food&wine
Above, left
and right:
Rolling green vines
at Lark Hill Winery;
winemaker Tim
Kirk at Clonakilla.
"It's an easy drive from Sydney, the South
Coast and western New South Wales, and is set
in an ever-changing landscape driven by four
distinct seasons.
"We can drive to the coast for lunch, to
Sydney for the opera – or duck in to Canberra
for great restaurants, national art exhibitions
and shopping. The region has wonderful
villages and towns with histories dating back
to the 1820s – each provides an adventure."
A visit to Helm's cellar door to sample this
winemaker's fine rieslings should be on any
white-wine-lover's itinerary.
Kirk received his viticultural legacy from his
father, who had planted shiraz grapes decades
before. The younger Kirk travelled to France
and was smitten by the reds of the RhÔne
Valley that were co-fermented with viognier.
On his return to Australia in the late '80s, he
planted viognier grapes, and the rest is history.
Last year, there was a retrospective tasting of
20 years of Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier, a wine
that's gone on to become one of Australia's most
iconic reds.
The cool climate of Murrumbateman is
ideal for producing shiraz, says Kirk. "We
couldn't do blockbuster styles here even if we
wanted to. The wines are never more than
medium-bodied and, in some ways, have more
in common with pinot noir than the more
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