Four Winds Vineyard — Attraction in Murrumbateman

Four winds occupies a large corner block and the cellar door has a bar for tasting, as well as dining room and large outdoor dining space. It feels quite homely with the exposed brick and running fireplace. We arrive right on opening time and look forward to our first wine tasting. It was a rather odd experience, not sure if COVID had anything to do with this, but it just seemed a little off kilter. We were interested in a tasting but it didn’t seem that they were. It seemed as though they were more interested in their lunch service, than offering a wine tasting and we didn’t feel particularly welcome.

Four winds offer 35ml tastings for four whites for $15 or $20 for 4 reds. We did the mixed tasting for $18, which started at the bar then oddly moved to a table out of the way, citing COVID as a reason, without explaining any of the wines to us. Most tastings run you through the details of the wines and their tasting notes, as we experienced at all other wineries we visited (and didn’t have to pay for). At Four Winds, you are given their notes and left to your own devices, which is strange given that you pay.

The wine was enjoyable, the Chardonnay medium oak was quite nice and acidic with citric and floral flavours. The Sangiovese was unique and peppery, not in the usual way, with hints of peppermint and blueberries, a tasty wine. The 2018 shiraz also quite enjoyable it had an oily mouth feel and rich berry flovours. We also loved their sparkling wine which had lovely light sweet flavours and would go well with wine and cheese.

The winery also offers DIY cheese and charcuterie platters where you select your cheeses, crackers and meats and take your cheese platter to enjoy outside. They also do woodfired pizzas.

Unfortunately our group of 4 found this experience under par and we left without purchasing (despite enjoying their wines) as we couldn’t reward...

Nice place to be out for a little day out. Me, my partner and our friends went to the winery on Sunday for lunch. We had a good time at four winds vineyard. It was the first time for me visiting and it was pretty nice.

They don’t do wine testing due to all the covid situations which 100% makes sense. I bought the tasting paddle instead which is in the picture to try some wines.

They have wood fired pizzas you can order for lunch. I guess you need to order one pizzas for each person. The pizza size is not that big but price is reasonable. The pizzas were nice, I highly recommend BBQ chicken one! So good!

You need to book and have 90 minutes to sit for your reservation. Our 90 minutes went so quick!

Be careful buying a glass of any wine! They are used to selling wines only by the bottles due to the situation (just started back to sell wines by glasses). One of the bar staff charged me a bottle accidentally even though I said I just want a glass of shiraz. I thought she said $14 for a glass when I was paying I was thinking it’s bit too much for a glass. I usually check how much I pay when I tap to pay but for some reason I just tapped this time so quickly and realised that was $40 for a bottle of Shiraz!😭 She said sorry she forgot that they started to sell the wine by glass and she used to just do takeaway orders. Two of the bar staffs didn’t know how to do the refund. Another guy came to help them and he couldn’t make a refund and asked me to take the bottle of wine😂 I was bit embarrassed and didn’t know what to do. I decided to take the bottle and the guy gave me a glass of wine to drink at the winery.

At least I have the bottle of wine that I liked so it’s all good at the end. “But just make sure there are no refunds if you...

I had my second visit to Four WInds recently. On my visit there a couple of years ago the wine was not very good and the staff were more interested in selling you a pizza than showcasing their wines. I vowed to never go back. Their recent win of the Jimmy Watson Trophy made me think I should give them another try. Again the focus seemed to be on the Pizza but there was a definite increase in the wine emphasis and a marginal increase in staff knowledge of the wines. The Jimmy Watson wine is sold out and they have an earlier vintage that you can try. I tried a couple of their wines but they were served at the wrong temperature and at least one appeared to have been cooked. The wine maker who made the winning wine has left the employ of the winery so it will be interesting to see if they can maintain the lightning in a bottle success. I think they let him go because he wasn't a very good pizza chef. Having said all of that the setting is very pleasant as is the staff. If you're looking to have a pleasant lunch at a pizza bar that makes their own wine...