Lifestyle & Entertainment
30 September, 2026
100 years on canvas, 25 in the bottle
ONE hundred years after Sir Arthur Streeton painted one of western Victoria’s most celebrated landscapes, the country he captured on canvas will be at the centre of a special celebration at Great Western. Grampians Estate owners Tom and Sarah Guthrie will host the Land of the Golden Fleece Streeton Wine Lunch on Saturday, October 10, marking both the centenary of Streeton’s famous 1926 painting and the 25th anniversary of the first vintage of their Streeton Reserve Shiraz.
The four-course lunch at Grampians Estate’s Great Western cellar door will feature food by chef Dean Sibthorp matched with Grampians Estate wines, including two vintages of Streeton Reserve, as part of Grampians Wine Month.
But behind the lunch is a remarkable connection between a painting, a family and the landscape stretching from Willaura towards the Grampians.
For Sarah, that connection goes back to her childhood.
“That represents 26 years of my life, because that’s what I woke up looking at,” she said.
The painting is Land of the Golden Fleece, Streeton’s sweeping 1926 view across Yarram Park near Willaura towards the Grampians.
Sarah grew up at Yarram Park, and the landscape Streeton put on canvas decades before she was born remains instantly familiar.
“What’s magnificent about it is that it’s a real sense of place for me,” she said.
“When I see the real thing, I nearly always burst into tears.
“It’s so magnificent.”
Streeton was already one of Australia’s most celebrated landscape painters when, aged 59, he stayed at Yarram Park with his friend Walter Cain in 1926.
He painted three versions of Land of the Golden Fleece, capturing the pastoral country beneath the Grampians.
Tom grew up at Rich Avon near Donald before moving in 1980 to his family’s Thermopylae property, which neighbours Yarram Park.
It was there that he and Sarah first met.
They now live at Thermopylae, beside the landscape that remains so familiar in Streeton’s painting.
“For us, it’s our sense of home,” Tom said.
“It tells you where the wine comes from.
“It’s part of our story.”
And if Streeton returned to paint the scene today, Sarah reckons he would find one significant addition.
“If Arthur came back and painted it now, he’d be really, really happy because right on the far right-hand side he’d probably have to paint our vineyard in there now,” she said.
The first 1.6 hectares of what would become the Grampians Estate vineyard were planted in 1989, with the first wines produced in 1995.
Land of the Golden Fleece became an important part of the winery’s identity, appearing on its labels well before Streeton’s name was given to its premium Shiraz.
By 2000, Tom could see the maturing vineyard beginning to produce richer Shiraz.
The following year, he and Sarah decided to select their best fruit for a reserve wine.
“We thought, let’s give this a crack,” Tom said.
The first Streeton Reserve Shiraz was produced from the 2001 vintage.
“From then on, all the best fruit was going into the Streeton,” Tom said.
It did not take long for the wine to make its mark.
There was no 2002 Streeton after a poor season, making the 2003 vintage only the second produced.
In 2005, it was named best Shiraz at the National Wine Show in Canberra, with James Halliday and Len Evans presenting the trophy at Parliament House.
Only months later, the 2006 Grampians bushfires swept through the Guthries’ property.
About a third of the Shiraz vines survived and the remainder had to be replanted.
Rather than making Tom question whether it was worth starting again, however, the national trophy had shown him what the vineyard was capable of producing.
“I just thought, wow, that vineyard can produce some special wine,” he said.
“It has to be replanted.”
The Streeton Reserve survived the interruption and has gone on to collect numerous trophies and medals.
Tom believes its success ultimately comes back to the place Streeton captured a century ago.
“We’re just lucky that the combination of soil, climate, and that mix where it’s hot enough to really ripen Shiraz properly, but cool enough to get this peppery characteristic in the Shiraz,” he said.
“We live in the right spot to make this.”
The October 10 lunch will give Tom and Sarah the chance to bring those threads together, taking guests through the history of the wines and their connection to Streeton and the landscape.
The Land of the Golden Fleece Streeton Wine Lunch will run from noon to 4pm at Grampians Estate, Great Western.
Tickets are $155, with bookings available online through TryBooking by searching “Land of the Golden Fleece Streeton Wine Lunch”.
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