Winery Design
There are two vineyards which are visited which is the Murchison vineyard and the Tahbilk vineyard. Both vineyards were situated along the river bank of Goulburn River. However, compared to the Murchison winery, Tahbilk is more commercialised. This can be seen as the machinery for Tahbilk is much more advance and larger. Besides that, Tahbilk has a spacious cellar to ferment, age and store wines. At the first stop, which is the Murchison wine, Longleat vineyard. Longleat vineyard is planted on the west bank of the Goulburn River and it is 2 kilometres far from Murchison. This vineyard grows Shiraz and Carbenet Sauvignon grapes for quality red wines and Semillon and Riesling grapes for tantalizing white wines on the forty acre land. Besides that, there are twenty two acres of land are currently vine with room to extend plantings to around thirty one acres. It also grows other varietal of grapes which includesPetit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. Their oldest vines are Shiraz, which are twenty seven year old and the Carbenet Sauvignon, Semillon and Riesling vines are from the early 80’s. All the grapes were handpicked to assure high quality. Furthermore, the root structure of the vines can be protected by handpicking.
There is a small warehouse store which is where the wines were stored. Besides that, wines are fermented and matured in the small warehouse store too. This can be seen as there are stainless steel tanks for fermenting wines and wines were placed in oak barrels for maturation. Compared to the Tahbilk winery, the Tahbilk cellar is larger. The place where Murchison store its wine is more towards a small warehouse store which are insulated. The cellar door for Murchison is situated among the vines. It provides a peaceful and relaxing place for wine and cheese tasting under the vine covered pergola. The cellar door also has a casual café which specialised in cheese platters too. Visitors can alsotaste their cheese and wine for free at the pergola.
The second and last stop is the Tahbilk winery which is also situated along the river bank of Goulburn River. The vineyard planted a varietal of grapes which includes the rare Rhone Valley whites of Marsanne, Viognier and Roussanne and Rhone Reds which includes Shiraz Grenache and Mourvedre. There are also many other traditional varietals found in the vineyard which includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Verdelho, Tempranillo and Savagnin.
The estate is located at the region of Nagambie Lakes. Nagambie Lakes was formally recognised as a unique sub-region within central Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. There were two main factors for the Nagambie Lakes to be recognised as a unique sub-region. One of the factor is the region of the Nagambie Lakes is the only Australian wine region where the meso-climate is dramatically influenced by inland water mass. Only one of six worldwide has that type of climate. The climate at the Goulburn River has a cooler and more moderate temperature than expected as there were many lakes and lagoons linked. The other factor is the unique soil type. The soil type contains high content of ferric-oxide which puts a positive effect on the grape quality and provides a certain regional character for the wine.
Firstly, the cellar door is the place where visitors had their wine tasting and purchase wines. The walls of the cellar door were built using hand-made bricks and mud-stone. The supporting beams and pillars were cut from red-gum and iron-bark growing on the property. The original wooden shingles still can be seen. At the southern end, to the left, is the red fermenting cellar which houses two historic grape presses, along with Polish oak fermenting vats which were first used in year of 1862. After entering the cellar door from the main door, on the left
