Mount Nathan Winery

Mount Nathan Winery is the stop that most reliably changes what people think the Gold Coast hinterland produces. Visitors arrive expecting Verdelho and Chambourcin — which they will find across the region — and leave talking about honey wine.

It is also the estate with the deepest local roots on the trail. The Gibson family has been connected to this land since the 1850s, which in South East Queensland terms is close to as far back as European settlement goes.

Five generations, and a winery built on experiment

The family connection to the district dates to the 1850s. The winery itself came much later: George Gibson and his son Peter founded Central Coast Winery Pty Ltd in the 1970s — a company name that still turns up in listings and confuses people into thinking there is a separate venue somewhere.

What they built was not a conventional grape-only operation. They experimented widely with what the district actually grows — fruits, vegetables and honey — and that experimental streak is what the cellar door is known for today. It is a very Queensland approach to winemaking: work with what the climate gives you rather than importing a template from somewhere cooler.

Honey wine, fruit wine and the rest

The honey wine is the one to try, and the one most often bought by guests who arrived certain they would not like it. It is not a novelty made for the tourist trade; it is a straightforward response to what is produced in the district.

The fruit wines sit alongside it, again drawing on local produce. Between them they give the estate a range that has no real equivalent elsewhere on the trail, and they are the reason a day that includes Mount Nathan tastes broader than a day that does not.

Conventional grape wines are made as well. Ask at the bar what is open — production here is small and the range moves.

Visiting Mount Nathan

The property sits in the hills behind the northern Gold Coast, with hinterland views across the valley, and it is the least formal cellar door on the trail. Family-run, unhurried, and generally quieter than the Tamborine Mountain venues on a weekend.

As with every estate in this guide, confirm opening hours and tasting arrangements with the winery before you travel. Smaller family operations keep more variable hours than the plateau cellar doors do.

Visiting on a guided tour

Mount Nathan Winery is one of the three scheduled cellar doors on the Hinterland Heritage Wine Tour, a full day out of Brisbane with Gold Coast pickup available. Three stops rather than five buys roughly an hour at Mount Nathan Winery instead of a rushed twenty minutes, and the tour carries a maximum of 24 passengers with a designated driver for the whole day.

Whichever way you come at it, Mount Nathan is not a place to drive from after a tasting. The range roads are narrow and winding, and on a guided day nobody in your group has to sit it out to get everyone home.

Nearby on the trail

The rest of the hinterland wine trail

Mount Nathan Winery is one of 8 venues that make up the wine country behind the Gold Coast, spread across three sub-regions: the Tamborine Mountain plateau, the Canungra Valley and the Albert River corridor. The others are worth knowing about even if you only have a day.

• Albert River Wines — Tamborine
• O'Reilly's Canungra Valley Vineyards — Canungra
• Sarabah Estate Vineyard — Sarabah
• Witches Falls Winery — North Tamborine
• Cedar Creek Estate — North Tamborine
• Cauldron Distillery — North Tamborine
• Tamborine Mountain Distillery — North Tamborine

For how Mount Nathan fits with the rest of the region, and what else is worth doing up the range on the same day, see our Gold Coast hinterland wine trail guide. For tours, start at the Gold Coast wine tours hub or the Mount Tamborine wine tour, or Queensland wine tours for the state as a whole.

Frequently asked questions