Lingering lunches at scenic wineries, sleepovers in the vines, and toasting sunsets over red desert landscapes. Renate Ruge discovers good food and wine to match on South Australia’s ‘Epicurean Way’ vineyard trail.

Slurping freshly shucked Port Lincoln oysters al fresco and sipping sparkling wine in the sunshine is my new favourite way to start a food shop. Here at SiSea restaurant at Adelaide’s bustling Central Market, it’s just business as usual. Tucking into restaurantquality plates of chargrilled octopus and clams in sauce made with cream from the market dairy, husband Andy and I brunch with food tour guide Mark Gleeson. Proffering refills of Daosa sparkling, fellow guide Pauline winks: ‘Life’s better with bubbles.’

Housing more than 80 stalls, and characters as colourful as its produce, the market’s a cook’s paradise, with artisan breads, chocolate, nut butters and bush tucker on display at speciality shops. Pauline points out one selling 40 different types of flour, with banana-flavoured for baking the best banana bread. At another, punters fill bring-your-own flagons with local olive oil.

A stallholder of 30 years, Mark knows his onions and explains the market is a reflection of local history ‘through a culinary lens’ linked to immigration. ‘The Lutherans brought sausage and winemaking, Italians tomatoes and basil, the Vietnamese cultivated Asian herbs, and the Afghans added spice to the pot, and it’s all on our doorstep: orchards in the Adelaide Hills, lamb country to the north, emus in the outback. And everyone’s welcome at the market,’ he says, smiling, as Andy looks at home in the ‘Smelly Cheese’ shop.

A swim in our hotel’s chandeliered pool is the perfect afternoon pick-meup. Staying in swanky digs downtown, the Sofitel is also a walkable distance to Adelaide’s pedestrianised laneways and small bars. Entering via a secret door, we go underground to art deco-style subterranean speakeasy Maybe Mae, where creative cocktails like Pineapple Clubs are swizzled to perfection. Back on street level, dinner is a feast of stuffed courgette flowers, rich osso buco (veal stew) and cloud-like gnocchi, with a velvety Clare Valley Muster shiraz at New York-meets-Italy-style brasserie Fugazzi.

Adelaide has a relaxed country town vibe with elegant federation-style architecture and frangipanifilled gardens. Its peaceful green spaces include the Botanic Garden, where we breathe in lemony scents of native grass on a guided walk with Aboriginal guide Tjimari Sanderson-Milera. He reveals healing secrets of native plants, explains how bottle trees store water, paperbarks make plates and ways to catch wild ducks. We spy witchetty grubs’ burrows and find ‘sacred’ lotus and macadamias in his ‘bush shopping centre’.

Vines planted in the heart of Adelaide in 1844 by Englishman Dr Christopher Penfold grew into the five-hectare urban vineyard Penfolds Magill Estate, home to Australia’s famously prized wine, Grange.

Jamie Sach, Penfolds’ global ambassador, brings wine history alive as we tour the winery’s original open fermenters and basket presses. The collection of trophy-scooping vintages of first chief winemaker Max Schubert, once hidden behind a secret wall, is now on display in the cellars. Tasting the coveted Grange is ‘holy grail’ territory for wine connoisseurs (and novices like us). We savour every sip of a fruit-forward 2018 shiraz, and the chocolate and cherry notes of flagship Bin 707 cabernet sauvignon.

Further wine investigation follows at the Magill Estate Kitchen, where lunch of chef Scott Huggins’ delightful dishes includes slinky hiramasa kingfish slivers topped with blood orange and roasted nuts. Thiénot x Penfolds Blanc de Blanc Champagne 2013 is a sparkling match. The star dish, sizzling wagyu striploin, comes with a tumble of minted courgette ribbons, perfect with full-bodied Penfolds 2020 St Henri shiraz. Sticky date pud with equally ‘sticky’ Penfolds Barossa Cellar Reserve viognier dessert wine is a champion finish.

ALONG THE GRAPEVINE

The next day, we hire a four-wheel drive to make tracks to the outback, following the ‘Epicurean Way’ – a driving route around the area’s wonderful wine regions. Driving through the Barossa Valley’s Tuscan-like rolling hills, our first stop is Hentley Farm, a boutique winery overlooking Greenock Creek, where we sample lovely cool climate reds. My pick, ‘The Beauty’, is an elegant wine with viognier hints, while Andy plumps for a big bold shiraz, called ‘The Beast’.

A palm-lined driveway leads to Seppeltsfield Wines, village-like with its on-site gallery, JamFactory, an incubator of local artists, and ‘soap factory’ and shop Vasse Virgin, which sells handmade olive oil products. We follow tempting scents emanating from the open kitchen at Fino, which is run by bubbly restaurateur Sharon Romeo and chef David Swain. Seppeltsfield’s refreshing pale Provençal-style blush rosé flows at lunch on the shaded terrace, served with smoked duck, lentils and raisins.

True to her Calabrian roots, Sharon serves ‘bloody good food’, family style. ‘Sharing always brings people together,’ she beams, offering herbed potatoes to go with succulent roasted pork belly. A conclusion of crème brûlée and tots of sultry 100-year-old 1924 Para vintage tawny enjoyed in the barrel room are what gourmet dreams are made of.

Sharon even shares tips for our future stop in the mountainous Flinders Ranges. ‘The spiritual energy there is amazing,’ she says, hugging us farewell. ‘Have lunch at the Prairie Hotel. I’ll hook you up,’ she exclaims, adding, ‘Everyone knows everyone around here.’

The home fires are burning at familyowned winery Yalumba, where head cooper Kym Venning crafts oak barrels using centuries-old techniques in their atmospheric cooperage. Sixth-generation owner Jessica Hill-Smith explains that the toasted wood adds aroma, flavour and complexity to the wine.

It’s hard to choose which of their ‘great Australian reds’ to take home, but a signature cabernet sauvignon proves a fine match with our cheese and figs plate later at Barossa Shiraz Estate’s cosy cottage, where we’re overnighting. After a soak in the spa bath, we sleep soundly surrounded by vines.

OUT OF THIS WORLD

Leaving Barossa’s vibrant green vineyards in the rear-view mirror, golden wheat spreads over the horizon like a thick layer of butter on toast. With no-one for miles, except sheep shading under old gums, we pit stop at copper mining town Burra, where the sign reads: ‘Welcome to South Australia’s heartland. Population 70’, and we nip into a bakery for just-baked sausage rolls. As we motor to Orroroo, red-breasted parrots flit by and mountains loom in a blue haze of eucalyptus. The temperature hits 32 degrees, so we quench our thirst with icy schooners of Coopers pale ale at the Cradock Hotel.

When we reach the Flinders Ranges, we check into sheep station and holiday oasis Rawnsley Park. With luggage deposited in our glorious eco-lodge, guide Beth takes us off-roading on a sunset safari. Black eagles hunting for supper cruise on thermal winds and wallabies hop around. Atop Yaltaordla Hill, we toast 360-degree views, the reds and oranges of the sun setting in a slow dance around the Chace Range.

Awoken by cranky cockatoos at dawn, we board a small propeller plane for an early morning scenic flight that soars over volcanic Wilpena Pound. Named by the Adnyamathanha people and meaning ‘meeting place’, its Vienetta-like frills are stunning from above. Back on terra firma on an outback adventure driving through riverbeds, we spot families of emus and yellow-footed rock wallabies scampering about Brachina Gorge.

Lunch is at the remote Prairie Hotel, where chef Gus, tipped off by Sharon on the bush telegraph, welcomes us with a tasty native spread: ‘Feral antipasto’ comprises emu pâté, ‘roo’ pastrami, saltbush dukkah and camel mettwurst. The rain buckets down as we eat. Once cleared, we drive through rainbows, while dozens of kangaroos drink from rainwater puddles on the roadside.

Later, back at Rawnsley Park, after a dinner of barbecued lamb at the Woolshed Restaurant with owners Sue and Tony, we retire, a galaxy of stars shining through the roof window. Pure magic.