Ballandean EstateWines

Salvatore Cardillo left Sicily in 1911, worked Queensland's railways, then bought a Ballandean farm in 1930. His daughter Josephine started making wine from the estate's table grapes in 1932. Three generations later, Angelo and Mary Puglisi replanted with wine varieties in the late 1960s — among the first on the Granite Belt — and opened the cellar door in 1972. The Opera Block Shiraz, now past its 50th vintage, is the benchmark.