from Australia with love....

I love wine.This will come as no surprise to those of you who know me.

Fizz, red wine, rose and white wine.In that order.  I shall be having a glass of red in an hour's time.Unless my friend Laura has already bought a bottle of white to share when I get to the pub tonight.

I love the whole ritual of having a glass of wine....pulling the cork out (or increasingly unscrewing the cap), listening to the sound of the wine pouring into the glass.And sitting there savouring that first sip.

I shall be featuring the local winemakers from Leicestershire in another post.....yes, there are some! But my heart, and my tastebuds are still back in Australia right now.In Margaret River.....

If you like your wine, then you are spoilt for choice there. Numerous wineries, some small,  some large are producing memorable, taste tingling wines for every occasion.

They sell their wines from the cellar door, and I spent quite a few days there travelling around the wineries...not just tasting the wines but admiring the gardens and settings......

One of my favourite visits was here

Established in 1986, I loved the broad sweeping avenue upto the cellar door

 There were pretty ,well manicured gardens too...

And this is where we tasted the wines....

Their Jete sparkling rose and sparkling white were as effervescent as the friendly and helpful assistant who poured a steady stream of  wines across the Howard Park and Madfish ranges.Bottles bought, I was hungry.Through the huge windows you can see above, I saw a group of people tucking in to lunch energetically.

When I asked where the menu was I found out that was lunch for the staff. And a good lunch it looked too. That's what I call spoiling the staff!


But many of the wineries do serve lunch....in beautiful settings.One of them is at Watershed....the Boy and I enjoyed a long, lesiurely Sunday lunch at Watershed Wines, five kilometres out of Margaret River itself.

After trying out a number of wines, I decided on this rose......ice cold, fresh and fruity.....exactly the right wine to accompany a tasty risotto and drink in the gorgeous view.

Whether you're really serious about wine, whether you're going out for a  drive and lunch, then  the wineries here have got it right...from the service, the ambiance and the settings. Everyone I met at every winery I visited were proud of what they produce....and so they should be.

Coming up shortly, back to reality...back to life in Leicestershire and Rutland....and how some back breaking digging will soon be producing dividends...

Local food rules ...in Australia.....

You may have wondered  - or perhaps you haven't, why I've not posted since the beginning of March. Well, I've been in Australia, and as you can imagine , finding food from Leicestershire and Rutland to eat there was rather difficult. In fact it was impossible.Not even a slice of stilton ....

So, I decided to eat only food from Western Australia....and it's a much larger region than our two counties. It's the largest state in a huge country, one so large you could fit Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland into Australia thirty one (yes, thirty one!) times and still have a bit left over.

So there's huge tracts of farmland, and Australia exports an incredible sixty per cent of the food produced, mainly meat and grains.

But Australia now imports more than  a third of its fruit supply and almost 20 per cent of its vegetables.In fact ninety five per cent of the garlic in the shops is imported from China, yet can be grown all year round in Australia. Now that sounds worrying to me.

Visting Margaret River though, about a two and a half hour drive from Perth, there's lots of reasons to be cheerful though. The area is famous for its winegrowing, and wherever you go , there are estates selling wine from their cellar doors(more about those in another post)

You can also stop and buy lots of other produce from growers of avocados, olives, olive oil,  fruits, and berries ...and a simple drive to a winery becomes an adventure.

We stumbled on a hidden gem one lunchtime after a particularly enjoyable wine tasting on the Caves Road north of Margaret River. It was about half past one, and we were hungry.Correction, my son was starving. With capital letters. We came across Olio Bellio ...yes , they grow olives...right next to the car park

Their Extra Virgin Olive Oil is grown and pressed at Cowaramup Creek Farm, a 320 acre property

But they also make lots of other tasty treats....such as lemon or lime pressed olive oil,and  a wonderful mandarin and fig chtney as well as other condiments.And they serve lunch.

So we hoovered up quite a few samples dipped in bread and crackers...and then stayed for lunch. I ordered a delicious walnut, pear and feta salad with their own honey and mustard dressing , my son ordered pizza.He said it was the best pizza he'd tasted for a long time.....and I agreed. Well, I had to have a few slices didn't I? Oh, and as well as force feeding him some salad we shared some potato wedges roasted with rosemary and olive oil.

 Such a lovely lunch, all locally grown and produced....

And to drink, a local lemonade....served in a fully degradable bio cup.

A quiet spot under a shady tree for a lazy lunch ...with all  produce grown or made within a few miles.Local food rules -in Australia as well as Leicestershire and Rutland.