De Iuliis Wines

De Iuliis Wines is a modern, family-owned cellar door at 1616 Broke Road, Pokolbin, open 10am to 5pm daily. The tastings are contemporary and informed, built on standout Shiraz and Semillon with sangiovese and pecorino among the talking points, and the complex is one of the more complete stops in the valley: cafe, cheese room and accommodation all on site.

Dogs at the cellar door

Well-behaved dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas and, at times, inside the tasting room, so the door copes with both a sunny terrace afternoon and a cold one. Keep yours on a lead throughout and treat the casual outdoor seating as the comfortable default; ask inside if you want to bring the dog into the room. Bring your own water bowl as a courtesy. The grounds have a lawn that gives a dog somewhere to settle, which is exactly what you want on a mid-loop stop.

Pepsi: cheese platter, shiraz, and a patch of lawn to supervise. A cellar door that understands priorities.

Worth knowing

The shared complex makes this more than a tasting stop. Taste of the Country, the country-style cafe in the same complex, does all-day breakfast, lunch and Nana's scones, with bookable outdoor picnic patches under the trees. The Hunter Belle Cheese Room next door runs guided cheese tastings. There is also four-bedroom pet-friendly accommodation on site, so the dog-friendly day can become a dog-friendly weekend. Weekend live music is a regular feature.

Getting there and parking

The cellar door sits on Broke Road in central Pokolbin, reached via Hermitage Road or McDonalds Road, with free on-site parking immediately outside and wheelchair-accessible entrances and restrooms across the complex.

Pair it with

Bimbadgen Cellar Door is just down Broke Road, and Sobels Winery and Iron Gate Estate make easy adjacent stops on a Pokolbin circuit.

More options are on the NSW wineries guide and the Pokolbin destination page.