Russo Estate Winery

Rita and Joe Russo planted their first vines at Diggers Rest in 2000, with no farming background and, by their own account, misplaced optimism. The estate sits on the same ground where Harry Houdini made Australia's first controlled powered flight in March 1910. That history gives the place an unlikely footnote — and the wines, now award-winning after a long learning curve, an equally unlikely origin story.