Rossair brings Mayura beef, Coonawarra wines within easy reach
Wagyu secrets are revealed on a trip with a difference to South Australia’s Limestone Coast.
Mark Wright fossicks around in a mound of drab beef feed.
“Here we go.” He pulls out a fistful of grain with brightly coloured bits of candy.
“It’s our secret ingredient.”
Who knew? Apparently the secret to producing some of the most prized beef cuts in the world is hiding real lollies — snakes, jelly beans and chocolates — in a feed of specially blended grains.
If the truth is in the tasting, then Wright and his team at Mayura Station, 400km southeast of Adelaide and 55km north of Mount Gambier, are on to something.
The Mayura team produces some of the world’s best full-blood wagyu beef, most of it exported around the world, where it sells in top restaurants for more than $1200 a kilogram.
The wagyu bred in this rural setting on South Australia’s picturesque, lush Limestone Coast are fed pasture grass, specially blended grains … and 2.5kg of sweets to help stimulate their appetite and derive better nutrients from their other feed, Wright explains.
For those who make the effort to get along to The Tasting Room at Mayura Station, a genuine paddock-to-plate experience awaits.
Of course, usually you have to book weeks in advance to get a perch on the “chef’s table”, where you sit along a kitchen bench for a front-row seat while Wright cooks a set three or four-course menu showing off different cuts of the beef.
Today, our party has its own private plane and pilot, and having flown into the small town of Millicent nearby, we are quickly accommodated. You can of course drive, as most do from Adelaide or Melbourne, but the distance is what stops most people from coming here.
Planning a trip to the Limestone Coast — a diverse region located in the southeast of South Australia, adjoining the coastline and the Victorian border — usually entails setting aside a decent chunk of time.
This is where Adelaide company Rossair comes in.
Traditionally, the company has catered only for the mining sector, flying personnel to regional locations for work.
However, it is shifting its focus to travel and tourism, with the offshoot Rossair Travel spruiked as “a travel company, not just an airline”.
Given our food-loving culture and the associated boom in gastronomic travel are showing no signs of waning, it has been a smart business decision.
Aside from tapping into the corporate market, the new Adelaide airport-based venture will soon be catering to thousands of Chinese tourists coming into South Australia on the first direct services by China Southern Airlines, flying between Guangzhou and Adelaide.
Luxury packages on offer include Kangaroo Island, the Flinders Ranges, the Murray River and the Eyre Peninsula. You can also design your own package — the benefit of having your own plane.
Travelling with Rossair on its Coonawarra Wine Experience, we met at a private lounge at Adelaide airport for morning tea before boarding a Cessna Conquest 441, which can fit eight passengers.
A relaxed 45-minute flight later, we were landing on a small airstrip among the vines of the Coonawarra. Itineraries can be tailored, but typically involve a private winery tour and tastings before lunch at Hollick Wines’ impressive upstairs restaurant.
You can move on for more wine tastings elsewhere in the region, or stop over at Millicent for the wagyu experience on the way home. We were back in Adelaide by 5.30pm.
Private bookings cater for groups of six to eight people. The Coonawarra Wine Experience costs about $780 a person, all-inclusive.
Michael Owen travelled courtesy of Rossair Travel. rossairtravel.com.au; phone (08) 8234 4219.