East Gippsland a haven of good food and wine
Gastronomic adventures await in Victoria’s southeast.
1 Victoria’s pointy end is renowned as a food bowl, especially for fruit, vegetables, beef, seafood and dairy, but until recently the closest most visitors got to East Gippsland’s produce was when they passed trucks transporting it to Melbourne. That started changing in 2016 when chef Tanya Bertino returned to her little hometown of Lindenow after working at top restaurants such as London’s The Ledbury and Vue de Monde in Melbourne, more than three hours’ drive west. She forged relationships with local producers and turned the town’s former bakery (complete with 100-year-old Scotch oven) into an unassuming cafe-restaurant showcasing ingredients such as “Luke’s bacon” and Maffra cheddar. Recently lauded in The New York Times, The Long Paddock unites rusticity and refinement on mismatched vintage plates. Large windows reveal fields of lush vegetables across the street stretching as far as the eye can see, but diners can’t help looking at the glass cabinet’s fruity, nutty, chocolatey cakes and tarts beckoning beside jars of handmade jam; longpaddock.com.au.
2 In the popular summer holiday town of Lakes Entrance, where Bass Strait and the vast Gippsland Lakes share a cobalt-blue kiss, Red Bluff Brewers used Victoria’s long lockdown to raise the bar. The pop-up tap room is gone, replaced by a large, open space that’s new but for a wall of old corrugated iron. It was taken from owner-brewer Wayne Burnett’s farm shed, which was knocked over but not burnt during summer’s bushfires.
A Resilience pale ale, made to raise funds for bushfire victims, is among eight beers on tap. Others include the seasonal Blush and Desire strawberry gose (a pale wheat beer), soon to be joined by another summery brew made from local fruit. On Friday and Saturday nights, wood-fired, thin-crust pizzas pop out of a food truck that pulls up near a rotunda fondly known as the “beertunda”; redbluffbrewers.com.
3 Opened in 2017, Sardine was the restaurant that confirmed East Gippsland as an emerging food and wine destination. Visitors, including road-trippers on the Melbourne-to-Sydney coastal route, began stopping by to savour its hatted cuisine either amid understated contemporary decor or on the deck overlooking a narrow lake channel and Raymond Island, where honey for the panna cotta is harvested. The menu’s other regional ingredients include salty, crunchy seaside succulents also known as “beach herbs”, and there’s plenty of fishy business, such as smoked eel terrine and sardine tartlets. Numerous Gippsland wineries, particularly Lightfoot & Sons, are represented on the generous drinks list, as are cideries and breweries, including Sailors Grave; sardineeaterybar.com.
4 Like South Australia’s Coonawarra, Lightfoot & Sons is located on soil comprising the sought-after terra rossa on a bed of limestone. From the tasting room and deck, a deep layer of red earth is apparent in the exposed bluff overlooking an adjacent farm’s verdant vegetable fields. Rows of chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz vines roll away from the edge of the bluff, where birds of prey, including wedge-tailed eagles, hover in updraughts formed by Bass Strait breezes, if not gales. Sparkling wines, including Christmas-friendly shiraz, are highlights of this vineyard’s offerings, which can be enjoyed with cheese boards featuring creamy Tarago River Shadows of Blue and Lightfoot’s own handmade shiraz paste, also available to buy; lightfootwines.com.
5 Expat British chef Rob Turner’s Melbourne-meets-country cafe, Northern Ground, has made a name for itself after only one year of operation. On the road running through East Gippsland’s main town of Bairnsdale, it promises little from the outside, but the kitchen’s output is handsomely plated, next-level comfort food. Perhaps house-made crumpets and barbecued Lindenow broccolini with poached Forge Creek eggs for breakfast? Or lunchtime’s Maffra cheddar and caramelised onion tart with Picnic Point apple salad. Make a meal of it with drinks by the likes of Nicholson River Winery and Bullant Brewery; northernground.com.au.
6 Making “beers with bite” named after local landmarks, such as Mossiface pale ale and Tambo River pilsner, Bullant Brewery is proudly East Gippsland, though not without some German-style leanings. Several brews, including seasonal options, are on tap here beside the shiny 2000-litre copper brewing kettle. In-house food includes burgers, pizzas and some dishes probably unheard of in Gippsland until recently, such as Korean pork skewers, each with a suggested beer match. Bottles to go and Bullant-branded merchandise are also available, and on weekends bands sometimes play on the deck; bullantbrewery.com.
7 A Gippsland viticultural pioneer established in 1978, Nicholson River Winery produces European-style wines made to be enjoyed with food. Cheese and antipasto platters have long been offered at the cellar door, but the owners upped their game a year ago by building a 60-seat restaurant. Guided by seasonal regional produce, the menu is designed to complement Nicholson River’s single-estate wines made from nine varietals, including merlot and viognier. The eatery, which reopens Saturday, overlooks a picturesque bend in the eponymous river, and features a large mural that’s three parts Italian Renaissance, one part contemporary Gippsland; nicholsonriverwinery.com.au.
8 On a former dairy farm between the Great Dividing Range’s foothills and the Gippsland Lakes, sunny days and cool maritime breezes are ideal for Tambo Wine’s chardonnay vines, plus smaller plantings of sauvignon blanc, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir. Its five wines, including an unwooded chardonnay that conjures stone fruit and grapefruit, are available from the little cellar door that’s extra-cosy if the resident whippet, Italian greyhound and Russian blue cat sidle up. Enjoy a glass outside among citrus and olive trees; tambowine.com.au.
9 Bairnsdale’s Main Hotel was down and almost out before young chef Sekove Koroisamanunu came home from Hobart and turned things around. After the large dining room was made over with vintage wooden tables and chairs, retro framed prints and lots of love, the Main Hotel Bistraunt & Bar reopened in 2017 with mum, dad and his now-wife working the floor. They’re serving what reads, looks and tastes like big-city gastro-pub dishes, but for any doubters some classics are also available, such as chicken parma generously prepared with house napoli and speck. There are also good-value $14.50 lunches;
facebook.com/mainhotelbairnsdale.
BEST BEDS
10 From Rivendell farm’s highest point, green hills roll towards the horizon, where the sun rises frequently behind a sea of mist. That’s the view from the lounge chairs and private spa outside Bag End, a romantic retreat for two that has a round bedroom created from an old concrete water tank. An adjoining extension houses the bathroom, kitchenette and spacious living area with open fire and an eclectic vinyl collection and record player. Peacocks peer through the windows, and a dog or two will pop in at the slightest invitation. For groups there’s also the three-bedroom Arkenstone Cottage (Tolkien fans will have noticed a pattern by now); its modern lines conceal its former life as a milking shed. Steps away from both accommodation options is the gracefully renovated Victorian-era homestead, where meals can be prepared by the resident chef-gardener. He makes sourdough bread for local eateries, including Northern Ground, and is anticipating Rivendell’s first truffle harvest. Guests can also DIY using locally sourced ingredients augmented by the farm’s gardens and orchard, from finger limes to heirloom apples; rivendelleastgippsland.com.au.
Patricia Maunder was a guest of Destination Gippsland.
