Food & Wine

By any gastronomic standards, this is a remarkable part of the world.

Our fabulous produce has given rise to a truly regional approach to food, Fleurieu Peninsula style. We’re proud producers of wine, almonds, olives and olive oil, yabbies, cockles, cheeses, lamb and venison, seafood, chocolates and coffee.

The Fleurieu Peninsula has more than 75 cellar door wineries. You’ll find most at McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek – producers of some of Australia’s most exciting wines. And make sure to visit our emerging wine centres at Currency Creek, Victor Harbor and along the southern coast.

If you approach the region from Adelaide, you catch a glimpse of the whole valley, with McLaren Vale in the middle distance surrounded by a patchwork of shiraz, grenache, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay vines.

This marks the start of a journey taking in some of Australia’s most acclaimed wines and a bounty of regional produce.

Country Markets are a window into the heart of any region and the Fleurieu Peninsula has many of them selling everything from crafts to home-made jams, fresh produce and gourmet foods and preserves.

Wine and Cellar Doors

McLaren Vale

McLaren Vale is the Fleurieu Peninsula’s largest wine region – and also the closest to Adelaide.

The sharp geographical definition of the McLaren Vale wine region, which overlooks Gulf St Vincent, helps explain its tight-knit sense of community.

Here, you’ll find winemakers, grapegrowers, almond orchardists, refugees from the city, artists and craft workers – and they all know each other.

This is the place for bold, inky- black shiraz, rich but elegant cabernet sauvignon and grenache that holds its own in any company. Red wine country. But then, it also has some of the best chardonnay in Australia.

John Reynell planted the region’s first grapes in 1838 at Reynella, where he employed a young labourer named Thomas Hardy and laid the foundations of two dynasties that would dominate the region for more than a century. John Reynell’s original hand-excavated cellar is still in use in the gardens of Hardy’s Reynella winery. When settlers were moving into the Barossa Valley in 1842, he was making South Australia’s first vintage wine.

Some of the cellar doors don’t seem to have changed much since then. Pirramimma is one where, if you peek into the winery, not a screw or a piece of leather seems ever to have been thrown away. Tatachilla is another that reeks of history and looks like a good old-fashioned winery; so too does Hardys Tintara.

Others have moved with the times, such as d’Arenberg with its splendid cellar door and restaurant. There’s a constantly growing new generation of stylish small wineries, many of them family owned such as Penny’s Hill, Tapestry, Hugh Hamilton, Shottesbrooke, Hugo and Fox Creek. Many cellar doors have eateries that showcase regional produce.

If you hear a bell tolling just as the first grapes are ready to pick, it will be coming from Wirra Wirra. It signals the start of vintage and its end.

The McLaren Vale and Fleurieu Visitor Centre could easily be mistaken for a small winery, surrounded by vineyards and a garden of regional produce that provide it with a sustaining income.

Visitors enjoyng wine tasting at Bremerton Wines.

Langhorne Creek

Langhorne Creek, on the eastern edge of the Fleurieu Peninsula, has become one of Australia’s most important grape–growing regions. It has provided more fruit for Jimmy Watson Trophy winners than any other Australian grape-growing region.

Visit the famous Bleasdale Winery, established by the Potts family in 1850 and Australia’s second oldest family-owned winery. Other local labels include Bremerton Wines and Lake Breeze Wines, all featuring cellar door sales, with several other boutique wines available through the local Bremer Place and cellar door cooperative.

As well as being one of Australia’s oldest wine regions, Langhorne Creek is one of the fastest growing and already the third largest grape producing area in South Australia - bigger even than McLaren Vale. Traditionally a red growing region, it’s best known for its outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, with other red varieties gaining popularity such as Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, Grenache and Petit Verdot. White varieties include Chardonnay, Semillon and Verdelho.

Langhorne Creek has the advantage of winter flooding of the Bremer River to irrigate some of its vineyards. This, coupled with the cooling breezes from Lake Alexandrina, reduces evening temperatures and provides a cool, even growing season.

Currency Creek & Southern Fleurieu

Cool sea breezes benefit the vineyards around Goolwa, where Currency Creek and Ballast Stone wineries, and Angus Wines on Hindmarsh Island, produce premium wines. Southern Fleurieu Peninsula is experiencing extensive vineyard and winery growth, from Scott’s at Victor Harbor, Whale Winery at Middleton, Twin Bays at Yankalilla, Trafford Hill at Normanville, and Mt Jagged Wines and Parri Estate south of Mount Compass.

Coriole Cellar Door, McLaren Vale, Fleurieu Peninsula.

Regional Food and Dining

If wine nourishes the soul of the Fleurieu Peninsula, then fabulous regional food sustains its heart. Look beyond the wineries and you’ll find a strong farming tradition, nestled among almond and olive groves.

In a landscape blessed with a wonderful array of ingredients, it’s only natural that locals have come up with imaginative ways to make the most of them. You’ll find roadside outlets at almost every turn, selling jams, relishes, hand-made breads, traditional cured and smoked meats, rich cheeses and more.

Australia’s best almonds are grown at Willunga, and the olive oil produced here is now compared favourably to Italy’s finest. Follow the Produce Trail from Mount Compass to find fresh blueberries, organically grown pheasants and quail, venison, marron (a freshwater crayfish), strawberries and jams, rainbow trout and authentic French-style goat’s curd and feta cheeses, or thick, rich Jersey-milk cream and traditional farmhouse cheddars.

Up and down the rugged coastline, weather-beaten fishermen glean all manner of seafood from the gulf’s unspoilt waters. Prized King George whiting, garfish, tommy ruffs and mulloway, squid, crayfish and crabs – whatever variety is in season, they soon find their way to our restaurant tables.

Inspired by freshness and seasonality, our chefs showcase this array of fresh local produce in world class restaurants such as the Salopian Inn, Flying Fish, Lilla’s, Blues and d’Arry’s Verandah.

It’s at the heart of the fare served in many a winery café.

If you’re a resourceful visitor, pack a hamper of crusty bread, tasty cold meats, marinated olives, a cheese or two and a bottle of local wine, and take your picnic to a secluded cliff-top to enjoy the spectacular sea views.

ILook for the bakers in almost every town, and the fish and chip shops that make dining beside the sea such a pleasure. Ask the locals … they all have their favourites.

Popular sites include The Salopian Inn at McLaren Vale, the famous Victory Hotel at Sellicks Beach, The Flying Fish Café on the foreshore at Horseshoe Bay, The Mill at Middleton and The Reef on Granite Island in Victor Harbor. Of  course, at Port Willunga there is the famous Star of Greece, named after the tragic shipwreck. It was once a tumbledown shack, now renovated.

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Fiesta Food Festival

October is Fiesta across the Fleurieu Peninsula - a time to celebrate not only the release of the new season's wines but to also taste the new extra virgin olive oils.

There are tastings of regional foods at every turn, cooking demonstrations, food-trade fairs, culinary competitions to find the most creative matching of our regional food and wine's, and invitations to picnic in the springtime warmth, to delight in the landscape with your favourite person and a full hamper.

October is a most convivial time –-- so throw off those winter chills and be part of Fiesta.

For more information on the fantastic food on the Fleurieu Peninsula visit www.fleurieufood.com.au, an industry association developed for the benefit of all ‘foodies’ on the Peninsula.

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