Upstairs at Hollick - the Restaurant at Hollick Winery Cellar Door: Ron takes in the view as well as some of the wonderful food and wine of the Limestone Coast region in the South East of South Australia
Hollick Winery on the legendary Coonawarra strip, 380 kilometres southeast of Adelaide - is a unique blend of the old and the new - a bit like the region itself. Enter this state-of-the-art winery and restaurant complex and you pass the one hundred thirty-year-old cottage of the famous Australian poet John Shaw Neilson - a local who would later romanticise the redgum country of the southeast in his bush ballads.
But by the 1890s the giant eucalyptus trees were making way for stone fruit and vines as wealthy landowner and innovator John Riddoch established his Penola Fruit Company. His grand vision was to cover this country with orchards and vineyards, which would supply the markets of Adelaide and Melbourne.
Riddoch's grand plan collapsed but now the vines are back, thanks to the courage and vision of winemakers like the Hollick family and others.
Wendy Hollick, Upstairs at Hollick: "When we first planted our vines in 1975 they were the only ones here. Everything else was grazing land."
Now its awash with bulging bunches of cabarnet and from these grapes come some of the finest wines in the country courtesy of a ridge made limestone topped with lush terra rosa soil. Many of us have driven through the Coonawarra but getting a real sense of its vast spread is no mean in such flat country - that is until now.
Upstairs at Hollick is one of the few places where you get an overview of it all. Here locals and visitors alike gather to sample great wine and food, while downstairs in the kitchen chef Ian Perrie works his magic. On the menu today - a French inspired dish of lentils infused with the flavour of North African sausage and of course a healthy serving of a local Hollick red.
While Ian prepares your dish - you might be tasting a local cabernet in the cellar door area or perhaps upstairs overlooking the barrel room. This entire complex has been architecturally designed to ensure that you feel part of working winery.
With a few calories to work off I head outside with Wendy Hollick for a quick lesson on that famous soil profile of the Coonawarra. A worldwide reputation rests on this unique layering of an ancient seabed and thick chocolatey terra rosa soil - the origins of which are still subject of debate.
Wendy Hollick: "There is some thought that it is just weathered limestone but I think there is also some thought that it may once have been volcanic."
Geologist may ponder its origins but wine-lovers simply marvel at the alchemy of red rich soil and vines planted more than thirty years ago.
Upstairs at Hollick is located on the Coonawarra Strip about 2kilometres north of Penola. If you have any further questions please email - info at postcards-sa.com.au (to help with spam issues we have the word "at" instead of @. Please change if you are mailing) are mailing)
Upstairs at Hollick
Coonawarra
2 kilometres ex Penola
Bookings 8737 2752Published 8th March 2009
