Rutherglen

Rutherglen has been making wine since the 1850s and holds a group of family wineries, several run by the same families for five or six generations, that produce Australia's most distinctive wine style: fortified muscat and topaque, made from grapes left to raisin on the vine and then aged in barrel for years or decades through hot summers, producing wines of extraordinary concentration graded from Rutherglen through Classic and Grand to Rare. The district also makes robust durif and shiraz. Cellar doors are close together and mostly small, the rail trail links them by bicycle, and the Winery Walkabout each June and Tastes of Rutherglen in March are the main events.

What you actually see

• The fortified cellars - barrel halls holding wines aged for decades.
• The old family wineries - producers run by the same families for generations.
• The rail trail - a flat cycling route linking cellar doors.
• The Murray Valley landscape - flat vineyard country near the river.

When to go

March to May and September to November for comfortable weather; summer regularly exceeds thirty-five degrees, which is what makes the fortified style but is hard on visitors. Festival weekends in March and June fill accommodation.

Honest expectations

Summer heat is severe and cellar doors are spread across open country. Fortified wine is a specific taste and a full day of it is heavy going. Accommodation in the town is limited, and many cellar doors close by 5pm.

Nearby

Beechworth lies south; the Murray River and Corowa are just north.