Olive Hills Estate

Olive Hills Estate is a family-run winery at 3221 Murray Valley Highway on the edge of Rutherglen, built around historic 1886 cellars and a restored homestead. Winemaker Ross Perry pours estate-grown, non-irrigated fruit at a relaxed cellar door with a patio out front, and the property has a long-standing reputation as one of the district's more dog-welcoming stops, helped by a friendly resident dog.

The dog setup

Dogs on leads are welcome in the outdoor courtyard and patio, where they can settle beside you through a tasting, and water bowls are generally on hand in the outdoor seating. Whether yours can come inside the cellar door depends on the day and how busy it is, so ask staff on arrival. There is no charge for bringing a dog. With a resident dog on the property, keep yours on lead until the introduction has gone well.

Pepsi: let the resident dog make the first move and keep your lead short until they have sorted the greeting out between them.

Worth knowing

Tastings here are personal rather than production-line, with unhurried commentary on the winemaking and gourmet regional grazing platters to match the wines. The estate also hosts weddings and functions, so it can be booked out on weekends; a quick call ahead saves a wasted drive.

Getting there and parking

The cellar door is on the Murray Valley Highway, a few minutes from the Rutherglen town centre, with free parking on site. It opens 11am to 3pm, seven days, which is a shorter window than most cellar doors, so plan the visit around it.

Close by with the dogs

Campbells Wines is further along the highway with a reputation for welcoming dogs into the tasting room, and Anderson Winery and James and Co. Wines round out a dog-friendly loop out of town.

Keep dogs on lead in the car park, where farm vehicles occasionally move through. More of the region is on the Rutherglen destination page and in the Victorian wineries list.