Our Neighbours Downstairs · An Independent Canberra District Winery
Sapling Yard Wines
Cool-climate wines with energy, texture and personality — grown at altitude in Braidwood, made by hand in the cellar downstairs.
The Vineyard
Charleys Forest, Braidwood
The home vineyard sits at 650 metres on the edge of the Budawang Ranges — a cool, slow-ripening site that gives the wines their signature freshness and drive.
Alongside that Charleys Forest fruit, Sapling Yard selects parcels from some of the region’s best cool-climate sites: Murrumbateman, Lake George, Hilltops and Tumbarumba.
The Winemakers
Carla & Malcolm
Sapling Yard was founded by Carla Rodeghiero, who planted her Charleys Forest vineyard in 2008 and made her first vintage in 2012. With a wine science degree from Charles Sturt and seasons in the Hunter Valley, Orange and Oregon, her background as a microbiologist brings a thoughtful, observant approach to the cellar.
Malcolm Burdett joined in 2019 with nearly thirty years of winemaking across Australia and New Zealand — McLaren Vale, the Yarra Valley, Coonawarra and Gisborne — and an instinct for wines with energy, texture and personality.
Downstairs at Aranya Acres
Where the wine is made
Sapling Yard’s production facility and cellar door are directly beneath the restaurant. Same building, same driveway — but a separate business. We are the restaurant upstairs; they make and sell their wine downstairs.
The fruit arrives rather than being picked outside the window. Sapling Yard grows at Charleys Forest and buys parcels from across the Canberra District, then makes the wine here. The vineyard at Wamboin is a third entity again — managed by a third party and currently part-way through a rejuvenation project, so it is not supplying grapes to anyone at the moment.
Who’s Who
Three businesses, one address
Aranya Acres
The restaurant, bar and events venue upstairs — Chef Praneel Singh’s native Australian kitchen, the Sub Zero Native Series at the bar, and a cellar list showcasing Canberra District growers. That is us.
Sapling Yard Wines
An independent Canberra District winery. Their production facility and cellar door are downstairs from us, and their wines pour on our list — but they are their own business, with their own vineyard at Charleys Forest near Braidwood.
The Vineyard
The vines you can see from the tables are managed separately again, by a third party, as part of an ongoing rejuvenation project. They are not currently producing fruit for anybody’s wine, ours or Sapling Yard’s.
On Our List
An ever-changing Canberra District cellar
Upstairs in the restaurant the cellar list is a moving target, and deliberately so — it changes with what the neighbours have just bottled and what the kitchen is cooking. Every wine on it is grown in the Canberra District and its surrounds.
Currently pouring: Sapling Yard (Tumbarumba, Lake George, Hilltops), Poachers Pantry (Springrange), Surveyor’s Hill (Wallaroo), Pankhurst (Wallaroo), Sassafras (Hilltops) and Lark Hill (Bungendore), plus the alcohol-free Altina range from Mitchell, ACT.
Cellar Door
Our New Home in Wamboin
Aranya Acres is a stop on the Bungendore Wine Trail, the regional trail linking the cellar doors and kitchens around Bungendore — fifteen minutes down the road, and home to Lark Hill, whose Grüner Veltliner and Sangiovese pour on our list.
The Sapling Yard cellar door is now at 810 Norton Road, Wamboin, alongside their winery downstairs from us — tastings across the range pour from its new home.
810 Norton Rd, WamboinSign up to the Sapling Yard newsletter for new releases and tasting dates.
info@saplingyard.com.au
0410 770 894
saplingyard.com.au