Craiglee
Craiglee is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery — Campbell Mattinson's highest honour.
Sunbury.
9.5 hectares, near the Melbourne Airport, in the Sunbury region of Victoria. The Craiglee winery and estate is both the most unlikely of places for fine wine to grow – and, simultaneously, the most likely. This place, simply, grows great, spice-driven shiraz, and under-appreciated chardonnay.
The case.
“If you were to follow the breadcrumbs of the Australian wine story, through history and to now, at some point the trail would lead you straight to a bluestone building in Sunbury, where you’ll find Pat Carmody, working in the cold there, wood and stone, grape and skin. This, the Craiglee winery, is where the soil meets the soul. The wines here are excellent, the wines here are storied. You drink them and think: this here is the truth.” I wrote these words a couple of years ago and in many respects, this is all there is to be said of the great Craiglee winery. In fact 20-odd years ago I wrote these words: “Everything Pat Carmody does is an attempt to tease out the kind of qualities that the land produced a century ago. As Pat puts it, ‘I’ve always worked with the monkey on my back. Can I produce a wine that will live for 100 years?’” These words expand the picture both a little and a lot. Craiglee was established as a wine estate in 1976 following a horror night on what was then a sheep farm. It’s most famous for its cool-climate shiraz, which drinks well both young and with age. The same, just quietly, can be said of Craiglee’s elegant Chardonnay.
The wines that carry the case.
Craiglee Shiraz 2022 (Sunbury). Winefront.
Craiglee Reserve Shiraz 2018 (Sunbury). Winefront.
Craiglee Chardonnay 2024 (Sunbury). Winefront
See more [In the lee of the Craig: The story of the Craiglee winery]
Craiglee is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery – the highest honour awarded by Australian wine critic Campbell Mattinson. 10-Star status recognises one thing: the quality of the wine in the glass, every glass, across the range. The full list of 10-Star Wineries constitutes Australia's Best Wineries.
