AUGUST 7TH - AUGUST 16TH 2026
ORDINARY FESTIVALS HAPPEN IN THE DAYLIGHT
Dark Side of Wine. Ten nights. Fire and candlelight across one of Australia's most storied wine regions.
Step inside a heritage castle lit by thousands of candles for a live performance inside walls that have stood since the gold rush. Discover a hidden cinema past the Muscat barrels. Follow a murder unravelling beneath stone arches while the Muscat is poured and the suspects grow harder to read.
Sit at long tables in barrel rooms where winemaking families pour from their deepest reserves. Taste back vintages that exist in no catalogue. And on a clear August night, stand in a vineyard beneath a sky so thick with stars and so perfectly still that you stop, watch your breath in the air, and forget what you were talking about.
This is Rutherglen after dark. Firelight and the smell of char and oak and something sweet and ancient.
Three hours from Melbourne. Four from Canberra. One last chance to lose yourself somewhere extraordinary before winter is gone.
Come for the darkness. Stay for what it reveals.
Every experience is strictly limited. Some sell out within hours. Tickets are sold separately through each venue. There is no waitlist.
Winner, Best Wine Themed Event, Wine Communicators of Australia Awards.
DARK SIDE OF WINE 2026
QUESTIONS?
Dark Side of Wine is proudly brought to you by Winemakers of Rutherglen.