Riversands Vineyards

Riversands is on the banks of the Balonne River in the southwest corner of Qld. It is a mixed wine grape and table grape business, acquired by present owners Alison and David Blacket in 1996. Its extensive vineyards are planted to sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, white muscat, black muscat, ruby cabernet, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and merlot. They say that no publicity is bad publicity, but Riversands made the national news with harvested grapes making their way to dry land on a home-made pontoon made out of empty 44-gallon drums during the floods of 2011. A special label commemorating the survival of the floods will be released in due course. -JAMES HALLIDAY