Explore Mandurang through its wine and food offerings; the wider Greater Bendigo travel region adds walks through forest and traces of the gold rush. This gives you two distinct ways to spend your stay: a menu or a tasting in Mandurang, and walks in Greater Bendigo National Park. To plan your trip, it’s worth first deciding whether food, wine, or landscapes and mining history will be the main draw.
Wine and food in Mandurang
At the Italian Test Kitchen at Mandurang Valley Wines, an Italian five-course menu is served at long tables. The five courses make the meal itself the main attraction; the long tables shape how it is served. If you’d like to make food the focus of your trip, you can compare this offering with the other wine experiences.
The seated tastings focus on the wines, served with cheese and charcuterie. Visitors can also blend wines and taste wine straight from the barrel. This offers a choice between a multi-course meal, a seated tasting, and the hands-on experiences of blending wine or tasting it from the barrel.
The cellar door at Mandurang Valley Wines is open on weekends and by appointment. The winery recommends booking for the wine-blending and barrel-tasting experiences. Wine production in Mandurang also has different facets: Heart of Gold produces a selection of handcrafted wines, including Tempranillo, Vermentino, Rosé and Shiraz. Its cellar door is currently closed.
Celebrations and events
Chateau Dore adds a venue to Mandurang’s offerings: the historic winery and its gardens can be booked exclusively for informal indoor or garden celebrations, formal dinners and public events. If an occasion is part of your visit, this offers a distinct focus alongside menus and tastings.
Forest, gold mining and Mallee in Greater Bendigo
In the wider Greater Bendigo travel region, a circuit walk in Greater Bendigo National Park passes through Box-Ironbark forest to the Old Tom mine site. Depending on your starting point, the walk begins at Shadbolts Day Visitor Area or Notley Camping Area. At the destination, you can see the original reef mine, a “puddler” and a water channel from the gold rush era. The forest and tangible traces of the gold rush come together here.
An easy walk from Shadbolt Day Visitor Area takes in part of the natural surroundings of the Whipstick Block in Greater Bendigo National Park. It passes the remains of 19th-century gold mining and offers panoramic views across the Mallee landscape.
The experiences of nature differ in their described features: at the Old Tom mine site, specific traces of the gold rush era are identified; the Whipstick walk combines mining remains with panoramic views across the Mallee. If you’d like to see specific historic mining features, consider the circuit walk to the Old Tom mine site. The Whipstick walk is defined by its features as an easy walk with Mallee views.
Discover more destinations: Keysborough, Bulleen, Walhalla, Moyston, Metung, Netherby, Big Hill, Talbot
For the wider travel guide: Victoria.
