Coonawarra Wine Region

You've all heard the name Coonawarra … famous for full-bodied red wines and the rich, red terra rossa soils on which the vines flourish.

But you might not know just how accessible the Coonawarra is. Smack bang between Adelaide and Melbourne, it's the perfect stopover on the drive between South Australia and Victoria.

And the Coonawarra Cigar is a single, 20 kilometre strip of the famous limestone-based soil, so Coonawarra's 25 cellar doors can all be found along one straight stretch of the Riddoch Highway.

And what a stellar cellar line up it is, with names like Hollick Winery, Rymill Coonawarra, Bowen Estate, Wynns Coonawarra Estate and Yalumba … some of the wineries responsible for earning Coonawarra a host of international awards in recent years. (The region has taken out more Jimmy Watson Trophies for Australia's best one-year-old red wine than any other wine district.)