It started when the Cupitts decided to dig a wine cave. Rosie Cupitt spends a couple of months a year running small-group food and wine tours in France and Italy, and admires traditional European winemaking methods, where it is common for cellars to be built underground.

Their cellar is a neat, rectangular room built into the green slope overlooking rolling green hills, with lovely, solid-wood doors made from timber recycled from the old David Jones department store in Brisbane. Wine in barrels can be damaged when there are climate fluctuations of more than a few degrees, and most Australian cellars are air-conditioned to maintain a constant temperature, but by going underground the Cupitts created a stable atmosphere of 16C to 17C for developing and ageing their range of white and reds.

Inside it is cool, and while much of the floor is concreted, the barrels themselves rest on bare earth. Rosie Cupitt says the moisture from the earth prevents the old oak barrels in which most of the wine is stored from drying out, which again helps to maintain the temperature at which it is kept.

She also uses lees contact in several of her white wines, including the chardonnay, sauvignon and viognier. Lees is a term for the bits of yeast and other solids that form as the wine ferments, and Cupitt says it means a more complex flavour. She ferments her sauvignon partly in barrel, and combined with the lees contact, it gives the wine a fuller flavour. ''[The lees contact gives] it a nice structure in the mouth, and a bit of creaminess, and more mouth feel,'' she says.

Her aim has been to bring some of the more traditional, European winemaking methods to her cellar.

''French and Italian wines are brilliant, and Australian wines are great too, but I think it's just adding a little bit of those traditional, old-style methods, and combining them with the newer style as well, that maybe gives you a bit more flavour in your wines,'' she says.

In the meantime, Cupitts' winery has become a destination in its own right. Before the Cupitts took over, the 1851 stone creamery on the property had been rather under-used as a hay shed. The husband and wife team recognised its potential, converting the inside into a cellar door and office space. They re-roofed the building, but kept the exterior largely as is, lending a rustic charm to the place.

Then multi-skilled Rosie Cupitt, a former horticulturalist, landscaped the grounds in a French provincial style, and the couple established an adjoining restaurant, the Vineyard Kitchen, serving French-inspired food.

''We just thought we'd do a cellar door and table for 20, then we visited friends in the Yarra and they said the best way to get people drinking more of your wine is to build a restaurant, so we did,'' she laughs.

But the restaurant certainly seems more than an afterthought. With glass doors overlooking the gorgeous view, the location alone lends something of a wow factor. Head chef Russell Chinn was classically trained in French cooking, and worked at Michelin-starred restaurants the Waterside Inn, and the Greenhouse in Britain. The kitchen was not open when The Canberra Times visited.

Rosie is also passionate about using local, seasonal produce, and she established the Shoalhaven slow-food convivium.

''It's about enjoying food and appreciating where it comes from, it's good, clean and fair,'' she says of slow-food principles. To that end, much of the beef used in the Vineyard Kitchen is grown on site, visitors can even see the herd from their tables, and Rosie Cupitt plans to buy sheep in the second half of this year, and start making her own sheep's cheese. She will take lessons in Europe before she starts.

If you think all that sounds like too much work for just two people, you would be right. Since they started out, the Cupitts' adult children, have become partners in the business, which Cupitt says is ''fabulous.'' On the June long weekend, they plan a long-table lunch, wine tastings, a food and wine pairing dinner, and a Cornish cream morning tea. All Cupitts will be on deck.

About an hour north, through Nowra, another family-run winery has a similar focus on seasonal produce. At Mountain Ridge Winery, Monique and Barry Starkey and their five boys make a range of white wines, and recently branched into brewing their own beer. But it is their range of sweet, homemade liqueurs that makes this friendly, rambling place unique.

The Starkeys took over the property in 2005, before which it had been used as a hobby farm by a wealthy Sydneysider.

They planted their vines, and then wondered what to do with the more than 300 macadamia nut trees on site.

The small, squat trees give nuts this time of year, when the macadamias fall to the ground, and must be collected before birds swoop in from the hills.

They came up with the idea of using the nuts to make their own liqueurs.

Barry Starkey is reluctant to give much away about how he makes his liqueurs, beyond saying it was trial and error. However, he will reveal that he uses a chardonnay base, and cracks the nuts by hand, using a large iron nutcracker. He has also branched into other fruit liqueurs, including strawberry, watermelon, orange and peach, using fruit grown on the property or from the surrounding area.

A good liqueur should maintain the flavour of the produce, he says.

''It's utterly smooth, you can smell and taste macadamias all the way down to the tummy,'' he says.

The liqueurs may be their drawcard, but the Starkeys are also living proof that wineries can be run sustainably.

A large solar panel near the cellar door meets their electricity needs, and feeds back into the grid. Two watertanks also provide more than enough water to run the business, which, despite the initial investment, has kept costs minimal.

The family will be on hand to talk liqueurs and green produce this June long weekend, with tastings, food and live music, and face painting for the kids.

Larissa Nicholson is a staff feature writer.