Adelaide’s lucky.

In Sydney and Melbourne, 40 minutes in a car will typically see you transported from one gridlocked suburb to another. In South Australia, 20 minutes will take you from the heart of the city to the quiet majesty of the Adelaide Hills; 45 minutes out of town in McLaren Vale, neat rows of vines part like a combover stretching towards the coast; and in just a little over an hour, you’ll find yourself in Australia’s oldest wine region.

This year we welcomed five new gems to the regions. Restaurants, wine bars and cellar doors – these are the best new regional openings of the year so far.

Under the Sun, Aldinga

The drive from Adelaide to McLaren Vale is longer these days, and it’s got nothing to do with traffic. For locals, a detour via Under The Sun is essential. The cellar-door-meets-wine-bar is a collaborative power move by independent wine brands Brash Higgins, Golden Child and Poppelvej. It’s small-batch, artisanal stuff served in a converted barn in Aldinga. The space seats 20 indoors and 40 out in the fairy-light-lit courtyard. Often, you’ll run into other winemakers. Uffe Deichmann, Brad Hickey and James Hamilton (who you’ll count as mates before you depart) pour their lo-fi, high-quality creations below a vivid mural by artist Ella Simpson, which shows a sun dipping behind nearby Sellicks Hills and the ocean. Build your own local produce platter, order a textural Dead Ohio Sky rosé and let the good conversations roll. Intimate events showcasing new winemakers, artists and chefs make this an exciting addition to the Fleurieu Peninsula. – Katie Spain, contributor

Tread Lightly, Willunga

Tread Lightly is a cosy restaurant and wine bar owned by Will and Trina Kay-McPhail. They moved into the space as partial tenants in 2024, then went through the “nightmare” process of securing council permissions for upgrades before buying the building and turning it into the sort of venue we all wish could be our local.

Heading up the kitchen is Georg Delago (ex-Coriole, Press, The Botanic Lodge), whose menu heroes locally grown vegetables, with some meat dishes focused on wild and invasive species. Think confit rabbit leg, house-made black pudding using leftover blood from the local butcher and cheese curd with XO, heirloom tomatoes and chilli crisp. The rabbit-and-kidney pithivier is a thing of beauty and the bread-and-butter pudding with miso caramel, and burnt honey ice-cream is the perfect winter salve. – Lucy Bell Bird, national assistant editor

Jauma, Lenswood

It takes a special kind of person to open their heart and home to the public, especially when they live in Adelaide Hills farmland heaven. James and Sophie Erskine did exactly that when they welcomed visitors to their magical patch of Peramangk Country in December 2025. Sometimes we go to pluck juicy cherries from their organic orchard, other times for a guided natural wine tasting in their charming, rustic old worker’s cottage. Mostly, we settle in with a glass, a wood-oven pizza, a platter made with farm-grown produce and a vineyard view at the Jauma cellar door. Meanwhile, chooks peck at our feet and children explore the surrounding garden and edible cornucopia. A farm-to-table philosophy permeates everything this couple does. Their warm welcome, sense of conviviality and space for just 30 encourage heartfelt chatter. In a world of disconnection, Jauma genuinely feels like home. – Katie Spain, contributor

Jam House, Nuriootpa

The Barossa is the nation’s oldest wine region, and it has a reputation to match. It’s known for established wine labels, traditional styles and big, bold wines. But Jam House is changing things up. It’s run by four next-generation winemakers: Scott Rogasch and Justin Westhoff of Forage Supply Co, Geyer Wine Co’s David Geyer, and White Gate Wine Co’s Chad Connolly. The three wine labels are all known for their fresh, minimal-intervention drops. Jam House joins similar concepts like Bottle Shock in the Adelaide Hills and Under the Sun Collective in Aldinga. It’s part of a growing trend where brands that would otherwise be competitors share facilities and a sales floor.

The venue’s name is borrowed from a century-old cottage on the winemakers’ Nuriootpa property. In the ’80s and ’90s, local musicians used that cottage to gather for jam sessions. Now it’s where winemakers welcome visitors to taste drops from the three labels, as well as gins from Laneway Beverage Co. There are plans to host winery tours where you can sample wine directly from barrels, as well as quarterly live music events and food takeovers. – Lucy Bell Bird, national assistant editor

Aptos, Stirling

We already included Aptos in our list of the best new openings in Adelaide, a roster dominated by venues in the city and surrounding suburbs. Based in Stirling in the Adelaide Hills, Aptos is technically an out-of-towner, but it sits much closer to the heart of the action than the other four venues on this list.

Aptos was conceived as a destination diner, one designed not simply to lure city-dwellers to the Hills, but to lure dedicated diners from interstate and overseas. After nearly 18 months of anticipation ahead of its opening, we’re confident calling it the most significant new South Australian opening in recent years and letting it take up space on both of our mid-year lists.

The fit-out, conceived by chef-patron Justin James and architecture firm Williams Burton Leopardi, turned the Aptos Cruz art gallery (which was previously a church) into an ambitious fine diner. The space is littered with nods to the venue’s previous lives – with altar-esque bars, a “baptismal font” and more than 30 pieces of Australian art and ceramics.

Diners move throughout four different rooms during their multi-hour, 16-course experience spearheaded by James, whose CV includes four years at Eleven Madison Park plus stints as executive chef at Melbourne’s Vue de Monde and Adelaide’s Restaurant Botanic. He’s assembled a team of seven top international chefs who come by way of Detroit, Quebec, Copenhagen, New York, Peru, Bangkok, Kyoto, and Melbourne to turn Australian ingredients into meals and memories for a small group of people a few times a week. It’s special. And, in a world where diners are increasingly cynical about degustation and experiential dining, it’s giving us all something to believe in. – Lucy Bell Bird, national assistant editor