A regional farming centre that has become one of Australia's leading wine growing areas. The wineries of Rutherglen are famous for their full bodies dry red table wines and fortified wines. The muscat and tokay styles are sometimes described as having no worldwide equal. At Gehrig's Estate they have been pressing grapes into wine continuously since 1858. The main street of Rutherglen maintains its historical charm, with most of the shop fronts retaining the same look they had a century ago.
Every Queen's Birthday long weekend in June, Rutherglen swells to the size of nearly 20,000 people on the occasion of the Winery Walk-a-bout. Another wine festival, The Tour de Muscat, takes place here on the first weekend in November. Visit Rutherglen
Location: 40 km west of Albury on the Murray Valley Highway, and 10 kilometres from the Murray River at the state border towns of Wahgunyah and Corowa. Map
Brief history: hot on the heals of pastoralists in the 1840s came Lindsay Brown, who planted the first vines in 1851. A healthy wine industry developed but was destroyed in 1899 by the vine disease, phylloxera. They were later replanted and the area has become one of Victoria's major wine producing regions.
Origin of name: the town was named after the Scottish town of Rutherglen which lies just outside Glasgow.
Points of Interest: Lake Moodemere; All Saints Winery Wahgunyah (c.1880); former Customs House, Wahgunyah (1886); Mt. Ophir Winery (1891-1903); Victoria Hotel (1868); 'Olive Hills' (1885-86); heritage listed buildings in the township.