food&wine
Patrick Haddock shares the best of Canberra's regional food
offerings and his pick of wineries worth dropping in at.
I
t's hard to believe that when you are in
the midst of the capital, surrounded by
the pomp of government, you are only
a 35-minute drive from one of Australia's
most exciting emerging regions: the Canberra
district wine region.
And it's not just wine that has the locals
and visitors excited; there's also a fine line in
produce from this proud part of Australia.
Only around three hours' drive from Sydney,
the Canberra district wine region extends
from Lake George through to Bungendore,
just off the highway, and then back through to
Murrumbateman, and there are plenty of mustsee sites along the way.
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There are 33 wineries within a short drive
of the capital, offering a broad range of styles –
though according to the pioneering winemakers
of the region, the unequivocal stars of the show
are shiraz and riesling, two varieties that have
found a comfortable home in the district.
If you were to choose two people in the
Canberra wine region who had made a specialty
of these varieties, Ken Helm would be the
riesling guy and Tim Kirk the shiraz man.
Helm has been making riesling in the
district since the early '70s and believes that
the region makes world-class examples of it.
"I love the Canberra region because it produces
consistently great wines," he enthuses.
