Orange Wine Week 2012

Mr L'Orange and I got our hands on the new Orange Wine Week 2012 brochure yesterday and are very excited about the programme for late October. This year's festival is jam packed with good stuff, the tough job will be selecting just a few events to attend.

The bar has definitely been raised and there is now an excellent range of wine related events throughout the week with a good mix of casual and formal. If you were thinking of making a visit, then leave your children behind and come to Orange for Wine Week which takes place from 20-28 October 2012. 

This year there are guest chef appearances from Tony Bilson, Kate Bracks the Masterchef winner and Peter Kuravita. These events have a matching guest chef price tag so be prepared to spend big, perfectly fine if you can spare the cash or want to do something unique for a special occasion. As DIY consumes almost all of our savings, we are going for the more ‘value for money’ options and my top picks for Orange Wine Week 2012 include:

Burgundian Lunch at the Old Convent with De Salis Wines

Josie Chapman is one of our favourite chefs in Orange and the Old Convent is one of the most lovely venues in the area. So the fact that they are doing a lunch accompanied by De Salis wines (another of our favourites) for the very reasonable price of $50 is a no brainer. Who else wants to join us? On both weekends during Wine Week.

Live DJ and Vietnamese pork rolls at Philip Shaw Wines

Relaxing in the sunshine whilst sipping wine, listening to music and munching on Vietnamese culinary delights sounds like the perfect Sunday to me. At $8 per person, this option is great for groups of friends/family and is pretty casual which in my view is what wine drinking is all about. Taking place both weekends during Wine Week.

Printhie Sparkling Launch at the Byng St Store

As this event is free and just around the corner from our house it immediately caught my eye. We will definitely be popping along to sample the new Printhie sparkling, meet Drew Tuckwell the wine maker and get to see the Byng St Store with its exciting wine bar set up.

BUG Bicycle Ride – 50km around the region 

I think I need to go into training to be able to complete this one, however it is a great way to get more people involved in cycling and to see the region from a new perspective. I would personally recommend using a mountain bike as the roads in Orange are shocking for bumps and potholes. Free event - meeting at the Byng St Store at 10.00am on 28th October.

Night Markets at Robertson’s Park 

Always a good opportunity to try lots of wines in a short space of time without the trouble of driving. Arrive early to avoid disappointment as food runs out and queues get long otherwise. Free event you simply buy what you wish to eat and drink. Taking place from 5.30pm on Friday 26 October.

Hopefully some of these suggestions have tempted you to book in a visit to Orange or get your friends and family up for the weekend for some Orange Wine Week action. 

To see the full brochure of Orange Wine Week events click here. If you are needing accommodation, there is always the Dalton St Studio for the perfect home away from home mini break!

Australia's Top Cellar Doors

Fans of Gourmet Traveller Wine may have read in the latest edition, (March/April 2012) the article about Australia’s top cellar doors. 

The deck view at De Salis

It is a great resource for planning a wine trip as the kindly wine writers have done all the wine tasting and research for you, all you need to do is turn up.

 

De Salis Interior

De Salis Wines Cellar Door

You may be interested to learn that our wine trip to South Australia last year featured the same two cellar doors that have been recommended for McLaren Vale and one recommended for the Barossa Valley – so we are clearly not too bad at picking goodies! For more info on our South Australian wine weekend click the link. 

Patina Wines Cellar Door

The top cellar doors within Orange are Patina Wines, Philip Shaw Wines and De Salis Wines. All three of these cellar doors are fabulous and totally deserving of the this top accolade. 

The gorgeous Chanetelle at the Patina cellar door

Patina Sticky Tea Riesling

The gardens at Patina Wines

Next time you are in Orange, make sure you put these cellar doors on your hit list.

The entrance to Philip Shaw Wines

Proof I am a regular visitor

F.O.O.D Week Forage

Lou ready for action

On Saturday, Lou, Mr L'Orange and I, joined over 600 others on the F.O.O.D Week Forage, which is basically a meander through the countryside stopping frequently for food and refreshments. We set off by bus from Union Bank on an absolute stunner of a day and travelled to our first stop Koomooloo Vineyard, home to Philip Shaw Wines.

Mr L'Orange warming up

Our handy wine glass holders

After a glass of Edinburgh bubbles and a big chunk of gallantine we got our 'Forage briefing' and were encouraged to try the grapes on the vines, eat and drink plenty and to relax and take our time. I filled up with a splash of Word of Mouth Pinot Noir to help me get the few hundred metres to station number 2.

The views from our next stop were beautiful and made all the better by some tasty lamb and lentil soup by Bistro Cello and my favourite wine of the day Cumulus Chardonnay.

Delicious wine, poured by winemaker Debbie Lauritz.

The food on Forage was all prepared by local chefs and tops restaurants in the area. My favourite dish was the venison with beetroot risotto. Lou meanwhile loved the panacotta with fig and crumble.

Station 3 offered the divine Brangayne Pinot Noir accompanied by a mushroom pie made by Tony Worland from Tonic. The pie was made from scratch and very tasty however, the inside was scalding hot and the pie would disintegrate with each bite making it seriously lethal. Mr L'Orange and I walked away from station 3 with scalds on our lips, hats and stains all down our clothes - sexy!

What a spot for lunch

Our favourite stop was station 4, as it had views over a pretty dam, live acoustic guitar music, awesome food and great red wines. A group of tipsy OAP's were even up dancing/skipping much to the amusement of everyone watching.

It was getting hot so we headed off in search of some shade and a bit more Forage action. After struggling up a slight incline, we were rewarded at station 4 with a delicious apple, lime & mint sorbet and a glass of Moscato - yum!

Enjoying the sorbet

Sitting in the shade of the vines

We finished off our Forage at Orange Highland Wines & Gardens, where there was another band (catering to the older market) and a selection of cheeses, dessert and coffee. We got the chance to mingle in the beautiful gardens with the walkers from other groups and to sample just a few more wines before getting on the bus for home.

The end of a perfect day

If you haven't tried a Forage before, it is definitely something to add to your 'must do' list, an amazingly well organised day out that made memories which will be treasured for a long time.

Red Lantern Comes To Orange

The Red Lantern dinner at Koomooloo, the Philip Shaw Vineyard was fantastic, even without Luke Nguyen there. I have to admit I was wondering before I arrived how the guests would cope in a big tent in the garden on a cold Orange night but the event certainly surpassed all my expectations.

As our taxi drove up the long driveway there were lantern bags scattered all the way along it, their subtle and orange glow was just beautiful and set the scene for what was to be a perfect evening.

We arrived with our wine friends Mel & Dan and enjoyed a glass of the architect chardonnay and got the chance to meet some of the other guests. We enjoyed delicious Vietnamese fish cakes with a spicy dipping sauce and the freshest duck rice paper rolls with hoi sin sauce that just made you want to double dip it was so delicious!

We moved into the marquee for the main meal and found it was nice and cosy and decorated with red lanterns which gave it a lovely Asian inspired look. We all began scanning through the vast menu to see what would be coming out – there was certainly no lack of food.

We started off with ‘The Dreamer Viognier’ and my favourite the “Number 11 Chardonnay’ matched with a pork and chicken noodle salad and some delicious prawns. Next up was an awesome dish where we had to roll either chicken, pork or beef skewers in some fresh lettuce and mint leaves with another delicious sauce poured over the top. The flavours were all perfectly matched and the taste was sublime.

My favourite course of the night was the goat curry which again was full of flavour and a perfect match to the Philip Shaw reds we drank with it. A real highlight of the evening was when Lucy Yore sang and played the Ukelele for us – she has the most beautiful voice and everyone listened transfixed.

Pauline Nguyen and Mark came and spoke to us all about their lives and books and about the food selected for the dinner which was really interesting and convinced us to buy multiple books before going home.

We finished off the evening with a glass of Philip Shaw Blanc de Blanc sparkling and a banana slice with tapioca. The all too soon it was time to head home after what was a truly fantastic night. The Red Lantern and Philip Shaw team did an amazing job to pull of such an event with style and panache. Mr L’Orange and I agreed that it had been one of our most favourite evenings in Orange since we arrived.

We had some great company, amazing food and excellent wines – what more could we ask for?