Craiglee Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Sunbury, Australia

In 1863, James Stewart Johnston, a prominent Melbourne businessman and member of Parliament, first planted vines at Craiglee. He built an extraordinary bluestone winery into a steep slope near his home, utilising gravity to create an efficient system for making and storing wines. Grapes were brought to the upper level by horse and dray, taken below to be crushed and fermented and fed into barrels in the lowest level of the building, which offered perfect cellaring conditions year round.

Johnston made wines on the site for over a decade and planted a number of varieties, though his 1872 Hermitage (Shiraz) was his most notable wine, winning a number of international awards. His sons continued making wines at Craiglee into the 1920s, when changing economic circumstances and public taste forced a change of enterprise. The paddocks were turned over to lamb production, and the doors to the winery were shut.