Half an hour east of Canberra, perched high above a great little town by the name of Bungendore, lies a long plateau of ancient shale and clay soil. It’s host to kangaroos and Tiger snakes, echoes with the sounds of songbirds, and is sprinkled with small farms.
Misty Rise is not your typical small acreage weekend-farming scrub-covered plot. It’s twenty acres (80,000 m2) of quirkyness that almost has a small village feel to it. There are small paddocks (complete with Misty, our pet Friesian cow who is convinced she’s one of our Border Collies); an enchanted pine forest with spotted red and white toad stools and (surely) elves and pixies; dams with yabbies; an orchard, rose garden and olive grove; a cottage that in a former life housed astronomers and their families on top of Mt Stromlo; and enough Pinot Noir vines for over 1.5 tons of grapes and ultimately 900 bottles of wine in a typical year.
Misty Rise is not just a wine, it’s an adventure, a refuge, and a great setting for doing life.