Velvet & Willow Wines - Cellar Door, Cafe and Pantry

Velvet & Willow is a cellar door, cafe and pantry on Main North Road at the edge of Auburn, at the southern gateway to the Clare Valley. The draw for dog owners is the garden: a shady, cottage-style outdoor space where dogs on lead are welcome while you work through a wine flight or a coffee and a bacon and egg roll.

The dog setup

Dogs stay on lead in the garden and outdoor patio seating; the cafe and pantry interior is humans only, so plan on an outdoor table. Staff are used to visiting dogs and a water bowl is usually out front, but pack your own to be safe. It is an easy, low-effort stop compared with cellar doors that leave no outdoor option at all.

Pepsi: a shaded garden table after a walk on the Rattler Trail is exactly my kind of afternoon.

The vibe

It is more cafe and pantry than formal tasting room: Clare Valley riesling alongside other regional and further-flung bottles, local platters, coffee and baked goods like berry muffins. The heritage garden setting carries the character. Weekdays are quiet; weekends pick up with cellar door trade, and hours vary across the week, roughly 7am starts on weekdays and 8am on weekends, closing early afternoon most days, so check before you drive out.

Getting there

The cellar door sits on Main North Road as you come into Auburn, with on-site parking and street parking along the main road. Auburn is a small town, so the stop is easy to fold into a Riesling Trail day: both the Riesling and Rattler trails are close by for an on-lead walk before or after.

Pair it with

Mount Horrocks Wines pours from the old railway station a few streets away, and Tim Adams Wines continues the trail north. If you want a run first, Handley Street Fenced Dog Park is the town's secure option.

More cellar doors are in the South Australia winery guide and the rest of town is on the Auburn destination page.