Our Story
We found our roots in Diggers Rest in August 1994, with beaming smiles, big dreams and grand plans.
We couldn’t have guessed that our persistence and hard work would have led us to achieve those ambitious plans that were dreamt up so long ago. With little to no experience in farming, we planted our first vines in 2000.
Of course, we thought it would be easy, but we soon learned that things are easier said than done. Mistakes have been made and lessons have been learned, but over the years we have grown to now produce award-winning wine, which we are so proud of.
Our first picking with family and friends in 2006 is a treasured memory that led us to the first bottling here on the Estate.
We hope you find Russo Estate to be a home away from home and we would like to welcome you all to our family.
Kindest regards,
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Rita & Joe Russo
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What The Name How?dini Wines?
On March 18, 1910 whilst on a visit to Australia and in a Voisin biplane (purchased for US$5,000 in Hamburg, Germany prior to the trip - see Hamburg images below), Harry Houdini made the first controlled, powered flight of an airplane in Australia, at Digger's Rest in Victoria, Australia over Russo Estate Winery.
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The magic of flight, he later wrote, was in the "glorious thrill" of first adventure, and "not in minor modification which is perpetual in any art."
Houdini, as well as being the first to make a controlled powered flight in Australia, also seems to be the first aviator here to have documented the event on film
