Sunday Sojourn to Barossa

My first weekend back from my interstate trip I made my third trip down to Barossa Valley with my friend Andrea who also lives at KLC and her colleague Susannah.

The trip was inspired by the Food & Wine Festival in the Barossa Valley that took place last weekend. (Personally speaking this is about the 100th such foodie festival I have heard about in my last seven months here Down Under so I don't get how 'special' these events are.) Although, keeping this in mind I have never actually attended a food & wine festival in Oz, so the trip was long overdue.

We started off early Sunday morning leaving North Adelaide after a pitstop for some hot coffee from Cibo at around 10.30 a.m. St. Hallet's was the first winery we visited after making the hour long drive to the Germanic wine region.

Andrea jokes about how she "just had one bottle of wine!" Did she forget to mention it was a supersized bottle though?! Andrea from Frankfurt is our resident German expert. (She is working and doing research at the Royal Adelaide Women and Children's Hospital, in case your wondering) On our trip she pointed out that the so -called Germanic architecture is not really typical of Deutcheland! Strange...

The St. Hallet's Cellar Door is sleek with a sense of modern edginess, in terms of design their interestingly displayed, using wide windows and natural lighting to their optimum. We sampled a couple of their wines, although nothing really captivated us here.

Below is a snapshot of the Jacobs Creek arch - this is an interesting point as it is a point which the Tour Down Under cyclists pass on their route! Bet you didn't know that!

Next stop: Vine Crest. Again we popped in swished wine around in our glasses, what stood out for me was a Tempranillo made from black grape varieties. The charachteristic full-body was evident although the mouthfeel and consistency seemed rather watery and flabby too me.

(I am trying my new wine vocab - so please bear with me if I don't seem to be making too much sense, I have to start somewhere right?!)

Maggie Beer's Farm Shop ~ This was truly the best part of the day! Maggie Beer is to Australia what Martha Stuart is to the United States. And Beer is very proudly South Australian. She has her own television show, several cookbooks and a range of products. The Beer Bros. Shop features a restaurant cum cafe` that overlooks a picturesque blue lake and all the produce from pate to pickles and verjuice to icecream.

We sampled the wines, a limited range with nothing spectaular. The Dessert Bubbles which is non-alcoholic is delightful and a must try!

At 2 p.m. everyday there is a cooking demonstration that we were too early for unfortunately. But a good idea to plan around if you intend on making the trip.

And there is a pheasant farm in the back that I assume are used for her fabulously delicious Pheasant Farm Pate. There are also a couple of handsome peacocks!


Seppeltsfield vineyard is one of the largest and most historic in the Barossa Valley, having been initially planted in the 1850s. A sprawling 100 hectares of Barossa valley is planted with Seppelts traditional grapes varieties Shiraz and Grenache, with Cabernet Sauvignon as well as traditional European fortified varieties of Touriga (for VP –‘vintage port” style) and Palomino (for the “sherry” styles). The Palomino is simply gorgeous. It is extremely crisp and dry with a sublte nuttiness and great finesse. I bought a bottle to go with the Lobster Bisque that will feature on my birthday menu!!!

The atmosphere at Seppelts was lively. Susannah and Andrea decided it was time to chow down after all the exhausting wine tasting!
Grilled Salmon Fillet with Squid Ink Pasta and Baby Rocket

Something sweet of course ... Brownie Mud Cake with cream
The final stop for the day was Sieber Wines, their estate situated on the red soils of Western Barossa. We chanced upon this place mainly because of Andrea's interest in the menu featured on the festival brochure that read Bratwurst, Sauerkraut, Potato Salad and Pickles... she was craving a taste of home that we just had to indulge. However the sausages were dissapointing - supermarket sourced, probably Coles and the rest not worth talking about.


Australian Lamb... mmmmmmm!!!
Armed with coffee Susanah and Andrea are ready for the drive back into the city. Lil ol' me on the otherhand gulped down the latte and snuggled into the back seat for a comfy snooze!

The Hills Are Alive...

My second week into gastronomic tourism takes us into the Adelaide Hills to meet with the owner of Udder Delights, Sheree and to the cellar door of Bird in Hand winery.

Udder Delights has been operating out of Lobethal since 1999 and originally only produced Goat's milk cheeses but has introduced a range of cow's milk cheeses recently.



Their cheeses incude Goat Curd with a light texture and tangy finish, Chevre with a gorgeous subtle flavour with a delightfully creamy texture, Goat Feta, Goat Camembert - the most characteristic of the lot, a mellow Goat's Brie, Aged Ashed Goat Cheese (my fav) as well as two Jersey Milk cheeses, Adelaide Hills Camembert and Adelaide Hills Brie, both which are utterly creamy. The Udder Delights Jersey Blue Cheese is superb - I am going back just for more of the blue!
Sheree stops to tell us that half the stuff on the menu is not available on our arrival!!!! What shitty luck huh!?! I was looking forward to trying their version of the pie floater - the Pie in the Sky, damn! Hugh doesn't seem impressed by this either...

My Cauliflour and Blue Cheese Soup with Herbed Bread above, and below Cari's gorgeous Toasted brushetta style bread with thick slices of creamy chevre and drizzled olive olio, caramelised onions accompanied by a rocket, pear and parmesan salad! Was really good - but a definte can do in your kitchen at home!

After that soup, I had to have something sweet - If anyone know me anyways - soup never qualifies as a 'real' meal according to me, and that soup was anything but hearty - flavourful yes, wholesome - no! So, this is what I'm talking about - a rich, indulgent, big slice of carrot and peccan cake with a good smoothering of yoghurt frosting and cream drizzled on with an expresso shot to keep me going for the rest of our afternoon....

If you can't make out what the blackboard says: Bird in Hand Rose` to be served at Wimbeldon again in 2008! So, I picked up a bottle of the stuff that looked awfully pretty - a blushing pink.

With a range of passable and well totally inconsequential oils and olives, they do a nice, wide range of wines, of which we sampled about nine!!! What an afternoon - I love my course! This is what all 'seminars' and 'excursions' should be like....

One valuable tip this lady taught me is that my uncomfortably dry mouth after drinking red wine is probably because of the high tannisin some red wines like Shiraz and Cab Sav, she suggests I stick to Merlot and Pinot ... so I'm gonna try it and see how it goes....

I'm turning Jap - a -nesa - I really think so!!! Cheeeese - time to be ultra ASIAN! The curly, blonde is Andrea my lecturer and tutor.

Newly engaged Cari is all smiles, brimming over with joy -joy - joy!!!!! AWWW!!!! And well those big Wimbeldon looking trophies are all the wine accolades Bird in Hand has recieved over the last couple years!

This is picturesque Adelaide Hills - what a view! I love it and I love being Down Under - I mean can it get more spectacular than this?!

And this is Andrea's cute little beatle - I want one in pink - hint, hint - mum, dad, Sameer -anyone!!!!!

Gastro Tourism Begins With a Bang!

Back to Uni and Winter School, the first day back was wonderful. After our morning lecture we headed out to McLaren Vale to visit Producers of McLaren Vale: Tori Moreton and David Arbon, passionate regional producers and growers of growers of mostly dry grown and organic fruits farmed for flavour making wine, olive oil, preserves, vinegar and apple cider. The two enjoy sharing the good life, with hands on gastronomic toursism experience offered using only regional produce from McLaren Vale and the entire Fleurieu Peninsula.

This is the courtyard view that welcomes you as you enter - the limetrees are just surreal and it looks picture perfect - something out of a movie! It was a truly beautiful day and a remarkable afternoon...

A fireplace was lit when we arrived adds to the old world charm of McLaren, while the sleek furniture, precise angles and large French windows add a contemporary touch.

Tori had lunch prepared, and we sat down to a 'Shared Table' ... a rustic meal that was absolutely delightful.


Crusty, freshly baked bread was gorgeous with Tori's very own pressed pungent, peppery, rich olive oil with a neon shine to it. She had a green salad pf letuce and one of wild rocket, parmesan and pear tossed up.

Heather is seated on the left, Peter in the middle and Tori on the right.

A hearty tomato based soup with sliced duck and cannellini beans finished off with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and topped with deliciously succulent black olives and almonds. The perfect winter lunch! Warming and delicious while not too heavy...

We continued learn more about Toris gastronomic tourism business over some local Blue Cheese and Quince Paste. Yum - mo!


The best truly came last - this cake was mind blowing! I mean the depth of flavour - WOW! I was just bowled over by the zesty, fruitiness of the orange bits in the cake and how moist and delicate it was. I mean it tasted as if there was semolina in there binding it together, with the distinct richness of pure almond paste, but Tori said she had used no semolina just almonds!! Now we're talking quality ingredients - and well I had one piece and stopped right there.

This expresso was just what we needed to perk us up and help is into the car for the hours drive back into Adelaide.

Cari shows off her ring! Yes, this girl is getting M-A-R-R-I-E-D! Her boyfriend of five years popped the question in Sydney and they celebrated by the Opera Bar with a glass of bubbly! How romantic is that... Congratulations to the happy couple!!!!!

Architect Max Pritchard has cleverly designed a luxurious space that inspires creativity. There is endless amount of energy and activity that flows through, and with an attached processing room, commmercial kitchen, cellar and dining rooom wrapped around a Spanish style courtyard, well there are so many things to try, uplive and experience.

We all bought a bottle of her fabulous olive oil with the deep peppery charachter and well we all took home a preserve to sample, and will probably exchange notes during the week. I took home a fig, almond and honey jam and Amy got a fig and cardamom. Sharil tried the mulberry and peach - soooo hard to choose they all sound delish!