“It feels like the end of an extremely long journey, but also the beginning of another exciting one,” David Bowley tells Broadsheet.
On December 20, 2019, the winemaker’s 30-hectare property was razed by the Cudlee Creek bushfire, destroying 12 hectares of vines, infrastructure like posts and irrigation, and the 1920 homestead two of his employees were living in. Since then, Bowley and his wife Sharon Hong have been rebuilding from the ground up, slowly transforming the ruins of the Lobethal farmhouse into a formidable new cellar door and tasting room for their small-batch wine label, Vinteloper. Five years on, it’s finally open to the public.
“It feels incredible to finally be welcoming people into the space that we’ve been rebuilding and imagining for so long,” says Bowley. “Very surreal and just unbelievably positive.”
The House of Vinteloper – designed by Adelaide’s Detail Studio and Melbourne’s Studio Beal, with input from Hong, who’s also behind Vinteloper’s label art – integrates some of the farmstead’s original masonry work, which withstood the fire, and several charred timber beams reclaimed as “totem poles” that greet visitors.
“It’s a pretty historic homestead in the local region – I’ve lost count of the number of people who said they had an association with that house,” says Bowley. “Being on the top of the hill, it’s pretty prominent. So when it burnt down, to Sharon’s credit, she was like, ‘Don’t demolish it, you can’t replace what’s there – that authenticity and that history’.”
The venue really does feel like a home; the luxe tasting area is like a fancy living room, with its marble counter, soft leather couch, fireplace, long timber dining table, and views out to the chardonnay vines all inviting you to settle in. The comfy spot is where you’ll sample wine flights – “a tour of Vinteloper from the start to current day,” says Bowley – including the brand's core white label wines; its more experimental black label drops; its single-vineyard, limited-production Odeon range; plus rare back-vintages, micro-batches and obscure projects.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re completely new to Vinteloper and what we do, we’ve got a wine flight to introduce you to us. Or, if you’ve been following the journey for the last 16 years, we’ve got a wine flight that can show you some of the highlights, the forgotten wines, the ‘limiteds’, the ‘never seen befores’.”
Designated drivers can enjoy filter coffee. There’s also evolving tasting plates of Adelaide Hills produce, plus oysters fresh from Bowley’s parents’ Yorke Peninsula oyster farm, Pacific Estate Oysters.
“The interiors are incredible, the way that the space feels like a comfortable luxury home invites you to linger. It’s more than just tasting wine and moving on,” says Bowley.
Sustainability is also key to the build, which features a 22-kilowatt solar system to support off-grid power; electric vehicle charging; and a “bushfire fighting system”, which includes sprinklers across the exterior of the building and throughout the grounds. Bowley and Hong have also planted over 2000 native plants on the property, which aligns with Vinteloper’s broader ethos of regenerative agriculture.
Visitors can also partake in hosted wine room and site tours and “tailgate dates”. The latter is a bookable experience in a 1970 Datsun ute – set up with a seated picnic in the back and views across the property.
