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Food and Wine

The enjoyment of food and wine is integral to the experience offered by every luxury lodge of Australia and the culinary standard at all properties is outstanding as would be anticipated. Quality ingredients, fresh produce, wine lists with great depth, are a common theme to be enjoyed by all guests. However, the food & wine experience offered by some properties is truly its reason for being, and for visitors for whom food and wine is a primary reason to travel, these properties will have a compelling attraction.....

Exceptional 'Restaurants with Rooms'

Appellation at The Louise, Cape Lodge and Lake House are outstanding examples of destination restaurants, with luxury accommodation co-located. These culinary destinations, or 'restaurants with rooms', have international and national recognitions at the highest level, and are a compelling reason to visit the region in which they are sited.

Restaurants with cooking schools

Cooking schools and exceptional hands on culinary experiences are offered by several of Australia's luxury lodges including Cape Lodge, Spicers Clovelly Estate  and Spicers Peak Lodge. 

Cape Lodge offers a Gourmet Retreat and Cooking School designed for culinary enthusiasts and those who appreciate the exclusive and tranquil surrounds of a boutique hotel. The cooking classes welcome participants from the complete novice through to the experienced enthusiast.

The Long Apron at Spicers Clovelly Estate and the eponymous Spicers Peak Lodge Restaurant, both highly respected restaurants, offer cooking schools and specialist cooking retreats. At Spicers Clovelly Estate, the Saturday Long Apron Cooking Schools cater for four-to-eight guests and include lunch, wine, full recipes, and more. Spicers Peak Lodge cooking and culinary retreats are hosted throughout the year and are part of all inclusive packages..  

Food & Wine Regions

So often the wine region culture begets a strong food culture and vice versa. The two simply go hand in hand. Australia’s reputation as a premium wine-producing country is undisputed. Wine lovers from around the world are drawn to the ‘home’ of the wines they have tried, savoured and loved. The Louise Barossa Valley, Cape Lodge Margaret River, Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in the Orange, Mudgee, Hunter Valley triangle, Spicers Peak Lodge on the Granite Belt and Southern Ocean Lodge on Kangaroo Island offer an entree to these wine regions, and very often, a personal connection with the winemakers and characters who live there.

Paddock to Plate

An increasingly important consideration for so many people is the origin of the food they eat and enjoy. This consideration is a fundamental part of the food philosophy for many of the luxury lodges of Australia,

Celebrated as Australia’s culinary capital, the rich soils and pure rains of South Australia inspire artisan growers to produce a bounty of premium, fresh and often organic food and wines. Southern Ocean Lodge and The Louise pay tribute to the fine local ingredients of the South Australia, and particularly their local regions of Kangaroo Island and the Barossa Valley.

Seasonal, regional and largely organic are recurring themes for these properties, and for the Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa chefs, who draw their inspirational the produce of regional New South Wales and for Alla Wolf-Tasker of Lake House, who has been at the forefront in establishing the Daylesford region and a food, produce and dining mecca.

Culinary Destinations

Fast Facts

 

Australian Wine Region Seasons

The vividly changing seasons in the wine regions of Australia are spectacular. The long, hot, lazy summer days when the grapes ripen on the vines lead to harvest (vintage), is when the regions are rich with the aroma of crushed grapes and the 24 hour sounds of harvest. Depending on the region vintage can start as early as January and end as late as May. Budburst, in springtime, when the winter browned vineyards turn to lime-green and appear to almost quiver with life occurs August through October.