What the locals are loving: Eden Road Winery

Plan a weekend in the ACT and taste award-winning regional wines produced by a French winemaker with a passion for pinot.

It’s a short 30-minute drive from Canberra, but as you turn into the cool shade of the majestic tree-lined driveway to Eden Road, you’ll find yourself in another world. This award-winning label, situated in the gently undulating hills of Murrumbateman, offers a cellar door experience where you’ll discover a wide range of wines from muscular syrahs to famously minerally rieslings, and more recently, outstanding pinot noirs and even Italian varietals.

And while Murrumbateman is where you’ll enjoy tasting the wines, Eden Road actually includes a number of vineyards throughout the Canberra region and beyond, including Gundagai and Tumbarumba. It was back in 1972 that the first vines were planted and by the early 1980s, the wines were winning prestigious awards. Today, Eden Road is led by French-born Celine Rousseau. “I’m from Bordeaux and we are very much attached to the terroir,” she explains. She’s particularly excited about the pinot noirs and chardonnays she’s making from the Tumbarumba region. “Pinot noir doesn’t like warm weather. It has to be in a region that has a continental climate with a big difference between night and day temperatures,” she explains.

It’s an exciting expansion and Celine is also sourcing Italian varietals such as sangiovese. “The Italian varieties need more sun – they can handle very dry weather. I think that’s probably the future of Australia.” But she’s not ignoring the syrah and riesling vines that have made the Canberra region so famous. It’s those early vines, planted in what was once rolling sheep fields, that Celine is so proud to be evolving. “My focus as chief winemaker is to make outstanding riesling and shiraz as they’re the hero wines of our Canberra district.”