Milawa Gourmet Region:
Foodies, listen up… The Milawa Gourmet Region is heaven sent. Essentials is prepared to go out on a limb and say we believe you’ll find no better produce anywhere in the world. A controversial statement, maybe, but our word is nothing compared to your tastebuds so we’re giving you a tour through the region that’s sure to have your eyes rolling back in their sockets… It’s that special.

‘It’s the wonderful water supply,’ says President of the Milawa Gourmet Region Association, Maureen Titcumb, when offering an explanation for why Milawa has become ‘the culinary crossroads of Victoria’. ‘We’re in the Alpine valleys so we have this wonderful water supply. We also have clean, green Australian soils that haven’t been used for years and years like the European soils.

Web: www.milawagourmet.com

A Vigneron’s Guide to Beechworth
The growers of Beechworth put much of the credit to the style of wines they make down to the topography and the climate of the region. Across the area, you’ll see vineyards at altitudes of around 290 metres up to more than 550 metres. In winegrowing terms, these are considered reasonably high and, as is well known, the higher you go up towards the sky, the cooler the weather becomes so, depending on the individual vineyard site, certain varieties can and cannot be grown.

2005 Amulet Pinot Grigio – screwcap
This is from Amulet’s Scarecrow range, the mid-priced wines that are aimed at everyday drinking (the Amulet label with the wood ducks is the reserve range). Pinot grigio is the Italian style of winemaking using the pinot gris grape so the wine is quite restrained in its flavours, showing a good dose of nutty characters whilst maintaining a balance in the acidity. A wine to serve with an entrée of grilled garlic scallops.

2004 Smiths Vineyard Shiraz – screwcap
Ripe and rich flavours jump from the glass. In fact, even with the glass sitting a foot away from me, I can still smell the mulberry and spice. Dark cherries abound, a touch of chocolate and a hint of liquorice all meld together fabulously in this wine. The weight is good too, with the wine sporting a reasonable alcohol level of under 14 percent, a nice sign in the days of enormously ripe – over-ripe at times – shiraz. Some sort of meat cut is needed here, perhaps roasted beef with a reduced red wine sauce.

2004 Savaterre Pinot Noir
A medium depth of colour greets you as this is poured into the glass. Follow this with an undeniable pinot noir aroma of spicy stalkiness, toasty background oak and ripe black cherries and plums. Like the Savaterre Chardonnay, the texture is rounded and ample, giving the wine a generous mouth-feel. Age the wine for another year or two and it is sure to fill out even more.

King Valley Cucina:
Ever wondered what it’s like to eat wood-fired pizza inside a tobacco shed? Maybe not but here’s your chance. Featuring riveted metal walls and one of the North East’s most interesting documented histories of the local tobacco industry, the King Valley Cucina, 30 minutes south of Wangaratta, offers a simple and pleasurable dining experience. A collection of stencils listing the generations of family-owned tobacco farms covers the walls and makes for a short and informing history lesson as one sips a Gigante ‘black silk’ espresso. Essentials highly recommends the quality pumpkin wood-fired pizza with rocket, bocconcini, roasted pumpkin and sweet onion jam - a specialty of the Cucina. With Redbank Wines’ cellar door inside the complex and Avalon and La Cantina wineries literally metres away, a visit to this rejuvenated tobacco shed is always a tasteful outing.

Bookings for groups and private functions welcome
Open: Tues-Sat 11am-Late (up to 11pm),
Mon 11am-Late (by appointment)
Wangaratta-Whitfield Road, King Valley, Vic
Tel: 03 5729 3604