Lane Vineyard, Adelaide Hills: Why should I visit this Hahndorf winery?

The Lane Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, does wine tasting differently. This Hahndorf winery offers wine flights, degustation pairings and a blend your own wine experience.

Many Australian wineries opt for a rustic, olde worlde look. That’s very much not the case at the Lane Vineyard in the Adelaide Hills. Here, the look and feel is defiantly modern.

The Lane Vineyard, purpose-built for sustainability, has a roof covered in solar panels. Three kilometres from the German kitsch town of Hahndorf and a 25 minute drive from central Adelaide, this Adelaide Hills winery has a contemporary restaurant and tasting room.

Lane Vineyard tasting

The Lane Vineyard also offers some rather different wine tasting experiences. The determination to do things differently saw this Hahndorf winery named as the star cellar door in the Adelaide Hills by Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine in 2020.

At the simplest level, the tastings are wine flights. These wine flights cost between $10 and $20, depending on which wine ranges you choose. The Taste The Lane flight, for example, explores the core Lane range, from sparkling wines to Shiraz.

But you can also do specialist chardonnay tastings, with five different chardonnays. It’s a great way to explore the versatility of the grape. Some chardonnays have a creamy spice flavour, others are crisp and others oaky.

Something similar goes on with the cool climate shirazes that the Adelaide Hills wine region specialises in. The Lane Vineyard shiraz tasting session goes through five different styles.

Hahndorf winery experiences

Bookings for these tasting flights are essential, as they are for the Gathering experience.

Costing $60, the Gathering tasting is effectively a degustation-style mini meal. Flagship wines from the Heritage and Estate series pair up with the chef’s seasonal dishes.

The most unusual option at this Hahndorf winery, however, is the Blend Your Own experience. Costing $100 per person, this activity takes behind the scenes for a winemaking crash course. After being taken through the art of winemaking, you get to make your own blend, bottle it and take it home.

Other Adelaide Hills wineries worth a visit include Golding Wines in Lobethal and the Howard Vineyard in Nairne. You can also try spirits at the Applewood Distillery in Gumeracha. If beer’s more your thing, plump for the Hahndorf Inn, Uraidla Hotel or Mismatch Brewing at Lot 100

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