Restaurants, Wineries & Breweries

Fowles Wine own and manage 360 acres of vines across two vineyards called Upton Run and Billi’s in the Strathbogie Ranges.

The rugged and beautiful Strathbogie Ranges are located an hour and a half drive northeast of Melbourne. It is here, in vineyards peppered with massive ancient granite boulders, at elevations between 430 and 550 metres above sea level that the vines from which we source Strathbogie fruit grow.

The soils in our family vineyards (Upton Run and Billi’s) are comprised of decomposed granite – interspersed with massive granite outcrops. Technically speaking, the soil is sandy clay loam overlying granite and Callabonna clay bedrock – the soils are remarkably even across our vineyards. Ancient, nutrient poor and free-draining, these soils are great for grapes because the vines put their energy into fruit development (its means of survival), rather than canopy.

The climate in the Strathbogie Ranges is cool with a January mean temperature of 19.5ºC. In fact, in winter it’s been known to snow! However, an almost constant wind whistles through the vines up here ensuring good air circulation in the grapes, reducing the risk of frost damage in early spring and mildew in summer. The location of the Strathbogie Ranges, north of Great Dividing range, means we experience strong diurnal weather patterns – warm days, cool nights. These conditions allow our fruit to gradually ripen over a longer period accumulating the right balance of sugars and acid whilst building intense flavour and colour. The lower rainfall (average annual rainfall is 700mm) and quick draining soils mean our vines have dry feet (vines don’t like their roots constantly soaked) and as a result produce low yielding, flavourful fruit.

The topography of our family vineyards is undulating meaning our vines experience different micro climates and sunlight exposure; all of which can affect the character of the fruit. So although our soils are even, the diversity of aspect and micro climate in our vineyard blocks allows us to pick across a spectrum of ripeness and flavour profiles to craft interesting blends.

Fowles Wine has a wide variety of plantings including: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Arneis, Vermentino, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese, Merlot, Shiraz, Mouvedre and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The style and character of Fowles Wine reflects our cool climate home. Our white wines have great fruit intensity, minerality and are light and fresh. Our red wines are highly perfumed, intensely coloured and powerful, yet restrained and elegant.

A quarter of a century on from planting its first block, Andrew Peace Wines remains a proud family business and one of the largest family owned wineries in Australia. What started as a weekend escape transformed into a family passion.

Through much toil of three Peace generations the ‘country retreat’ vineyard produced its first vintage in 1995 and a commercial winery was born. Every vintage since has accompanied another chapter of family life – celebrations, milestones and happy memories.

Andrew Peace remains the Winemaker today and invites you to enjoy the fruits of the family toil with the same joy they have had in creating it.

True Brew in a nut shell…

Step 1 – Pick your favourite beer from their list of over 200 beers (If you like corona, becks, Asahi, etc. they have recipes for all most every beer to choose from)!

Step 2 – They provide you with your recipe sheet, you then gather together the ingredients listed on your recipe sheet.

Step 3 – You then follow their beer brewing process sheet, adding the appropriate ingredients at the right stages into 1 of our 6 stainless steel brewing kettles.

Step 4 – Once you have brewed your beer, it’s over to them. They look after if for you as it ferments in their temperature controlled room for 2 weeks.

Step 5 – Once your 2 weeks are up you come back to bottle your beer and it’s ready to drink! Popular option is to get true brew to design a personalised label for you!

Happy drinking!

Welcome to Yea’s newest, hottest and most innovative Wine, Cider and Beer Centre. Visit Yea Winery Cidery & Brewery at this exciting destination in the heart of Yea. This NEW destination has been created for all those who love Wine, Craft Cider and Craft Beers. Based on their very successful Old Orchard Winery in Boronia, they have now created another great destination for their large existing customer base and a new destination for those who are visiting Yea and the surrounding areas. They are a division of The Old Orchard Winery – Boronia. The Old Orchard Winery has been operating for over 8 years and has an extremely loyal customer base who often pop in for a chit-chat, wine tasting and cellar door sales. David and Pat have now decided to extend this venture into the amazing picturesque town of Yea where customers can get the same level of service as our Knox destination but in the country!