Cruising Nillumbik's vineyards
I live in Eltham on Melbourne's north eastern edge with just one more suburb before you are into Victoria's beautiful, nay stunning, hilly countryside. Our local council is Nillumbik and we live in the bottom corner of it. Most of Nillumbik is rural, and stretches towards the hills - the end of the Great Dividing Range which runs all the way down the east side of Australia. It is bounded by the Yarra River which gives its name to the Yarra Valley which is famous for its vineyards. The famous ones are not in Nillumbik, but Nillumbik has 30 odd, probably growing in number, small boutique vineyards. And interestingly there also seem to be an increasing number of olive orchards. They are mostly not open to the public - or very intermittently - but twice a year - well maybe more now - the Nillumbik Artisan Hills organisation - well the tourism people at the council, organise a weekend of open cellars, and we sometimes go. Last weekend was the spring version and so we got together with some friends and 'did' the Nillumbik vineyards.
Alas, weatherwise we chose the wrong day. It was cloudy, overcast and had been raining early in the morning. But, as I said to myself there is still a certain beauty in misty landscapes and I was right.
The picture at right is a bit dark, but I think it still shows how beautiful it is out there. The hills are rolling, the grass is green at this time of year and the vines too, the vistas are spectacular and the forests you drive through are very Australian. The picture was taken at Nillumbik Estate Winery which is one of the larger wineries one could visit. But even so it is tiny in comparison to some of the Yarra Valley wineries where millions have been poured in by multinational companies. They were very busy for they had a largish area in which people could eat, plus a singer for the day. And interestingly this vineyard was mostly populated by the young. We were the oldest there, which was not true of the others. I suspect they were there more for the view, and the food (pizza) than the wine. We didn't eat here - we had already eaten but we tasted their wines, though we did not buy. Not amazing and pretty expensive.
We had actually started our crawl with the local private school - Eltham College - which is literally just outside Eltham high on a hill looking out over Nillumbik towards Kinglake. They have a hospitality course at the school which includes running a small vineyard and a restaurant, called Swiper's Gully - lovely name. Here there was also an art exhibition, and we probably should have stayed for lunch which was tapas, but in the end we decided to move on, having tasted the wines and not been super impressed.
Next stop Panton Hill Winery. A very different set of buildings - sort of medieval/provençal - a bit like Montsalvat, the artist's colony in Eltham. Unbelievably for October, which I forgot to mention, it was also pretty cold and so there was a huge fire in their grate. The others tasted the wine, whilst I sat near the fire - I was soon going to be the driver for the day.
Again we did not buy any wine, but we did buy food and very nice it was too - two wonderful platters - the usual kind of thing but done very well with delicious bread. And a pizza - gluten free - for our friend with a very fresh tomato and cheese topping. I think even the passata on the base was home-made. It took a while to come but it was very nice. And I suspect this is where we sat out the last of the day's rain.
So we moved on to David's favourite - Shaw's Road - way out in the country in a most beautiful spot. They make one of David's very favourite wines and he was delighted to discover that not only did they have lovely wines to taste - he bought just a couple of bottles - but they also had some bargain cleanskins which were also pretty nice and such a bargain that we bought a dozen of the pinot noir and half of the chardonnay. Monika and I bought some olive oil that we have bought before from them - it's super - and we also eyed the very delicious looking cakes, but alas the men were not into cake and so we moved on to our final destination.
I should say though that Shaws Road also sell their wines at the Eltham and Hurstbridge markets and they have an outlet (and a very small vineyard) in Eltham itself. They are a modest but entertaining couple of guys. And I have to say their menu looked delicious. They open every third Sunday of the month. It's worth a trip.
Last stop - well a brief visit to Wedgetail Estate - expensive and not wonderful but lovely setting again - last stop - always our last stop, King's of Kangaroo Ground - also very close to home, sold in the market and great wine - though I notice that David didn't buy any this time. Mind you, by now he had his dozen of cleanskins so probably thought he didn't need any more. Ken King - an ex mayor of Nillumbik is very, very entertaining and ably supported by his co winemaker. But they haven't done much with their cellar door - it's just that - the cellar door - and yesterday it was cold, and so Monika and I retreated to the car.
Bit boring this blog I know - but I did need to let you all know what you're missing. It's on Melbourne's doorstep and it's so, so beautiful. Make a weekend of it. Some of the wineries were not included in this weekend, some of them are open often anyway, and they all have interesting and varied makers who are more than happy to tell you all about their wine. You often get to talk to the maker themselves instead of a vineyard employee.
