Your own pace
Hop-on hop-off wine bus
Most reviewed
- Length7 hours
- GroupUp to 20
- TastingsPaid at each venue
Cost for your group
An Adelaide Hills wine tour, cellar door by cellar door
Adelaide Hills & Hahndorf Hop-On Hop-Off Wine Tour
★ 4.8 · 157 reviews total
Quick summary
An Adelaide Hills wine tour tastes cool-climate wines, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir, at cellar doors near Hahndorf, best done on a tour or the hop-on hop-off bus.
Wine essentials
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- Hop-on hop-off bus7 hours · per person, from $70
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View - Wine, gin and brew7 hours · per person, from $226
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View - Divine wine day8 hours · per person, from $207
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View - Hills tour with lunch8 hours · per person, from $175
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Starting prices as on the booking platform, converted at the ECB reference rate. You see the exact price at booking.
An Adelaide Hills wine tour tastes a different country from the Barossa: higher, cooler and wetter vineyards, crisp whites and fine pinot, and cellar doors a short drive from Hahndorf.
Editorial team, hahndorftour.com · Updated November 8, 2026 · Takes 7 min
Quick look
- The regionMore than 50 cellar doors, according to the regional tourism office.1
- The styleCooler vineyards: about 0.5 C lost for every 100 metres of height.2
- Easiest tourA hop-on hop-off wine bus from $70, 7 hours, rated 4.8.
- Tasting feesShaw + Smith pours a flight of five new releases for AUD 25 per person.3
- The ruleDrivers must stay below 0.05 per cent blood alcohol.4
Why hills wine tastes different from the valleys
The Adelaide Hills are a cool-climate wine region on the doorstep of a warm city. The regional wine body explains the mechanism simply: for every 100 metres of extra height the temperature drops by roughly 0.5 C.2 It measures the effect in the warmth of January, the peak of the growing season: Adelaide averages 23.3 C, while Stirling in the hills averages 18.2 C, only 15 km away.5
Rain follows height too. The same source gives annual rainfall of 550 mm in Adelaide, 690 mm at Kersbrook and 1200 mm at Stirling.6 Cooler nights and more water slow the ripening, and that is the house style you taste on an Adelaide Hills wine tour: fresher whites, lighter and finer reds, and sparkling wine with more snap than anything from the hot plains.
That is also why a hills tasting day feels different from a Barossa day. You are not working through heavy shiraz at every stop. The regional tourism office says the region has more than 50 winery cellar doors.1 The styles the regional wine body puts forward are sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir and grüner veltliner, so those are the bottles to look for as you move from door to door.7,8,9,10
Cellar doors near Hahndorf
What to taste and when to book
| Cellar door | Pour | Hours or fee | Booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Lane Vineyard | Chardonnay in five forms | 10am to 5pm11 | Essential11 |
| Shaw + Smith | Five new releases | AUD 25 per person3 | Recommended |
| Hahndorf Hill | Austrian varieties | Chocolate and wine matching13 | Book online |
| Sidewood Estate | Wine and cider paddles | Family-owned since 200417 | Check ahead |
| Grunthal Brew | Beer, gin, cheese | In Verdun19 | Check ahead |
Fees and hours as each cellar door publishes them; they change by season, so confirm before you go.11,3
The grapes to look for, and the cellar doors that pour them
Start with sauvignon blanc. The regional wine body calls the hills version the Australian benchmark, and describes the wines as textured, vibrant and dry.7 Then chardonnay: the region presents itself as a leader of a new, leaner style, elegant and textured with the acidity to age.8 The Lane builds a whole tasting around the grape, pouring chardonnay in five forms from sparkling to oaked.15
For reds, pinot noir is the hills specialty, and the wine body describes a patchwork of slopes and climates producing a wide spread of pinot styles.9 The less familiar bottle is grüner veltliner, an Austrian white that the region claims as its own new star.10 Right at the edge of Hahndorf, Hahndorf Hill Winery specializes in Austrian varieties such as grüner veltliner and blaufränkisch, and offers a chocolate and wine matching.13
Shaw + Smith at Balhannah is the classic name of the modern hills, founded in 1989 by the cousins Martin Shaw and Michael Hill-Smith.16 Its main flight takes you through sauvignon blanc, riesling, chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz, which is a neat summary of the whole region in a single sitting.3 Sidewood, a family-owned estate founded in 2004, adds cider tasting paddles to its wines.17,18
Cellar door fees, opening hours and bookings
Wine tasting in the Adelaide Hills usually comes with a fee at the well-known doors, and the busiest want a booking. At Shaw + Smith the flight of five new release wines costs AUD 25 per person for groups up to 10, and the Single Vineyard flight AUD 40.3,21 The tasting room opens 11am to 5pm daily, with the last flights served at 4.20pm.12
The Lane opens its tasting room 7 days a week from 10am to 5pm, says bookings are essential and asks you to allow 60 minutes.11 Of the tasting fee, AUD 20 comes back as credit on a bottle bought the same day, and a single booking covers no more than 8 people.22,23 It closes on Good Friday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, so check the calendar before you plan a holiday tasting.24
The hop-on hop-off operator adds that, on its standard ticket, tastings are paid at each venue rather than in the fare.25 Treat the fees as a from-price for the day, and treat bookings as part of the plan, not an afterthought. A Saturday afternoon at a famous door without a booking can end at the car park.
Choose your wine day
Which hills wine tour fits you
Find your group in the left column and read off the tour.
If We want freedom and a low price
The hop-on hop-off bus
From $70, with an hourly loop you can leave and rejoin.20
If We want everything booked and paid
The wine, gin and brew day
All tastings and lunch are included, limited to 8.
If We want the smallest group
The Divine wine day
It is limited to 6 and tastes at Golding and Nepenthe.
If We want to plan it ourselves
Book cellar doors direct
The Lane and Shaw + Smith take bookings and list their fees.11,3
If Someone in our group does not drink
A day with cheese and gin stops
Grunthal Brew pairs beer, gin and cheese with its wines.19
Three ways to taste
Wine bus, all-inclusive van or small group
All tastings
Wine, gin and brew day
Everything included
- Length7 hours
- GroupUp to 8
- LunchIncluded
Up to 6 guests
Divine wine day
Golding and Nepenthe
- Length8 hours
- In Hahndorf2 hours with lunch
- SummitMount Lofty stop
The driving problem, and the ways around it
The rule that shapes every hills wine day is the drink-driving law. South Australian law, as the regional tourism office spells it out, bars anyone from driving once their blood alcohol reaches 0.05 per cent.4 Tasting flights are small pours, but four or five of them across a day add up, and hills roads are narrow and winding. Someone in your party gives up the wine, or nobody drives.
The same office steers visitors towards private and small-group operators for exactly this, so the wine, beer, cider and spirits can be enjoyed with someone else at the wheel.28 There are three ways to do it: a guided tour with a set list of wineries, a hop-on hop-off bus that loops past the cellar doors, or an e-bike, which the separate page on this site compares.
A Hahndorf wine tour on a guided small-group day is the most hands-off. The wine, gin and brew day caps its group at 8 and folds every tasting and lunch into the price, with Shaw and Smith early on and a Hahndorf gin room near the end. The Divine wine day keeps to 6 guests and pours at Golding Wines and Nepenthe before lunch in the village. They start from $226 and $207, which is the price of having it all arranged.
A self-planned day
Three cellar doors around Hahndorf
From 10am
The Lane Vineyard
The tasting room opens at 10am; book and allow 60 minutes.11
Midday
Shaw + Smith
Flights of five new release wines, AUD 25 per person.3
By 4.20pm
Last flights
Shaw + Smith serves its final flights at 4.20pm.12
Afternoon
Hahndorf Hill
Austrian varieties and a chocolate and wine matching.13
Evening
Back to the village
Book a taxi ahead if you are heading down to the city.14
The hop-on hop-off wine bus: the most-reviewed hills wine day
Among listings built around hills wine, the one with the most reviews is the hop-on hop-off bus, rated 4.8 from 157 ratings and starting from $70 for a 7-hour day. Pickup is on North Terrace at the Stamford Plaza at 10:00 am, or at the Hahndorf Academy at 10:50 am, with the return to town at about 5:00 pm.
The operator says the bus runs the same hourly loop through the region all day, and that most guests visit 3 wineries with time for a 2-hour lunch.20,29 On the standard ticket, tastings are not included and you pay at each venue; an all-inclusive version books lunch and standard tastings for you.25,30 Its own page lists Hahndorf Hill Winery, Sidewood and the LOT.100 collective among the stops.31,18,32
The format is self-paced, not a guided tour, as the operator states.33 You choose how long to stay, which is the point, but you also choose your own wineries and book them. The hop-on hop-off and e-bike page on this site covers the timetable, the ticket prices, the public holiday surcharge and the rules for large groups in detail.
Video
Adelaide Hills wineries and breweries
Ash and Kels on YouTube · The video only starts loading on your tap.
The MJT for Adelaide, for example, is 23.3 C whilst Stirling (in the Adelaide Hills just out of Adelaide) is 18.2 C even though it is only 15kms from Adelaide.
Before the first pour
A wine day checklist
Beyond wine: beer, cider, gin and cheese on the same day
The hills are not only grapes. The regional tourism office describes Grunthal Brew in Verdun as a single stop for craft beer, small-batch gin, Udder Delights cheese and Hesketh wines, with flights to match a solid food menu.19 It sits just outside Hahndorf, and two of the small-group tours we compared stop there.
Out in Hay Valley, LOT.100 puts beer, cider, spirits and juice makers together on a single 84-hectare property.34,32 Cider and gin give a tasting day some variety between the wineries, and Sidewood's cider paddles are an easy way to compare a hills cider with the estate wines poured beside it at the same counter.18
Cheese and chocolate are the other pairings. Hahndorf Hill matches its wines with chocolate, and the Viator small-group day stops at a Woodside cheese cellar and Melba's Chocolate Factory between wineries.13 If someone in your group does not drink, these stops make the day work for them too, and they give everyone a pause between tastings that keeps the afternoon from turning into a blur.
A sample Hahndorf wine day, and the festivals worth timing
A simple self-planned day from Hahndorf could start at The Lane when its tasting room opens at 10am, move to Shaw + Smith at Balhannah for lunch from its cold larder menu, and finish at Hahndorf Hill before heading back to the village.11,12,13 Book each tasting in advance, and keep the afternoon slot before the last Shaw + Smith flights at 4.20pm.12
Some months add a festival. The regional tourism office lists Crush in January and Winter Reds in July, and calls Chardonnay May and Winter Reds the region's signature wine events.35,36 Winter Reds is the one for cold-weather visitors, with rustic food, warming wines and live entertainment at the cellar doors, and it suits a hills weekend with a fire in the evening.37
Wine has deep roots here. The regional wine body records that in 1843 John Barton Hack sent Queen Victoria a case of wine from his vineyard near Mount Barker, the earliest present of Australian wine ever sent to an English monarch.38 Between 1840 and 1900, 225 grape growers worked these ranges before the industry faded, and a revival in the 1970s and 1980s built the region you taste today.39,40
FAQ
Common questions, answered fast.
How many cellar doors are in the Adelaide Hills?
More than 50.
The regional tourism office counts more than 50 winery cellar doors across the hills.1
What wines is the Adelaide Hills known for?
Do Adelaide Hills cellar doors charge for tastings?
Many do.
Shaw + Smith charges AUD 25 per person for its flight of five new release wines.3
Do I need to book a wine tasting?
Often, yes.
Book first: The Lane requires it and plans each tasting at 60 minutes.11
What is the legal limit for the person driving?
Under 0.05 per cent.
Driving is illegal at 0.05 per cent blood alcohol and above.4
Does the wine bus come with a guide to the wines?
When are the hills wine festivals?
Can under-18s join a wine tasting?
They cannot be served.
Under South Australian law liquor must not be supplied to anyone under 18.26
Sources
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Good drop ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · Climate and soils ↩
- Shaw + Smith (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Getting here and around ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · Climate and soils ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · Climate and soils ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · The Australian Sauvignon Blanc ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · New Wave Chardonnay ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · A Pinot Noir Playground ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · Our Gruner Veltliner ↩
- The Lane Vineyard (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- Shaw + Smith (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- Visit Hahndorf SA (hahndorfsa.org.au, official Hahndorf guide) · Hahndorf Hill Winery ↩
- Visit Hahndorf SA (hahndorfsa.org.au, official Hahndorf guide) · How to get to Hahndorf ↩
- The Lane Vineyard (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- Shaw + Smith (official site) · Shaw + Smith ↩
- Sidewood Estate (official site) · Sidewood Estate ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · Adelaide Hills and Hahndorf destinations ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Good drop ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · How it works ↩
- Shaw + Smith (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- The Lane Vineyard (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- The Lane Vineyard (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- The Lane Vineyard (official site) · Tasting room ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · Adelaide Hills and Hahndorf Hop-On Hop-Off Wine Tour ↩
- Hahndorf Hill Winery (official site) · Hahndorf Hill ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Seasons ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Getting here and around ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · How it works ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · Adelaide Hills and Hahndorf Hop-On Hop-Off Wine Tour ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · Adelaide Hills and Hahndorf destinations ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · Adelaide Hills and Hahndorf destinations ↩
- TrailHopper (operator official site) · How it works ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Good drop ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Iconic experiences ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Good drop ↩
- Visit Adelaide Hills (official regional tourism organisation) · Seasons ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · Our story ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · Our story ↩
- Adelaide Hills Wine Region (adelaidehillswine.com.au) · Our story ↩