“In 2017 I visited Pennyweight Winery and I said to my friends that a visit would show them great views across the plains towards the southwest of Beechworth and give them an opportunity to taste some premium stuff,” writes RICHARD CALVER. 

Beechworth is a town in northeast Victoria that has immense charm and, within its vicinity, around 30 producers of wine. 

The town and its surrounds range from 550 metres to 800 metres above sea level. It has a high number of sunshine hours but the elevation means grapes that like cooler climes thrive. 

We were staying in Rutherglen, which is flat and seemingly vast, where brown dominates and big bold reds are made, along with memorable fortifieds. 

But on the afternoon of the second day of this sojourn, we decided to drive to Beechworth to get another perspective on wine and wine making and to escape the smoke haze from a bushfire reduction burn that covered the Rutherglen area. 

In 2017 I had visited Pennyweight Winery and had enjoyed the peace and serenity of the garden surrounding the cellar door facilities and I said to my friends that a visit to this winery would show them great views across the plains towards the southwest of Beechworth and give them an opportunity to taste some premium stuff. 

Plus, the first time I went to this winery, I was setting off on the Beechworth to Bright bike ride and didn’t get to go through much of their list. Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted but I wanted to try again. 

There is a connection between Rutherglen and Pennyweight: it’s operated by the fourth and fifth generation of the Rutherglen’s Morris family. They weren’t in attendance on the day of our visit but the charming cellar door manager settled us at a table in the splendid garden. 

We had a view of trees that were displaying delightful red, russet and copper hues but, alas, we were not stoked that the air was also full of smoke from local burning off. And that sparked the thought of the question: what do you call a woman who puts her credit card statements straight into the fire? Bernadette.

There were three wines on taste, at no cost unlike the previous winery in Rutherglen we attended where a charge of $10 per head had been levied. We had failed to bring food and none was on offer so we tried the three wines but each would have been enhanced with food.

The first was a 2022 Pennyweight Beechworth Semillon Sauvignon Blanc that is $38 a bottle from the cellar door. There was not a lot on the nose, perhaps with the schnoz tainted by the surreal smoke, but the finish was surprisingly long and dry. It was a pleasant if unspectacular blend. 

The second was a real attention grabber, the 2022 Pennyweight Beechworth Gamay. This is a varietal that is notably grown in Beaujolais and is renowned for its light-body and full fruit flavour. 

Here, the aroma of strawberries was strong and this flavour came through on the palate but without any overpowering sweetness. This is a summer wine rather than an early autumn drink and it would go well with summer fruit and heady cheese. This taste sparked the appetite, which was already unruly. 

The third wine was a fortified: the Pennyweight Gold. The dominant grape is the Palomino, a grape used in Spain for the production of sherry (we can’t call it that any more – in Australia it’s now known as apera). 

This honeyed sweet wine had a luscious flavour that suited the day, the glorious garden and my otherwise jaded taste buds. I bought a bottle – $45. 

I was glad others were driving as we wended our way back to Rutherglen. After tasting on an empty stomach, it was like when the cartoonist died at home, details were sketchy.