When I came down to South Australia to visit the renovated Nepenthe cellar door, I was pretty sure I was pronouncing the wine label’s name wrong. When I left South Australia after a sunny afternoon spent sipping oaky chardonnay amid the venue’s rolling green hills, I was its biggest fan. It’s pronounced Ne-pen-thee, I would tell people at dinner parties in Sydney, swirling my glass saying, “Vineyards in Adelaide are just 30 minutes from the city”. And in the same breath: “I am never coordinating a minibus trip up to the Hunter Valley again”.

It’s no secret that South Australia’s wine scene is robust. The state’s terroir is well suited to producing big reds and punchy mineral whites. Many of the state’s big names – Shaw & Smith, Penfolds and Yalumba – are known globally, but Nepenthe’s interstate reputation flies under the radar.

The winemaker has raised the bar with its pinot noir and sauvignon blanc (which are both best-selling in SA), and is stepping things up once again with its architecturally elevated cellar door. Just outside the quaint town of Hahndorf and only a 30-minute drive from Adelaide City, the Nepenthe Cellar Door oozes charm and calm. I don’t know whether it’s the sight of cows grazing in a nearby paddock (the universal sign to shake off your city-slicker stresses) or the sight of vines stretching over the rolling hills, but Nepenthe’s cellar door feels restorative before you’ve even had your first sip.

“Nepenthe is about a sense of place, so if you want to know about the Adelaide Hills, that’s what we’re about,” cellar door manager Ashlee Hood tells Broadsheet. “We don’t source our grapes from anywhere else, it’s all handcrafted, premium, award-winning. It’s got a cult following because we lean into the nuances of our own region.”

The space was designed by Black Rabbit architects. The renovation was important to the brand because, Hood says, “We think of Nepenthe as a benchmark for the Adelaide Hills and we wanted the cellar door to reflect that”.

There are four distinct areas within the building. There’s the gallery with its floor-to-ceiling windows. “You can enjoy views of the Hills and the Mount Lofty Ranges,” says Hood. “We call it the gallery because the views are our art, so to speak. Everyone says their views are the best but ours really are.” There’s also the deck looking out to the pinot gris vines; the semi-circular barrel room lined with used burgundy barrels with an indoor-outdoor feel; and the VIP apex tasting room.

The same sustainability that’s “long been a focus” in Nepenthe’s vineyards is echoed in every element of its cellar door. This includes the Biocrete (carbon negative concrete) floor, locally sourced materials like wood from “a sawmill up the road”, limestone from the Limestone Coast, and bioethanol fireplaces.

Tastings are $15 to $45 per person and are fully redeemable on any purchases. “We pride ourselves on doing customised tastings so we can make sure we’re giving people what they actually want to drink and not just pouring what we want to pour,” says Hood. “And I think that’s another thing that sets us apart from some of the other cellar doors: we’re not just designed to churn through tastings, we want people to be able to linger and have a good time. We want people to make memories rather than just taste wine.”

Visitors are also welcome to just stop in for a glass of wine and soak up the view. Nepenthe also has cellar-door-exclusive drops including lesser-known varietals like gewurztraminer, gruner veltliner, mencia, albarino and tempranillo.

Nepenthe Cellar Door
93 Jones Road, Balhannah
(08) 8398 8899

Hours:
Daily 10am–5pm

www.nepenthe.com.au/
@nepenthewines