Deviation Road

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Deviation Road is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.

Deviation Road is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.
Only the best of Australia’s best wineries are ranked as a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.

Deviation Road is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery because it makes a sparkling wine that is one of Australia’s best. It’s called Beltana Blanc de Blancs, it’s aged for seven years on lees, it’s made in extremely limited quantity (150 dozen only) and it’s extremely good, every year. It’s made from a property in the Adelaide Hills run by Kate and Hamish Laurie. “We planned on buying two acres in the hills because we wanted to plant a really good garden,” Kate says, “but we looked at this property and before we knew it we were living on a property that was 150 acres. Most of it is heritage-listed bushland but we have 30 clear acres.” This vineyard is steep and cool, like the sparkling wine it produces. The current 2017 release is a belter (of a Beltana). Beltana Blanc de Blancs isn’t as widely known or celebrated as it should be: it’s one of Australia’s best wines. “Fortunately,” Kate says, “There’s a secret club of people who are really into the top end of Australian sparkling wine.”

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Deviation Road Beltana Blanc de Blancs 2017
Deviation Road Beltana Blanc de Blancs 2016

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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