Southern Highlands, NSW
Boutique wineries, cosy restaurants, an easy drive from Sydney – it’s a foodie’s dream destination.
The long and short of escape? The Southern Highlands is a destination that covers both. The home to towns such as Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale, Exeter, Bundanoon and Berrima is a 90-minute drive from Sydney. It’s theoretically even quicker in a new Mercedes E300 coupe, which the German car-marker kindly loaned for the trip, but needless to say I stuck to the speed limits.
That’s the short of it, and not just from a Sydneysider’s point of view. About 20 per cent of Australia’s population lives within three hours of the Highlands. That’s something local hotels, restaurants and wineries are keen to cash in on. But it’s not as simple as “build it and they will come”. The hope is to transform the area into a wine and food oasis that is dedicated but different, one that relies on small vineyards, different wines, cellar doors and word of mouth. It is quite deliberately setting itself up as an alternative to the places where busloads of tourists decamp into huge, household-name wineries that pump out reds and whites that are in every bottle shop.
That takes us to the long of it. First, there’s the immediate wonder and relaxation that comes with being so close to home yet feeling so far away. Then there’s the long, taste-bud-tingling, surprising, educative, sometimes idiosyncratic experience of spending time with people who are passionate about making their home a hearth for every visitor. They woo with wine no one has heard of and food that is prepared to match it. I can’t remember the last time I spent a few days in a place where everyone I met was happy.
I’ll combine the two longs now because it adds up to something that made me laugh. I saw a lot of animals while driving through the Highlands. Cows, naturally, but the beast that made my day (or night, as it was) was a huge wombat I spotted snacking by the side of the road. I’d like to pretend the Mercedes, a push-button car, emitted a marsupial alert signal, but in truth I saw him myself. Right or wrong, I stopped the car and shooed him into the bush. I have never seen such a large animal move so fast.
The next day, at the highly regarded Biota Dining in Bowral, I saw another marsupial – or bit of marsupial – when the bread was delivered in a kangaroo pouch (detached from the ’roo). Look, horses for courses and all that – and the bread was wonderful – but I think that’s taking the fauna immersion experience a little too far. Biota specialises in local produce, even when it irritates the chefs, such as the scorpion fish. “The chefs hate filleting them. They are really gnarly and spiky,” confided the charming sommelier, Ben Shephard.
My other half, Justine, and I had a five-course degustation menu, with wines paired with the dishes. I recommend this. If, like me, your matching of food and wine doesn’t even extend to “white with fish”, you will learn a lot. You will choose wines differently in the future. The waiters are super friendly and have that terrific combination of being knowledgeable but unserious. They can explain every dish to you down to the duck’s name, if you like, but they will also throw in a few jokes. The top dish, of the ones I tried, was indeed the scorpion fish – fillet more of them, dear chefs! – accompanied by a 2013 Sallys Corner Merlot from Exeter.
Biota’s main rival – and I say that based on the gossip I heard – is Eschalot Restaurant at Berrima. Owner-chef Richard Kemp was charming too (as I said, everyone here is happy). Eschalot, housed in an old sandstone cottage, is an older-feel, more intimate restaurant than the more modernist, spacious, Scandinavian-themed Biota. I’d suggest Biota for a group lunch and Eschalot for a romantic dinner (not necessarily on the same day).
As we’re talking about romance, Eschalot passed my No.1 culinary test: the freshness of an oyster ordered at 8.30pm. The Coffin Bay half dozen I had – natural, naturally – were so fresh they practically spoke to me. Of course the sparkling riesling from Artemis Wines at Mittagong may have been an influence. All the seafood I tried at Eschalot was superb, with the red snapper a highlight. The wine list is extensive, with a strong local influence. The restaurant also allows BYO wine from Wednesday to Friday.
We stayed at The Loch in Berrima. Now, if too much sanctuary is not enough for you (as it isn’t for me), this is the place to go. It’s a working farm, owned by Brigid Kennedy and Kevin Nott. When we turned up they were at the races at Randwick, but they had left us a key. Bliss! Later we did meet and they were lovely. There are just four guest suites in this rustic-themed but luxurious guest house, each named after a place in Scotland. We were in the Arran. It has just about the best bathroom I’ve ever seen, so much so that I did something I go years without doing: took a bath. The Loch runs a popular seasonal food day each Sunday, with lunch available, farm stalls and antiques on sale.
But back to the eating and drinking. If you feel like a break from the sophisticated food-and-wine matching, I suggest the Bendooley Estate Winery at Berrima, a large property that is popular for weddings. The restaurant is in the old book barn, the home base of the famous Berkelouw family of booksellers. The service here is brisk and the food and wine is simple and filling. You can have a burger for example, or a pizza. I was still in the fine dining mood so went for the 250g Black Angus eye fillet, shoestring fries (which were excellent) and the 2013 Bendooley Estate “Ex Libris” Merlot. How could I choose a different wine when I was surrounded by such wonderful books? Every time I looked up I saw the collected novels of the great Graham Greene. And I saw a fellow diner who looked like US novelist Jonathan Franzen. Who knows? There are lots of birds in the area and Franzen is a keen twitcher.
A fewer-frills option was one of my favourite stops on the trip. Not the Gumnut patisserie and pie shop at Bowral (though I did spend up there) but the aforementioned Artemis, owned by brothers Mark and Anton Balog, the seventh generation of a Croatian winemaking family.
Artemis makes great wines, including a sparkling riesling, a crisp, long sauvignon blanc and a light, French-influenced pinot noir called Close Vine (and they are; you can see them from the cellar door). There’s food on offer, including from a pizza oven. And there’s something extra, well-suited to palates such as mine: a home-made, on-tap craft beer. Wonderful. There are also home-grown ciders and meads, but I left those to the other half.
The IQ-lifting lessons came from Tony Cosgriff, a New Zealander who is winemaker at Centennial Vineyards in Bowral. Tony explained the state of play when it comes to growing grapes in a cooler spot such as the Southern Highlands. You need early ripeners and this lends itself to making sparkling wines, rieslings and rosés, which as it happens are three of my favourites, even more so after trying Tony’s Brut Traditionelle and Reserve Rosé. Tony was a beer-drinking chemistry student in NZ when he decided to branch into wine. There was no looking back. He showed us through his lab, which looked like something from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and explained how oak barrels mature and flavour wine. And there I was thinking they were just containers!
Tertini Wines at Mittagong is owned by Julian Tertini, one of the founders of budget homewares chain Fantastic Furniture. Well, the stools were comfortable as winemaker Jonathan Holgate took us through his list. He had just returned from judging an international riesling competition. Yes, some people have great jobs. But it was his 2015 pinot noir that won me over, for its texture and taste and for what I learnt from Jonathan is known as the “peacock’s tail” – the expansive fluttering that enlivens the back of your throat after the wine has gone down. Wow! I am now addicted to peacock’s tails, and I didn’t even know they existed before.
Each of the wineries we visited encapsulates one of the beauties of the push to make the Southern Highlands a go-to place for food and wine. They are small, accessible and welcoming. It’s like going to Paris and dodging the Eiffel Tower in favour of a cosy café that serves pichets of super-dry rosé. Well, that’s how I saw it at least, and I will be going back for more in a hurry.
Suites in The Loch guest house, Berrima, from $250 per night (weekend, two-night minimum) including breakfast hamper on arrival. Entire house (two nights, groups of up to eight) $2000. Mid-week rates available. theloch.net.au
2017 Mercedes Benz E-Class Coupé:more at mercedes-benz.com.au
The writer stayed as a guest of the operators and Destination NSW