Wahroonga Food and Wine Festival 2016

We were very lucky to attend the Wahroonga Food and Wine Festival last Sunday. This is the second year we've gone, and I was impressed with how well run it all was - short queues, lots of seating and a great variety of stalls.

We kicked off the day with a bit of breakfast - Chicken Noodle Salad from Jimmy Liks Street Food. Great to see this former Kings Cross favourite is still serving their fresh Asian fare at various markets across Sydney. The salad was beautiful and light with great coriander and lemon grass flavours.

We followed breakfast with an oyster and sparkling pairing courtesy of Printhie's Swift Sparkling from Orange and Signature Oysters from the south coast. These guys were at the festival last year and are a great hit! Along with the 2011 Swift Cuvée, we tried a new release 2011 Swift Sparkling Rose which was joyously effervescent and had great strawberry notes. Printhie are one to watch having recently won at the Royal Melbourne Wine awards!

Ewan McAsh of Signature oysters is a great delight to chat with about farming and the south coast alike. We sampled a medley of Pacific and Sydney Rock oysters served natural and with a range of ginger and lime, soy and chilli, and wasabi toppings. A perfect partnership with the Cuvée!

We took a break from the bubbly and tried cordial from Orange's Millamolong. The cordial is so far removed from your run of the mill Cottee's! Flavours include Lemon Myrtle and Kakadu Plum, Apple, Ginger and Rosella, and my favourite, Lemon, Lime and Lavender, which was very delicate and subtle with the floral flavours. So refreshing on a hot day!

Back to the wines from the beautiful Orange region, Tim from Rowlee recommended we try a young Pinot Grie and Riesling blend. This was a lively and spirited white - a great Wine for spicy food! So after a quick try of a gorgeous Sangiovese Rose from Gilbert Family Wines (mmmm too good for Frose!), we take 5 for lunch.

Lunch is a seafood paella from Soarito Paella and a pesto meatball hot dog from Balls. Wow, the paella was spicy! Some decent paprika in that one. We love the heat but temper it down with the softest meatballs and Parmesan and pesto on the hotdog. Real more-ish dude food and very welcome after all the wine!

With bellies full, we shifted regions and sampled a few wines from Mudgee based Burrendulla wines. Ted was a delight and it was great to see the care he took in ensuring the reds were served at the right temperature (15-18 degrees). Australia, stop having your wine served too hot! (well unless it's mulled :) ). The highlight here was the 2015 Tempranillo Shiraz - a cracker which would appeal to all taste buds. But keep it cool dudes!

Our last stop was to the Hunter, and to Lucy's Run from Lovedale. A small family winery with a not so secret weapon, their 2014 Shiraz which has won multiple awards.  Towards the end of the day our tasting notes became a bit more scattered - for this drop, we just wrote 'fantastic', so you'll have to take our word for it that it really, really is. We've bought a bottle to cellar for a few years and look forward to seeing how it develops.

Wow, what another great year at the Wahroonga Food and Wine Festival! A recommended fun day out sampling all that New South Wales has to offer for food, wine and crafts in one place. Bring your blanket and dog, and languish the afternoon away in the sun. See you there next year! 

This blog post was contributed by Christina. 

Weekend Food Escapes were guests of Wahroonga Food and Wine Festival. Partial elements were paid by Christina. All words, opinions and photos are my own.