By Jen Barwick
Coonawarra winemaker Sue Bell has created a new home for her Bellwether Wines label that beautifully reflects her style of winemaking.
The converted Glen Roy shearing shed is, like Sue’s wines, both comforting and complex, textured and intriguing and ultimately a lovely experience.
Located about seven kilometres from the Coonawarra township, along the Riddoch Highway, Sue and her business partner Andrew Rennie bought the six hectare property and an old stone shearing shed (which dates back to 1848) in early 2009.
Slowly, and with help and labour from family and friends, she’s shovelled the sheep poo out and moved in her wine press and barrels. The beautiful old wool table has been cleaned and covered with a glass top, perfect for tastings. The remaining sheep pens are now toy pens and the shearing wheels act as perfect hanging points for the colourful paper Sue uses to individually wrap each of her wines.
The colourful paper Sue uses to individually wrap each of her wines.
The shed is also home to a bone-warming wood fire, comfy leather lounges, a new kitchen, colourful collection of tea cosies and hand-knitted vegetables, teaspoon collection, pieces of local art and sculpture and of course boxes and barrels of maturing Bellwether Wines.
The outside toilet block has been given a ‘glamping-style’ makeover – beautiful white basins, large showers and a claw-toothed bath with a view. And that shovelled sheep poo has been put to good use, helping encourage a large vegetable garden that’s also home to more local metal and wood sculpture.
Sue has just opened stage two of her cellar door experience, the camping grounds. She’s hoping to entice visitors to linger a little longer at her cellar door by pitching camp and using Glen Roy as a base to get to know the Coonawarra and Limestone Coast region.
Sue moved full-time to the Coonawarra in 1999 as a young winemaker for Stonehaven Winery.
“I was at Stonehaven for nine years, we would get a lot of premium wines through the winery from Tasmania, Yarra Valley and from here in the Coonawarra. I got to participate in some great trials, use the best oak money could buy… it was good experience,” Sue said.
When Sue’s position at Stonehaven was made redundant in 2008, Sue decided to stay on in the Coonawarra and begin her own label, Bellwether Wines.
Her Stonehaven days helped Sue see the power of premium grapes from premium vineyards. It’s why today her own wines include a Tasmanian chardonnay and riesling, a Riverland nero d’Avola, a Heathcote Vermentino and, of course, a Coonawarra Cabernet.
“Over the years, I’ve developed an affinity for chardonnay and cabernet, but I also believe we have little choice but to embrace alternative varieties in inland Australia. They are just so good, so naturally suited to our climates and environment – and as a result their aromatics, texture and natural acids are outstanding,” she said.
Sue Bell’s Ant Series wine labels.
Sue says selecting grapes from the climates and environments they’re most suited to, means her wines have a natural acidity and texture that flourish with little need for winemaking influence. Her cellar door is also a working winery, with all her wines made on site.
However, rather uniquely for a regional cellar door, there’s not a vineyard at Glen Roy and there’s unlikely to be one.
“We’re too low lying here and the soil tends to be mostly dark clay, perfect for vegetables but not so great for grapevines,” she said.
“Like my wines, I want the experience of coming here to be a sincere experience too.
“That’s the true benefits of living and working in a region like this. Out here you get to speak with the winemakers, the families and locals who are the region… it’s a real experience that more than makes up for the fact we don’t have the city on our doorstep.”
For more details about coming events at Bellwether Wines Cellar Door go to their Facebook page here.