Winery, Cellar Door & Vineyard Restaurant · Wamboin NSW
Winery & Cellar Door at Aranya Acres
One of the few Canberra wineries with a restaurant on site: wine tasting at the cellar door downstairs, lunch or dinner upstairs, 30 minutes from Canberra and fifteen from Bungendore.
Wine & A Table, One Address
A winery restaurant you can spend the afternoon in
Most Canberra wineries pour a tasting and point you somewhere else for lunch. Here the two sit in one building. Upstairs is our restaurant and bar — Chef Praneel Singh’s native Australian menu and an ever-changing Canberra District cellar list. Downstairs is a working winery and cellar door. You can taste, eat, and walk between the two without moving the car.
To be precise about who does what: the restaurant, bar and events venue are ours. The winery and cellar door belong to Sapling Yard Wines, an independent Canberra District producer and a separate business, and the wine tasting is theirs to run. The vineyard you can see from the tables is managed by Wamboin Hills Estate, who look after the agricultural side and the rejuvenation project. Three businesses, one address — and one very good afternoon.
Sapling Yard Wines · 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.
Sapling Yard Wines · 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 Wamboin Hills Estate, who look after the agricultural side and the rejuvenation project.
Who’s Who
Three businesses, one address
Aranya Acres
The restaurant, bar and events venue upstairs — Chef Praneel Singh’s native Australian kitchen, a full 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 being rejuvenated, by Wamboin Hills Estate. They manage the agricultural side of the vineyard and the rejuvenation project.
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 and a Canberra blend), Surveyor’s Hill (Wallaroo), Pankhurst (Wallaroo) 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. If you are working your way through the Bungendore restaurants and cellar doors, we are the one with both under the same roof.
The Sapling Yard cellar door is now at 810 Norton Road, Wamboin, alongside their winery downstairs from us — wine tasting across the range pours from its new home, and you can book a table upstairs for lunch either side of it.
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