Located close to the township of Childers, Vintner’s Secret Winery is a place to enjoy the beautiful gardens as much as the wine tasting.
As with many places we visit, the brown signs led us to the driveway, while we were staying at Childers for a few days. Arriving in the parking area we immediately found things to draw our attention.
An old van sits behind a wooden picket fence with little stools and table sits beside it under the shade of a tree. On a closer look, it is an art piece called “Reading Between the Vines”, but Mark Terry and Emma Blee. Books are painted on the side with classic titles such as Price and Prejudice, The Hobbit, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
An old Bedford truck sits under another tree nearby which brought the attention of the kids to look over it for a while.
As we ventured in further, we found there are several art installations scattered around the property. We entered expecting to taste some wines, buy a bottle or two, and move on. Instead, we spent much of our time looking around and enjoying the features at Vintner’s Secret Winery.
There are a few animals around with the most engaging for the kids (and the adults) was the pig who loves macadamia nuts. Luckily for the pig there is a macadamia nut tree next to it and kids happy to collect and provide them. The sound of the crunch in the strong jaws of the pig gave for repeated supply of nuts.
As distracted as we were with the gardens and art works around the Vintner’s Secret Winery, we didn’t forget to have a taste or two of the wines. The grapes are grown on the property and bottled offsite, then sold from the cellar door.
There are red and white varieties and a couple of fortified wines. We left with bottles of the sparkling Verdelho and a bottle of a fortified white wine to enjoy back at camp.
Vintner’s Secret Winery was one of two wineries we visited at Childers on this trip. The other was Hill of Promise Winery on the Bruce Highway before entering Childers coming from Brisbane.