Savina Lane Wines in Stanthorpe, Queensland | Winery/Vineyard

Savina Lane Wines

Locality: Stanthorpe, Queensland

Phone: +61 7 4683 5377

Address: 90 Savina Lane 4380 Stanthorpe, QLD, Australia

Website: http://www.savinalanewines.com.au

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24.01.2022 Our "Not Australia Day Picnic" was a blast with more than 80 Inner Circle members and their friends joining us for a complimentary glass of our gorgeous, just released, 2016 Old Vine Shiraz. There were only 240 bottles of this beautiful wine made and after Saturday not a great deal remains. But we thought it would be lovely to share it with members to celebrate the five years that have whizzed by since we opened our cellar door. Some members brought picnics, others munched on meat pies, quiches and lamingtons cooked by a local baker especially for us. The view from the terrace of the now-green vineyard was a balm to the eyes after the dusty browns of the past months. With our lovely 2016 reds now all released, we have decided to open again, but by appointment only this year, except for May when we will take a break.

24.01.2022 Have been enjoying the gorgeous frosty mornings, although today is grey and gloomy. Brad has the log fire going in the cellar door and I can hear people laughing while they taste some of our 'Strange' wines. So busy in the cellar door as welcome visitors return to the Granite Belt. Open by appointment only now. The new Wine Encounter programs are being warmly received as we don't do standard wine tastings anymore. Enjoying the new paradigm as we have time to spend with each guest.

23.01.2022 Sincere thanks to all our well-wishers following our Trophy win last Wednesday night at the Queensland Wine Awards. The Fiano 2016 will be released next year. We were thrilled to receive another Champion trophy for our 2016 Fiano - the 2015 was Champion Queensland White Wine at the Australian Small Winemakers' Show last year, and now the 2016 is also a trophy winner. Special thanks to Mel & Doug and Gin & Steve - Inner Circle members who were there to share the night with us. Brad hobbled around on his crutches and left me to step up to the dais to collect the trophy. It now has a proud place in the cellar door.

23.01.2022 Another gold medal last night for our Fiano 2016 at the Australian Small Winemakers' Show! Due for release in March 2018 if not before. The Sold Out sign is up again as we now have only a small reserve left for our Inner Circle. Members please check your emails for details of our 'Chill Out with us' day here at Savina Lane on November 25. We welcomed the Alfa Romeo Car Club from Brisbane a couple of weeks ago. Here is a lovely shot of a few of those beautiful cars lined up in front of the vineyard.

22.01.2022 Brad had a tasting of our 2019 Petit Manseng yesterday with Mark Ravenscroft. It is coming along wonderfully well. Heading off in a couple of days for a study tour in the Abruzzo wine region of Italy where they grow Montepulciano (our 2017 vintage is ageing in the cellar). We will be away seven weeks - back by June 22 when the cellar door will reopen. Our wonderful group of friends (all Inner Circle members), arrive today to look after the place for us and care for Sooty the ...cat. Any Inner Circle members who wish to visit during our absence to pick up their wine etc, will be welcome to do so. Although our friends can't do wine tastings, they can open up for Inner Circle members so picnics on the terrace overlooking the vineyard are possible. Just send us an email or call 07 4683 5258 between 6-9pm in the evening if you are an Inner Circle member and wish to visit. We remain closed to all other visitors until June. Cheers Cheryl See more

21.01.2022 Can't believe it, but we have sold out of wine stocks a whole month earlier than expected, so our cellar door is now closed until next winter. Of course we have set aside reserves of our premium wines for our Inner Circle members, who are welcome to visit by appointment any time we are around the ridges at Savina Lane. We had so many really lovely people visit us this year and thank them all for making the journey.

20.01.2022 Not Savina Lane's new Wine Dog. Our daughter brought her new pup with her when she came over to toast the end of harvest with us. Being a French Bulldog he obviously has a nose for a good French vintage Champagne, but of course as he is under-age (at eight weeks), we did not permit a tasting! Brad was happy to wash out a sea of picking buckets after what has been a gruelling year thus far. So glad the fruit is picked and in the winery.We are down to 30% of the usual yield. But there are always things to be grateful for. I am floating about looking at the beautiful seasonal changes here as not only are the vines beginning their turn to reds and golds, but our dozens of deciduous trees are doing likewise. What a shame you can't be here to share it with us. Soon. Hopefully. Soon.

20.01.2022 We are so grateful to still have our home and vineyard when so many have lost theirs, but my heart still breaks at the death of so many of our beautiful trees. One by one the Italian Stone Pines are dying. Yesterday I had a nasty shock when I saw the old Japanese Maple that towers over ' Jeff''s Bridge', the little stone bridge built by Brad and our friend Jeff Ruigrok a few years ago. The Maple had turned brown and I thought it too was dying. Brad went out to look and return...ed with a grin and a 'want some good news?' I did and he said it was sunburned, not dying. The sun was so hot it had scorched the outer leaves. He gave it a big drink anyway. A heartfelt thank you to Inner Circle members Mel & Doug Reid who have been donating water from their little dam across the road from us, to help keep the trees alive. What is left in our own 'puddle' is strictly for the grapevines. See more

19.01.2022 Calling leaf-pluckers for next Saturday December 1. Inner Circle members and their friends who would like to help us out by plucking some vine leaves next Saturday, please contact me on 0419 723 755. It is an early start - 7am, so if getting out of bed early isn't an issue, please register asap. There are still 10 places available. Your reward will be morning tea plus lunch-time wine and a gourmet pizza cooked by Brad in the new wood-fired pizza oven, just completed. Jeff and Brad will be on hand to show you what to do. No experience necessary. This image of me plucking leaves (my favourite job in the vineyard), was taken last season. Cheers Cheryl

17.01.2022 Up at 5.30am to see the lunar eclipse from the deck at Savina Lane. It was worth the early start. Also had an early start during the week to capture the beauty of a Granite Belt frosty morning. Pruning is about to start. More early mornings!

17.01.2022 Thanks all for the good wishes. Vintage almost over but the Montepulciano is struggling to ripen. Keeping the squadrons of birds off it is a nightmare. The gas cannon in the image only helps for a few hours at a time. Tiny yields this year but lovely flavours. Dam slowly filling up. My bird sanctuary island is finally surrounded by water. Mayhem in the vineyard last night. Bird feathers scattered about and Brad had to cut out a large dead Red Bellied Black snake sadly caught in the nets. Gave me a fright as I walked through the row. It was probably trying to get at the bird I released this morning from that row of vines. Stay well and stay home. We are still delivering wine..

16.01.2022 Vintage 2018 is over! What a relief. We managed to bring in some outstanding fruit this season, although yields are slightly down on last year. At last I can stop worrying about the weather! Here are family and friends picking the Graciano early this morning.

15.01.2022 Thank you to all who visited us in 2018. We met so many lovely people in the cellar door this year and many of those have now become members of our Inner Circle. Brad has now put up the Sold Out sign for 2018. We'll reopen with new releases around mid June 2019, but of course our Inner Circle members are welcome to pop in throughout the year by appointment. The summer is a beautiful time to visit Savina Lane. Now of course, the anxiety and stress really starts as we watch the sky for the signs of a hailstorm. There is so much to do in the vineyard too now, so until harvest, around March next year, it will be all work and little play for us. Then we can take a holiday!

14.01.2022 Happy New Year to all friends of Savina Lane. Hope it brings you many happy adventures. We've been starting at 5.30 am every morning plucking that tempestuous tempranillo in an ongoing battle to keep those girls disease-free. This long, dry, hot spell is not helping. Brad has finally put away his walking-stick but is still hobbling - a couple of hours is his limit. Here are some images of the ornamental vines on the entrance pergola. So many of our Inner Circle friends visit only during winter and the vines look like a bunch of sticks by then. Here is also a picture of our new 'blades of death' - the new hedger attached to the tractor. I can now give up driving the ute up and down the rows while Brad uses a deadly hand-held hedger from the back of a moving vehicle! So very much safer.

13.01.2022 Vicious storm last night has monstered our beautiful Fiano, broken canes full of embryonic fruit broken off. Looks like another difficult vintage coming up.

11.01.2022 It is five years today since we threw open the doors to our cellar door. Heartfelt thanks to all our Inner Circle friends who have encouraged and supported us through these years and who inspired us to carry on despite lost crops due to hail, smoke from bush-fires and drought. We can't tell you how much we appreciate you. Although we can't be together today you are all on notice for Easter 2021 to celebrate another milestone with us - our tenth vintage. Here's a toast to you!

04.01.2022 Gorgeous Autumn morning here at Savina Lane. 6C in the vineyard. Did the 3.5km walk around our boundary this morning and couldn't resist taking this shot of the dam looking tranquil. Not a breath of wind. Lots of ducklings and their parents about. Seems a strange time for producing infants. Looks like the Montepulciano will be harvested next week if the birds leave us anything at all to pick!

03.01.2022 Drama in the vines! Last night as we were taking off the bird netting for a 6.30am start today, the tractor tyre blew out. If it wasn't for the kindness and professionalism of Derek of Granite Belt Tyre Service who came out after he'd finished work for the day and put a new tube in for us, there was no way we would have been ready for the pickers this morning. Thank you Derek so very much. Had our favourite gang back today to pick the Tempranillo - our 7th vintage and first one to be harvested. From left, Paul, Warwick, Brad (of course), Pat, Antoinette, Ian, Shirley and Hans. The two little people in the back row are our grandkiddywinkies, Layne and Ro, who got up very early to help.

02.01.2022 Well, we're back. The cellar door has reopened and we will be here to welcome visitors every Saturday and Sunday 10am to 4pm until we close again on Sunday September 1st. The study part of the trip to Italy and France to look at how the Montepulciano d'Abruzzo grape variety is grown and processed was rewarding. We learned a lot. Also tasted dozens of lovely wines in Provence, spending time in the wineries talking to producers and in the vineyards with the growers. We then too...k a real break and caught up with our French friends (two of them, Henriette and Jean-Jacques pictured here with Brad), who roped us into a black glass tasting of French wines where we had to identify the type of wine (white, rose or red), the variety and the regional name. A pretty hard call as the French mostly do not identify the variety and have lots of blends. We were pretty pleased to receive a higher score than our two French friends, although more by guesswork than real knowledge of the French Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC). See more

02.01.2022 Harvested the Petit Manseng and the Montepulciano this morning. Mixed feelings. This has been a horror vintage with drought and bushfires causing worries about smoke taint. Can't wait to bring in the last block, the Graciano, hopefully next week. Our sincere thanks to our wonderful team of local people who help us so much. The pickers this morning included Leonie & Bill, vignerons themselves from Gilmore Estate, Paul & Pat, Shirley & Warwick, Ian, Horace, Ailsa, Hans, Antoine...tte & Tanja and our own stalwarts, Jeff & Tabitha, who were supposed to start their grand outback adventure yesterday, but Brad and I stuck pins in voodoo dolls to keep them here an extra day to help. They leave tomorrow and we will miss them. Also our lovely new neighbours Helen and Darrel came over and we were also joined by our friend Tony from Loughmore House who seemed to enjoy his first experience picking grapes. Brad cooked fresh muffins and I was the tea lady. Cheers to all the friends of Savina Lane who have sent their good wishes. Looking forward to a long break from April 26. Cellar door reopens June 22. Cheryl. See more

02.01.2022 Saving Savina Lane. Thank you to all the rural fire crews who turned up last night to fight a fire that threatened our cottage and, if they hadn't got here, probably would have wiped out the cellar door as well if it had got into the Stone Pines along the entrance. Brad was going it alone after a desperate call from a neighbour to say he had lost control of a burn off he was doing on his paddocks. I threw a few precious things into a bag and got the car out of there as the fire approached our fence line. The sense of relief when I saw those beautiful fire trucks with their flashing lights heading up our drive cannot be described. There were five or six fire trucks from all corners of our small rural community, including a crew from Stanthorpe township. We cannot thank them enough.

01.01.2022 We are so grateful to the wonderful group of Inner Circle members who volunteered to pluck leaves in the vineyard last Saturday. They were not only fast, they were extremely good at the task and plucked many more rows than we thought possible in the time available. The team started at 6am and Brad almost had to drag them out of the vineyard at midday. Thank you too to our daughter Lorien and grand-daughter Layne (aged 10), who arrived at 7am to cook fresh scones and muffins f...or the plucking team's morning tea. Lorien & Layne stayed on to clean up and help Brad with the pizza and wine lunch that everyone enjoyed after the long l, hot morning's work. Layne also quietly washed and dried all the wine glasses afterwards. Thanks also to all our Inner Circle members and friends for the words of hope and good wishes for some rain and a good vintage in 2020. Happy Christmas and a bright and beautiful New Year to all. Brad & Cheryl See more