A new chapter for Rob Dolan Wines

The Palazzo family have been running Killara Estate in the upper Yarra Valley for over twenty years. Rob Dolan has known them for just as long. He and Leo Palazzo have been talking about wine, the industry, and what they might one day do together for most of that time. That day turned out to be now, and we couldn't be happier about it.

Rob Dolan Wines has come to make its home at Killara Estate. There are still things being sorted, things being shaped. But the wine is ready, and the cellar door is nearly there.

The space itself is something. High ceilings that once housed the silo feedlot for Killara's dairy cattle, handmade timber trusses built the way they used to be built, and a long window that puts you right in the middle of the vineyard. There is a connection to the simpler way of life here that you feel the moment you walk in.

Two of the four walls are clad. Two more are on the way. The floor has been polished up, the base as hard as the work once done over it. The serving benches are being made as we speak. It's becoming something worth the wait.

The wine

Ben Dolan is the winemaker, still under the watchful eye of Rob Dolan, and the focus is on what the upper Yarra does best: cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sparkling, made carefully and honestly, and priced so you come back for a second bottle without doing the mental arithmetic first.

On the table right now: the White Label Pinot Noir, White Label Chardonnay, Black Label Pinot Noir, Black Label Chardonnay and the Black Label Sparkling. Five wines, made carefully, from fruit that knows where it comes from.

The tasting is a guided seated one. Five wines, a little surprise, $15 a head. Spend $60 or more and it's on us. Groups of five or more, give us a ring first so we can get ready for you.

The place

Leo's family has been on this property for over twenty years and the spirit of Killara has always been the same: open arms, the kind of place where you pull up and immediately feel like you were expected. That's what Rob Dolan Wines has come home to. It suits us.

Where to find us
 Cnr Warburton Hwy & Sunnyside Rd, Seville East VIC 3139 📞 (03) 5961 5877

About an hour from Melbourne. Sign up below to be the first to know when we're ready for you.