Owned by Judy and Glen Kelly, Artwine is a lover of ‘firsts’, and is currently the only cellar door in the Adelaide Hills to produce an estate-grown prosecco, and now an albariño. The Kelly family is passionate about new-emerging or alternative varieties, and their dedication to innovation has led Artwine to become an industry leader in the production of exceptional alternative varieties.

By planting the right varieties on the right vineyard, the winemakers minimise their agricultural footprint and produce exceptional fruit requiring minimal intervention and lower levels of irrigation. This in turn creates beautiful, fruit-expressive wine of purity and elegance.

Artwine’s beautiful cellar door is located on its Adelaide Hills vineyard. The light-filled cellar door is architecturally designed and offers captivating views of the vines, as well as stunning views across to Mount Lofty. An enclosed glass terrace flows onto the large lawn area, which overlooks the magnificent surroundings. In addition to wine-tasting flight experiences, the cellar door offers delicious local produce platters, and throughout the grounds, visitors can discover a striking selection of art and sculptures. Visitors may also receive a warm welcome from Coco and Billie, Artwine’s celebrated wine dogs.

With a total of twenty-one trophies awarded to the winery in the last few years, Artwine’s foray into the making of alternative varieties is an incredible achievement. In 2018 alone, the winery was awarded six trophies, two of which included wins in the Wine of Show category at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show for its gruner veltliner. Artwine also received Winestate Magazine’s Best White Alternative Variety of the Year for its fiano, and won The Bert Bear Memorial Perpetual Trophy for Best Other White Varietal at the 2019 Sydney Royal Wine Show.

The Kelly’s approach to winemaking is simple, they believe great wine is made in the vineyard, and that fruit requires minimal intervention to turn it into exceptional wine. “Our approach is to let the fruit do the talking,” Judy says. “We believe that fruit expression must be the driving force in our wines and that’s what we believe has led to our consumer and trophy success.” Continuing the stroke of innovation, there is a new wine to be released in late 2019 that the winemakers believe is a global first.