Belt Wine Country in 48 Hours
• Wine Media Conference: The Fascinating Granite Belt Wine Region in Australia

Disclosure: I visited the Granite Belt on an excursion related to the 2019 Wine Media Conference.