Australia is home to many fantastic wine regions. Travelling around the country you can hit up legendary areas such as the Barossa Valley, Yarra Valley, Margaret River, our personal favour Hunter Valley, and many more. From large-scale wineries to smaller boutique wineries, Australia has it all! But where do you find the best wines or the most unique flavour pallet? We personally love Australia's small-scale, often family-owned, boutique wineries.

These boutique wineries are dotted across the landscapes of all wine regions and might not be on the conventional tourist trail! In this article, we tell you 15 reasons why you should visit a boutique winery in Australia instead of visiting a commercial winery. We are spilling the tea on how to find these epic boutique wineries around the country and let you know what to pay attention to. Ready? Let's go!

How can you beat sunset in the Hunter Valley?

What is a boutique winery?

We love boutique wineries because they tend to have so much passion and love for the winemaking process. But what makes them so unique?

While there isn't a precise definition of what a boutique winery is, the wine industry considers a winery a boutique winery if they are producing less than 10,000 cases per year. That means that boutique wineries tend to be small, often family-run businesses that focus on a limited-production, high-quality and hand-crafted product. There is real respect in this industry for everything artisanal and this shines through in the delicious boutique wines in Australia.

A boutique winery will be working hard to develop a highly personalised product that is a true masterpiece from the second the first vine gets planted, often several generations back. It's important to remember that these winemakers will pour their heart and soul into harvesting the grape at the exact right time, tending to the vines all year round, making sure that the barrel-ageing is done to perfection and will often even be there to serve you their wine. They want their wine to shine and their customer to understand the craftsmanship that has gone into their fine product.

Read more about What to expect on a NSW wine tour: All your questions answered here

The Hunter Valley is filled with amazing views

15 Reasons to choose a boutique winery over a commercial winery

If you haven't figured it out, we adore small boutique wineries! While we applaud big wineries who are able to sell their wines into the big suppliers such as BWS and Liquorland, there are many benefits to choosing a small boutique winery over a big commercial winery.

1. The Atmosphere!

The boutique wineries are small, family-run companies that have a beautiful and welcoming atmosphere for all their guests. They tend to be located on beautiful properties and have people closely connected to the winemaking process serve you. They are generally super happy to see you in their cellar door and will share a wealth of knowledge while letting you taste their excellent product.

2. A High Level of Service

The hosts of a boutique winery are not in a rush to turn over as many tasters as possible as commercial wineries often do. They focus more on making sure clients really understand and enjoy their wines as they want you to go home with a few bottles that you really love.

3. Fewer Chemicals in the Wine

It might come as a surprise, but not all wine is just grapes and yeast. Some wines have chemicals that are added in the winemaking process to be able to produce bigger quantities and to preserve the wine for longer. As boutique wineries focus on smaller batches that get sold at the optimal consumption time for that specific wine, you will generally find fewer additives and chemicals in the boutique wines.

4. Unique Beautiful Tasting Palette

Boutique wineries are a true gem. From growing and picking the grapes to the actual winemaking process, they are on it! This tends to bring out unique flavour palettes in their wines that will be hard to find in commercial wineries.

5. Unique Tasting Experiences

The winemaker at a boutique winery puts a big focus on the customer. They genuinely want you to find the wine you love the most so you can bring it home and enjoy it. These smaller wineries tend to provide a more unique seated or standing tasting experience than the high-volume wineries. These tastings will often even take place in special tasting rooms. Some even have 200-year old wine presses in them, how cool is that!

A beautiful luxury seated tasting sessions at one of our favourite boutique wineries!

6. Minimal to no External Staff That Doesn't Know Their Wine

In boutique wineries, the chances of you being served by a member of the family, a close friends or the winemaker itself are high! The people serving you the wine will most likely have been involved in the winemaking process from beginning to end. They will know which year was the best for which grape and what wine to take home for that pasta dish you're trying out next week!

7. Many 5-star Halliday Rated Wines

The Halliday Wine Companion rates over 9000 Australian wines each year and awards them with a 5-star system to indicate the quality of the wine, the consistency over the years. Boutique wineries tend to shine in these awards and luckily for us, many of them are also located in the Hunter Valley! Perfect for a weekend wine tour!

8. Taste Other Artisan Products

The rich soil of the wine regions lends itself well to farming other products, resulting in fantastic products being made either on the property itself. This includes products such as cheeses, estate-grown olives, homemade condiments and sauces, made with family recipes passed down from generation to generation.

9. Cute Animal-Galore!

As boutique wineries are small, family-run businesses, the home of the family is often on the same property (compared to large venues that get closed every day as the staff goes home). This results in the chance for you to pet the family dog/cat or even a few farm animals such as sheep, goats, llamas, etc. And if you time your visit well, you might even get to hold a baby goat!

10. Special Relationships

Many people who find their favourite new wine at a boutique winery try to go back as much as possible. We've known of many beautiful friendships developing between the customers and the winemakers.

11. Longer Tasting Experiences & More Generous Servings of Wine

At a boutique winery, it is not all about making a profit. Sure, the winery has to be able to keep running. That's why we find it so important to buy a bottle when you book a wine tour with us! But as the emphasis is on the customer, their tastings tend to be a lot longer with more generous servings of wine! After all, the end goal is that you find the bottle of wine that you love!

12. A Larger Selection of Wines in the Tasting

Boutique wineries tend to be more generous with the number of wines they let you taste. Again, the emphasis is on making sure that you find your favourite bottle of wine! Expect to be tasting 8 to 10 different wines rather than the commercial standard of 4 to 6 wines.

13. No Big Groups

Because boutique wineries tend to be smaller properties, they value the tasting experience over having high volume tours come through. That's why it is much less likely to have loud hens parties come through.

If you want to visit a boutique winery with a larger group, these wineries tend to only work with trusted tour operators that have built a relationship with the winery over a long period. This is because they need to trust that the groups coming through will not upset the quiet and cosy atmosphere they treasure so much. Our winery tours tend to be one of the few group tours that focus on boutique wineries and that is only possible due to years of relationship building within the industry.

14. Personalised Tastings

Boutique wineries will want you to taste the wines that you will love. They will tailor each and every tasting to the individual client, meaning that you might taste 8 to 10 wines from a wine list with 20 wines and your friend can taste 8 to 10 completely different wines. Boutique wineries heavily rely on cellar door bottle sales to survive as this is their only source of income, therefore they usually put much more effort into making the tasting special so people go home with their ultimate favourite wine.

15. They Might Throw in Extra Wines That Aren’t On The Wine List

If you are genuinely interested in wine, boutique wineries often like to add a few wines to the tasting that aren't even on the wine list! You will be able to taste and buy bottles that the people before or after you would not have the chance to. Talk about special treatment

Relaxing in the vineyard with the vineyard dog, sounds like heaven to us!

How to find a boutique winery: What to look out for!

There are a few ways to find Australia's best boutique wineries! Remember, these businesses are often much smaller than commercial wineries and they tend to have very limited marketing budgets. So don't expect to see them in magazines or advertising.

Ask around! The best boutique wineries are often found through word-of-mouth. Ask friends that have visited the area what wines they loved. Also ask the wineries themselves whether they have any recommendation in the area.
Visit the Tourism Information Centre: The tourism information centres are often run by locals who know the area well. They can guide you into the direction of a few local secrets! Make sure to tell them that you want to focus on small boutique wineries and explore from there.
Browse Google Maps: We often use Google Maps to find new places. Just zoom in far enough so you can see the local area and have a look at each winery. The wineries often have a few photos on their page and will have reviews from people that have gone there before.

Artisan cheeses often accompany boutique wine tastings on our wine tours.

Do you need to book in advance at a boutique winery?

Boutique wineries often request guests to book an appointment in the cellar door. Booking in advance can easily be done by calling up each winery or by emailing in advance through their website. If you book a wine tour with us, this will all be done for you.

Please note that due to current COVID-19 regulations almost all wineries in NSW are requesting that you book beforehand.