We’ve written a whole guide on all the best things to do in Mudgee, but let’s face it, most people are coming for the wine. We might not be wine experts, but we do know what makes a good visit to a winery and our list covers a diverse range of vineyards from the ones with the best views, to the most atmospheric cellar door, to the best for having a gourmet picnic.
This is our honest, no fuss guide to the wineries that you do not want to miss when visiting Mudgee.
-
1. Logan Wines
2. Pieter Van Gent
3. Lowes
4. Gilbert
5. Short Sheep
6. Robert Stein
7. Bunnamagoo
8. Moothi Estate
A note on tastings
If you haven’t been to any of the wine regions around Sydney lately, you’ll find that many of them now charge for tastings, which wasn’t the case a few years ago. Sometimes that fee is refunded on the purchase of a bottle, but not always.
You’ll also find that tastings can be quite lengthy affairs. We’d recommend allowing 45 minutes to one hour per tasting. Some may be quicker, but most aren’t. You’ll also need to book for some of the wineries, particularly if you’re visiting on a weekend.
The Best Mudgee Wineries
These are our favourite 8 vineyards in Mudgee and the ones we recommend visiting:
1. Logan Wines - the one with the incredible view
It’s always hard to pick a favourite when you’ve had great experiences at so many, but if you were to twist my arm, I’d tell you it’s Logan.
Before you’ve even tasted a drop you’ll be wowed by the absolutely incredible view, which is celebrated with floor to ceiling windows. The terrace is perfect for sunny days, or even winter ones as there is a fire to keep away the chill.
The tasting begins with a glass of sparkling, which just so happens to be the best we’ve tried in Mudgee. You can then choose between one of of four different tasting menus. If you are visiting with others you can opt for different ones, so you can try more, which is what we did.
I went for the adventure selection featuring fun wines made with experimental techniques and Joe went for the all reds option. The service was very friendly, as well as being informative and it’s all very leisurely.
The wines were great and they were also the most affordable on this list, without compromising on quality. The tasting was a slow and relaxed affair, so this may not be the place to come if you want to drop in, taste a wine, buy a bottle and shoot out!
Tastings at time of writing are $10 pp and that’s refundable on the purchase of a bottle, which means wines like the excellent Tempranillo, are just $10!
2. Pieter van Gent - the one with the most atmospheric cellar door
We have visited a lot of wineries around Australia, from the Hunter Valley and Orange, to the Yarra Valley and Adelaide Hills, and we’ve never come across a cellar door quite like the one at Pieter van Gent.
From the moment you walk in, it just has the wow factor.
You’ll walk through the low lit cask hall, surrounded on both sides with original wine barrels from the 1800’s, and the whole thing is incredibly atmospheric. It’s worth coming to visit for this experience alone.
You’ll taste six wines, which include several ports, one of which was a Portuguese inspired white port, a first for us.
We enjoyed the wines, including the Durif, which is referred to as being really polarising - I guess we like gutsy reds! You’ll also get a little bowl of nibbles, which always gets a thumbs up in our book!
Tastings are $5 per person, and that is not refunded on the purchase of a bottle.
3. Lowe Wines - the one for sensational picnics
We didn’t do the official tasting at Lowe Wines because once we saw the sensational grounds and learnt that you could have a picnic there, we chose that option instead.
There’s an array of blankets and cushions which you can help yourself to and then find your perfect secluded spot somewhere within the beautiful vineyard. It’s a special experience.
There is a selection of gourmet treats, as well as wine by the glass (starting at $8) for you to make up your perfect lunch. The sourdough bread was still warm from the oven, and there’s a variety of meat, cheese, dips, olives etc, as well as two dessert options.
The food comes from the award winning Zin House restaurant, which we’d wanted to try for ages, so it gave us a little taster! It’s definitely not cheap, but you are paying for the quality and also the surrounds.
We found the whole thing so relaxing that we ended up falling asleep on the blanket afterwards, which is probably testament to how chilled and welcoming the whole place is.
If you’d prefer to do the tasting, it’s $10 pp (which is not refunded on purchase of a bottle) and starts with a glass of sparkling, which I tried and can give the thumbs up to. If it’s good weather the tastings take place on the terrace which is a truly lovely spot.
4. The Cellar by Gilbert - the one with our fave wines
Gilbert Family Wines were a big hit with us and it’s probably tied with Logan as our favourite wines we tried in Mudgee. You can choose from two different tasting menus, so we did one each and tried 12 wines. There wasn’t one that I didn’t like, and there were many that I loved!
They have a couple of award winning rieslings which are the best I’ve ever tried, and we ended up taking a couple of bottles home (Mudgee seemed to have their effect on us, buying types of wine we wouldn’t normally). The reds were also incredible, particularly the reserves.
The service is very friendly, as well as informative, and the tasting room is lovely and airy with a very comfy feel about it. We didn’t indulge, but the platters of food coming out looked absolutely incredible and I wished we hadn’t just had lunch!
One thing to note is that this was the longest tasting we had, at around 1 hour 15! So don’t book another one in too soon afterwards.
Tastings are $10 per person, no matter if you choose the regular or reserve menu. It is refunded on the purchase of six or more bottles.
5. Short Sheep Winery - the one with the personal touch
If you like a good micro winery, where the person conducting the tasting is actually the winemaker too, then you have to pay the Short Sheep Winery a visit.
It’s a small tasting room, where you’ll sit around some barrels and taste a range of white and red wines, including a couple of reserves. It isn’t as manicured or fancy as the other wineries on this list, but it had an authentic charm. We never normally drink Chardonnay but this is a Chardonnay for non Chardonnay drinkers, and we have to say it had us convinced enough to buy a bottle!
You’ll get friendly, personalised service in a relaxed environment and the wine commentary is from the owner himself, so that’s a little different to any other cellar door we visited in Mudgee.
Many of the wines were excellent, there were a couple not quite to our taste, but that’s the beauty of trying a variety! We weren’t charged a tasting fee but we did buy some wine (I assume there isn’t a fee but I only mention it because I had read a review online beforehand saying there was a $5 pp fee).
Before you go, you can look out for the cute short sheep in the fields beside the winery, which keep the grass down, whilst being too short to eat the vines, genius!
6. Robert Stein Vineyard - the one with the best restaurant
On our first visit to Mudgee we went all out and had a wine paired dinner at the Pipeclay Pumphouse Restaurant at the Robert Stein Vineyard. If you’re looking to splurge on one special dinner, make it this one!
The setting is absolutely glorious, overlooking the lake and vineyard, where we were able to sit and watch kangaroos hopping amongst the vines at sunset!
Despite the fact that the food and restaurant is fine dining, the atmosphere and service is friendly and informal. They have a paddock to plate philosophy, with most of the food being grown on their farm, or very locally, and everything was fresh and delicious. You could choose to do the matching wine with all the courses, or just pick a couple of recommends if you didn’t want to drink as much.
All the wine was fantastic, particularly the whites.
If you’d rather do a regular tasting there are three different options starting at $10 per person, which is refunded if you purchase $100 worth of wine.
7. Bunnamagoo Wines - the one with huge open space
When we asked our friend who works in wine what her recommendation for a “must visit vineyard in Mudgee”, she said Bunnamagoo.
This one requires a bit more effort to get to as it’s on the road to Gulgong, but that also means that it feels more rural and remote than the others in Mudgee. It’s one of the bigger wineries in the area, with a gorgeous cellar door. The inside is nice, but the terrace overlooking the vines and small lake is especially lovely if the weather is in your favour. It’s also another spot you can have a picnic too!
The service is very laid back and friendly here, but we did hear a couple of people mention that they didn’t think it was attentive enough.
To be honest, for us, it’s quite nice sometimes to be left to your own devices a bit more, especially if you’re doing multiple tastings on one day! So from our point of view that really isn’t a negative, if it was unfriendly that would be different, but that’s definitely not the case.
The wines are excellent, and rarely for a big Mudgee winery nowadays the tastings are still free. You can usually try around six or seven, but if there are bottles open it could be more.
For us this was ideal, because if you’ve already done a few tastings you don’t have to try every one (if we’ve paid for a tasting we feel obliged to make the most of it!).
8. Moothi Estate - the one with the sunset view
So we had a bit of a fail with Moothi Estate because we’d read about sunset sipping, and I didn’t stop to think that in summer the winery would be closed before sunset!
We turned up in time for sundown to find the winery closed, but the lovely member of staff still there said we could watch the sunset from there anyway, which was much appreciated because it’s one gorgeous sunset view!
If you’re around in winter you’re going to be in for a treat, because the terrace is just stunning.
Whilst we haven’t tried the Moothi wines, we can tell you that the staff were friendly, the setting was divine and the wines are very well reviewed!
Tastings are $8 per person.
This post may contain affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, that we will earn a small commission if you click through and decide to make a purchase. This helps towards the costs of running our website. Thanks for your support.
