2027 Dark Horse Winery
Balancing Heart – Granite Belt, Queensland
The Dark Horse award is designed to draw attention to those wineries that are not as commonly talked about as they should be, yet are wildly deserving of recognition. It is fitting, then, that the 2027 recipient is a winery from Queensland’s Granite Belt – a region that often misses the gaze of wine enthusiasts.
“As soon as you put Q-L-D after a bottle of wine, people are very sceptical,” says Balancing Heart’s winemaker Mike Hayes. “But we think it’s a lack of knowledge of the area… the Granite Belt has quite a continental climate.”
At Balancing Heart, Mike answers that scepticism with delicious, complex wines that lean left of centre: textural whites, medium-weight reds, skin-contact and sparkling wines, and lesser-known varieties under playful names like ‘Acoustics & Artsploration’ and ‘Niche & Montage’.
