Pyramid Road Wines are made with passion and integrity at their beautiful vineyard and winery nestled in the foothills of Girraween, only 20 minutes from Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt.
Warren and Sue, a husband and wife team, began their Stanthorpe vineyards in 1999. Inspired by a change in life style and leaving the busyness of the Sunshine Coast behind, they headed to the Granite Belt for a tree change.
Determined to be hands on, they hand planted each vine and proceeded to care for them as young babies. They quickly learnt the peaks and troughs of farming life experiencing some very dry years when the vines were young. Irrigation practices changed to give the vines less water and enable them to grow deep roots to find their own water supply.
The winery came together with a few pieces of necessary machinery. A crusher, basket press, a couple of barrels, stainless tanks and hey presto – a winery is born. Over the years, the equipment wish list has grown and they’ve purchased a new air bag press to process the whites.
The old packing shed which dates back to the 1930s was slowly transformed into the current cellar door. Officially opened in 2003 with only 4 wines in production, they now produce 10 wines across a number of styles.
The focus has always been on the production of small volumes of hand made wines. All the wines are hand crafted on the premises. Small batch production means most operations are hands-on – from pruning, training, picking in the vineyard to basket pressing, bottling and labeling in the winery.
In the early days, all the wines were made from estate grown fruit. In recent years, they have purchased small parcels of locally grown fruit to supplement their production. The Verdelho and Petit Verdot are grown by Duncan and Dini Ferrier at the Rosemary Hill vineyard just west of Stanthorpe. The Chardonnay comes from a variety of vineyards in the Ballandean district.
WINERY, VINEYARD, CELLAR DOOR
Nestled in the scenic Wyberba Valley, your hosts Warren and Sue welcome you to their Granite Belt winery.
After removing some old table grapes from the Granite Belt farm, Warren and Sue set about preparing the ground and hand planting their red varieties of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in 1999. The old patch of black Muscat grapes were restored in order to make some wine from them. In the next two years, they planted Mourvedre and quickly decided that there was enough work there to keep them busy.
The winery equipment was purchased to begin their first vintage in 2000 using grapes purchased from Ballandean Estate, another Granite Belt winery. For the first three years, they purchased grapes in small quantities whilst their own vineyard matured. A few stainless steel tanks, a couple of barrels, a basket press, a mono pump and some bottling equipment was the beginning of the winery, producing only a few ton at the time. Production ramped up when the harvest of their own grapes began in 2004. Production now sits at around 15 tons each year.
The cellar door was renovated from on old historic packing shed that many locals remember as a dance hall and used by the nearly Wyberba school. With four years for renovations and repurposing the cellar door was officially opened in April 2003. A warm and inviting space where you can sample the current range of wines sitting by the fireplace. During vintage, you can inhale the enticing aromas of wine ferments from the winery as it is located downstairs from the cellar door.