Young Wine Makers

Stanthorpe is well known for primary production, notably wine-making. At St Joseph’s School our Year 10 Young Winemakers work with local wineries, Ballandean Estate, Severn River Valley Vineyard, and winemaker, Dylan Rhymer to produce quality wines.

Throughout the year long program students take part in all the stages of winemaking, ranging from caring for the vines and picking the grapes, through to producing and bottling the wine.

Since the program began in 2011, the Young Winemakers have won an number of state and national awards. In 2017 the St Joseph's Pinot Grigio won Top Gold at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show - National Schools Wine Competition, scoring an outstanding 18.6 from 20 to beat teams from throughout the country. The students also won the University of Adelaide Trophy for Top School in Classes 2 and 4 (Best Wine Commercially Produced, made by the School in Conjunction with a Local Winery).

The 2021 Riesling, made by the St Joseph’s School’s Young Winemaker Program in conjunction with Ballandean Estate, was an all-round winner. St Joseph's School was awarded a silver medal at the National School Wine Competition at the Royal Adelaide Wine Show. It was the only white wine from a school outside of South Australia to receive the award.
Success continued, where St Joseph's was also awarded a bronze medal at the Australian Small Winemakers Show in Stanthorpe and accumulated enough points to win the Champion School Produced Wine prize. Our wine scored higher than about half of the 63 commercially produced Rieslings in the competition.