Cosy country escape

For ages, JJ and I have been talking about visiting the New South Wales central west region of Orange. It’s known as the ‘food basket’ of NSW and is a renowned cold-climate wine-growing area, so we knew it’d be right up our street. I’d also heard that the area is beautiful in the Autumn months. We don’t really get a proper Autumn where we live in Sydney ’cos we don’t have many deciduous trees by the beach. I was looking forward to kicking big piles of fallen leaves while walking in the crisp country air…..and quaffing vino.

JJ drove the 256km West (around 4 hours) on Thursday morning for some meetings in Orange. I flew after work on Thursday evening. The flight’s only 40 mins with Rex and although it’s the most expensive option for getting there it saves so much time. The train from Sydney takes about 5 hours so flying was worth it. I worked remotely from our hotel in Orange on Friday and was ready to start the weekend as soon as I’d logged off for the day.

WHERE WE STAYED

On Thursday and Friday, we stayed at the de Russie Boutique Hotel on Hill Street. The de Russie’s a self-contained apartment hotel located in the CBD and it’s within walking distance of a range of restaurants, cafés and shops. All rooms include a complimentary light breakfast; fruit, muesli, bread, condiments, juice and locally brewed plunger coffee. We had a quiet, comfortable stay at the de Russie and the in-room WiFi was more reliable than my connection at home.

FRIDAY FEEDING FRENZY

At lunchtime, I walked into town to Scrumptious on Summer Cafe. I had the Moroccan vegetable tagine which was very tasty and the service was friendly. Scrumptious make everything in-house including their cakes, I might have also grabbed a lemon slice to take away for afternoon tea 🙂

We met a couple of JJ’s colleagues for after-work drinks on Friday at The Union Bank. JJ and I only stayed for one drink because we had a dinner reservation somewhere else but the others ordered food which arrived just before we left and it looked gooood. I had serious food envy seeing the epic cheese boards arriving at other tables as well.

My food envy was short-lived because tonight’s dinner venue was Lolli Redini which is not far from The Union Bank. Don’t miss this place if you visit Orange, we had the most memorable meal that we’ve had in a long time at this restaurant! For entrée, I had the gruyere soufflé, JJ had the beetroot cured salmon. We followed with 2 servings of the Turkish slow-cooked lamb and both courses were paired with wines. For dessert, we shared the passion fruit bombe (the meringue gets flamed at the table). I don’t think I have all the words to describe the deliciousness of the meal we had at Lolli Redini – please just try it if you’re ever in the area because the food is seriously excellent, so much flavour.

SATURDAY WINE TOURING

After checking out of our hotel, we wandered down to the Orange Visitor Information Centre to get a wine trail map. From town we drove up to Mount Canobolas to take in the view of the region, the drive was about 25 mins. There are a couple of picturesque looking walking trails that begin at the Mount Canobolas State Recreation Area. We didn’t get up particularly early and were keen to get on with wine tastings so didn’t do any hikes this time.

We thought it’d be a good idea to get some food in our bellies before boozing so we decided to grab a pie and a coffee at The Mountain Tea House (bottom of Mount Canobolas Rd). The pies took about half an hour to arrive but it was worth the wait, I’m pretty sure they were made from scratch – so fresh!

Next, we turned off the mountain road to join the Pinnacle Road wine trail. Orange is a pretty chilly place and sits over 600 metres above sea level, this means white, sparkling and Pinot Noir country. Our first stop was the Word of Mouth cellar door, followed by Ross Hill. Because JJ was designated driver, we then headed to our lovely B&B in Millthorpe, checked in and walked to nearby Angullong Wines so he could have a proper tasting. The experience was great at all of the cellar doors we visited, the winemakers/staff were friendly and we found different delicious varieties to take home from each one.

SATURDAY NIGHT DINING

The picturesque historic village of Millthorpe is about a 20-30 minute drive from Orange, the main reason we decided to stay a there for a night is that I’d heard great things about the hatted Tonic Restaurant. I had to book Tonic several weeks in advance, they’re only open Thursday – Saturday for dinner.

I found this restaurant experience a bit disappointing to be honest. The food was quite average in terms of flavour compared to what we’d eaten at Lolli Redini the previous night. I would describe the meal as nice just not very special for the price or the hype. Maybe our menu choices weren’t great, so in case it helps; we both had the smoked ocean trout for entrée, I had the lamb rump for main and JJ had the smoked pork. We shared the blood plum soufflé for dessert. It was all ok.

Also, the acoustics in the venue are pretty bad. We were seated next to a large group and they weren’t being particularly loud, but 20 people talking at the same time created this wall of sound that JJ and I had to scream over to be able to have a conversation. Another issue was that the service was extremely slow, we were there 3 hours in total which was too long with the whole shouting across the table situation.

SUNDAY DRIVE BACK TO SYDNEY

On Sunday morning after breakfast at our cosy B&B and check out, JJ and I went for a stroll around the village. We petted some friendly alpacas and a donkey, then stopped in at The Old Mill Café for yummy homemade cakes and tea.

It’s fair to say that JJ and I rolled back to Sydney with a belly full of wine, cheese and lamb, our car boot chock-a-block with new wine favourites. All in all, a wonderful weekend away!

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