A Guide to Tasting Australia – For Every Budget
Words by Alexis Buxton-collins · Updated on 07 Mar 2022 · Published on 25 Feb 2022
After a quiet 2021, Tasting Australia is roaring back to full speed this year: the 2022 edition will feature more than 200 events held in 11 regions across South Australia. Some of the top-flight events are already sold out (hello, Tasting Australia Airlines) but with a load of new events dropping today, there are still plenty of tasty options to choose from. If Fringe hasn’t been kind to your wallet, $5 will get you a cup of Morgan McGlone’s noodles, while a meal cooked by Burnt Ends maestro Dave Pynt with a glass of wine is just $40. At the other end of the spectrum, you can join two of the Barossa’s founding families for a walk-through history or drop a few months’ rent trying some bucket list white burgundies.
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When you’re on a true student budget, multi-course feasts are hard to come by. Fortunately, the University of Adelaide is following up last year’s Festival of Sausage in Bread with another perennial student classic: cup noodles. Belles Hot Chicken co-founder Morgan McGlone and Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook) will each bring their signature style to the noodles using a range of local produce to make what is undoubtedly this year’s best value event.
The University of Adelaide Cloisters
May 6, 12 noon-6pm
$5 per cup
If you’re short on time or cash, but still want to enjoy a meal in the Town Square Kitchen, this is your ticket. Each lunchtime there’ll be a single dish on offer – accompanied by a glass of Yalumba wine – by a line-up of chefs including modern barbeque maestro Dave Pynt from number 34 restaurant in the world Burnt Ends, Etta young gun Rosheen Kaul and Amy Hamilton from Albany’s Liberte (all of whom are cooking at sold-out Town Square dinners). Tickets will be available on April 4.
Town Square Kitchen, Victoria Square
April 29 to May 8
$40
Bid farewell to the festival on its closing weekend by sipping unreleased lo-fi wines – in a secret warehouse location – from some of the state’s best winemakers, including a one-night-only blend from Frederick Stevenson, a collaboration wine from Jean Bouteille and Comme Ci Comme Ca , Moorak’s new white blend and bubbles, Delinquente’s 2022 pét-nat, and rare reds from new Hills label Parley Wine. The wines will be backed by a line-up of DJs: Mell Hall (Adelaide), Luen (Sydney), Lex Deluxe (Melbourne) and Annie Bass (Adelaide). The exact venue location will be shared with ticketholders prior to the event.
Franklin Street
May 7
$45
By many measures, Thai eatery Chin Chin could be viewed as Melbourne’s most successful restaurant. It opened in 2011, with queues from day one, and the hype hasn’t faded. In 2016 its downstairs holding bar – GoGo – got a refurb and became a destination in its own right. And it’s coming to Barossa winery Yalumba for a three-day pop-up – its first South Australian appearance – on the final weekend of the festival. Expect bar snacks by Chin Chin, Yalumba wines and local beers, plus live music on the lush lawns.
Yalumba
May 6 to 8
$50
For a more theatrical affair, head to this literal blind tasting that turns out the lights and puts your taste buds front and centre. Let your mind wander and feel your other senses amplified as you sit in the dark for an evening of wines and vegan canapes supplied by Forage Supply Co, a social enterprise using funds from its hospitality ventures to create transportable housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness (you might have seen a prototype in Town Square last year.
Arthur Art Bar
May 4 & 5, 6 & 8pm
$60
As natural winemaking becomes increasingly mainstream, lo-fi drops are turning up in the unlikeliest of places. But labour-intensive methods and small batch sizes mean it’s harder and harder to get a hold of wines from the OG natural-wine producers in the Adelaide Hills. Fortunately, this event does all the legwork for you, with local winemakers from Gentle Folk, Ochota Barrels, Comme Ci Comme Ca, Basket Range, Shobbrook and Commune of Buttons pouring their wares alongside international selections curated by leading importer and Sydney’s Paski wine bar owner Giorgio de Maria.
University of Adelaide Masterclass Pavilion, Town Square
May 1, 4pm
$65
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This all-day event lets you step behind the scenes with the Fleurieu’s best producers to learn how regenerative farmers are also acting as custodians of the land. Start at Nomad Farms, where pasture-raised chickens live in mobile hutches before finding their way to restaurants like Shobosho, The Salopian Inn and Soi 38 before a lunch at Peninsula Providore’s olive grove featuring other local producers. Tickets include city pick-up and drop-off, and lunch.
Various Locations, Fleurieu Peninsula
May 2, 9.30am-5pm
$110
If you’re a sucker for the siren call of ceviche, crudo or sashimi, take a deep dive into the world of raw seafood with a masterclass from Fishbank executive chef Tony Carroll as he shares tips on how to select and prepare the fruits of the sea at home. Then taste a flight of oysters drawn from across the state, learn about different cuts of fresh bluefin tuna and watch them sliced fresh in front of you before enjoying a bountiful seafood lunch.
Fishbank, 2 King William St
May 2 & 3, 12 noon
$180
While most of the Town Square dinners are already sold out, you can still score tickets to this one-off feast by festival co-director Karena Armstrong (The Salopian Inn), who’ll be serving four courses alongside star chef Kane Pollard (Topiary, ex-Sol) and Ben Devlin of coastal New South Wales restaurant Pipit. Expect a menu that maximises local and overlooked produce from a trio of chefs who are passionate about curbing food waste.
Town Square, Victoria Square
May 5, 7pm
$295
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Adelaide’s hottest new restaurant is hosting two of the country’s most celebrated chefs – Matt Stone, a leading advocate of low-waste cooking (now co-steering Byron Bay eatery Harvest), and Louis Tikaram , an award-winning chef who has cooked at Tetsuya’s, Los Angeles hotspot EP and LP and now heads Brisbane Cantonese restaurant Stanley – for a night of open-flame cooking with Arkhe’s esteemed executive chef Jake Kellie. The progressive dinner will begin with snacks and cocktails at the bar before the main event in the restaurant’s stunning dining room, and end with petit fours and aperitifs in the courtyard.
Arkhe, Norwood
May 7, 6pm
$350
Culinary traditions run deep in the Eden Valley, where the Henschke family has been making wine for six generations and the neighbouring Angas clan goes back even further. It means the landscape is imbued with countless stories, and the two families gather to share them every year at this unique pilgrimage. Wander from the Henschke cellar door to the hallowed ground at the Hill of Grace vineyard, up Mount Edelstone (where a trio of exquisite wines including Hill of Grace awaits) and then to Hutton Vale Farm’s character-filled homestead for lunch.
Various Locations, Eden Valley
May 8, 10am-4pm
$375
Tasting Australia beverage director Nick Stock has once again put together a program of incredible tasting events, but even in that company one stands out. A true once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, this program highlight will see unicorn bottles drawn from Grand Cru vineyards across the region – if names like Comtes Lafon, Etienne Sauzet and Coche-Dury mean anything to you, you’ll understand. Just be warned, it comes at an eye-watering price.
Mother Vine, Vardon Avenue
May 4 4pm
$2000
Tasting Australia will run from April 29 to May 8, 2022. New events will be on sale from 6am Saturday February 26 via the website.
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