FAMILY FUN ATTRACTIONS WINCHELSEA SOUTH

Winchelsea Golf Club welcomes new members and players. Come along and have a great round of golf with a great group of people. Winchelsea Golf Club pride themselves on being welcoming and enjoying all aspects of golf, both the game and social.

Pondalowie Vineyards is a unique winery cellar door located in the heart of Bendigo's thriving arts precinct, the Pondalowie Cellar and Store offers tastings of hand crafted, award winning red wines from Pondalowie Vineyards and Pinga Wines. Owners Dominic and Krystina Morris draw on their winemaking experiences in France, Portugal and Australia to produce premium red wines made from mainstream and alternative grape varieties, sourced from their own Bendigo vineyards and from friends vineyard's in Heathcote. Awarded a five star rating by James Halliday seven years in a row, up until the most recent 2014 award. The Pondalowie wines are some of the regions, indeed Australia's, finest red wines. You can meet Krystina or Dominic on weekends at the cellar door, which is positioned opposite the Bendigo Art Gallery, which is one of Australia's oldest and largest regional galleries. The location makes it ideal for visitors to taste the range of wines, and then stroll down View Street to enjoy some of the finest restaurants, galleries and boutique stores Bendigo has to offer. Please view their website for further information.

The Vault has a large range of Australian goods and stylish quality products. It is situated in the former Winchelsea National Australia Bank where a large bank vault is still used to house its exotic leather goods. Selling a wide range of high quality leather goods made from ostrich, crocodile, barramundi, kangaroo and emu leather, including bags, corporate items, wallets and belts. Ostrich goods include ostrich dusters of all descriptions, boas, feather handbags, plumes and ostrich egg shells. An extensive range of emu products is also stocked including pureemu oil, massage oils, lip balms and capsules. Come and learn about the benefits of emu oil products. See a selection of Australian specialty products including cards by regional artists, Australian linen, sheep skin ugg boots, glasses, platters, cups, hats, souvenirs and children's books. Hastings Ostrich Farms stud farm manages over 3000 birds of various ages and supplies other farms with stock both within Australia and internationally. Breeds include African Black, Australian Black, Zimbabwe Blue and Kenyan Red neck ostrich. The farm produce includes luxury ostrich leather goods, leather, and premium quality meat and feather goods sold at the Vault.

Dinny Goonan Wines is one of a handful of families pioneering grape and wine production in the Otway hinterland.

Their wines have won numerous awards since the first commercial release in 2001.

The vineyard and cellar door are conveniently situated on the inland road to Lorne, between Winchelsea and Deans Marsh. This location provides a great springboard to explore the Otways and surrounding attractions, and they are happy to share some local knowledge of other places to see and visit.

Visitors are welcome to taste their wines and relax in the peaceful vineyard setting. You can find out more about the wines by talking to Dinny the winemaker, or stroll around the vineyard and winery.

Vineyard platters are available on weekends between November and April and every day during January, so it is a great chance to take some time out to enjoy the wines, surrounded by the vines that produced them. The platters have a regional focus providing the opportunity to match local wines with regional produce. The only distractions will come from the Crimson Rosellas and Blue Winged Grass Parrots that have made the vineyard their home.

They also offer a great coffee and a selection of local foodstuffs and oils.

And then of course, there are their award winning wines.

As a family run enterprise, everything is very much "hands on". The vines are hand pruned; they pick the grapes by hand and use traditional vinification and elevage techniques within the modern winery.

They specialize in the production of cool climate Shiraz and Riesling.

They also produce limited quantities of Cabernets (a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec), a Semillon/Sauvignon and a Sparkling wine (a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) which are available exclusively to their cellar door customers.