Central to a fine time
In Central Otago, wherever there’s good wine, you’ll usually find something tasty to soak it up with, writes Sharon Stephenson.
I’ve only been in Clyde a few hours, but the kina risotto at Olivers Restaurant & Bar has already been name-dropped by my hotel concierge and the bloke in the design shop who’s so charming, I spend more than I should on a scented candle.
It is a coincidence? Perhaps, but it seems churlish to ignore them. So I cross the road from my hotel, grab a window seat at Olivers, and sample the cloud of risotto that’s creamy and sharp in all the right places.
Perched on top of it is a generous hunk of salmon, while a slick of roasted capsicum cream may also have been involved.
But it’s the risotto I’m still dreaming about.
Let’s play a word association game: I say
Central Otago, you say rail trail, wine and some of the most gobsmacking landscapes on the planet.
You’d be right. Not only is Central, as it’s often called, one of New Zealand’s top wine regions – thanks to the cool climate that produces awardwinning pinot noir, riesling, pinot gris, and chardonnay – it’s also famous for the rail trails that criss-cross the region and are beloved by lycra-clad cyclists.
And don’t get me started on the scenery: mountain ranges that run like a curved spine through the valleys, quaint gold rush villages, and vistas that prove Mother Nature isn’t some onetrick landscape pony.
The candle-seller nails it when he says: ‘‘Central is as close to Middle Earth as you’ll find on actual Earth.’’
But all that rugged nature can make a person hungry. The good news is that wherever there’s good wine, you’ll usually find something tasty to soak it up with. And Central doesn’t disappoint.
This region, an hour and a bit from Queenstown, first made headlines in the 1860s when gold was discovered here.
Today, the small towns strung across the land like jewels in a necklace are where beauty meets great wine and food.
Olivers Restaurant & Bar is my first stop, and it sets the bar high.
Hewn out of thick schist and opened as a provisions store in 1869, the impressive building was originally repurposed as a restaurant by renowned chef Fleur Sullivan, who went on to open Fleur’s Place at Moeraki.
She left Olivers in good hands: owners Andrea and David Ritchie cleverly installed their son-inlaw James Waite as executive chef, a magician who does wondrous things with local produce. While I scoff the risotto, my husband chows down on seared scallops and charred cauliflower he claims deserves an Oscar for the best use of brassicas.
Next door, the cafe is chock-full with Waite’s preserves and condiments, as well as freshly-baked bread we planned to save for a picnic lunch the next day but end up scoffing that night in our hotel room. It’s so good, we don’t even feel guilty.
Until the next day, that is, when we realise our plan to picnic on the banks of Lake Dunstan has been scuppered by our midnight feast.
Fortunately, while oohing and aahing over Cromwell’s old-timey historic quarter, we stumble across Armando’s Kitchen.
Run by the delightful Armando Varlotta, the riverside eatery was razed in a fire in 2017. But Varlotta, who previously owned one of London’s best Italian restaurants, did what his legion of fans hoped he would do: dusted himself off and rebuilt his eponymous eatery.
As we scoff tortellini with homemade ricotta and find room for bowls of the best tiramasu this side of Rome, we’re thankful for Varlotta’s fortitude. And his cooking: much of the menu is lovingly crafted from old family recipes, and is the kind of food that makes most things better.
It’s a well-known fact that when you’re on holiday, the usual rules don’t apply.
That’s why karaoke, drinking cocktails with umbrellas, and eating more than you should are perfectly acceptable vacation pastimes.
At Carrick Winery’s restaurant, we’re about to commit the sin of eating too much. But if anyone has the right to use the hastag, #delicious, it’s this cellar-door restaurant that’s tucked into 25 hectares of organic vineyards.
Head chef Gwen Harvie is a local girl who rattled the pans at Michelin-starred London restaurants, before coming home to make the most of Central’s rich bounty of wild game, fresh salmon, dairy, and produce.
I don’t know about you, but eating beans slathered in coriander chimichurri while looking at the garden where both ingredients were grown automatically makes me feel healthier and happier. The cos lettuce salad that accompanies my fish with saffron rice was also harvested not far from where I’m sitting.
I ask Harvie if she misses London and she throws her arms out across the neat rows of vines, the river that chisels its way through the mountains, and the kids blowing bubbles on the lawn, before giving me a look that says, ‘‘you’re really asking me that?’’
She has a point. Here, your only concerns are whether to sit inside or out, and how much of Carrick’s 2017 dry riesling is too much.
We’re full of ideas about what to do next: hire bikes and ride the Roxburgh Gorge Trail, head to The Four Barrels Walking Wine trail, an 8km route that conveniently connects four local Cromwell wineries, or browse the area’s galleries and boutiques. In the end, we do none of the above (there’s always next time), reverting instead to what we do best: eating and drinking.
On an afternoon when the late autumn sun sets the mountains ablaze, we visit the iconic Bannockburn Hotel to see what all the fuss is about.
Owners Andy and Anna Mackintosh tell me thirsty punters have been drinking at this hill-top hotel since 1862. But, in 2016, British-born Andy and his Kiwi wife returned from Melbourne to makeover the decor and the menu.
Those who find it hard to make a decision might be in trouble here, because the wine list now runs to 51 pages and includes more than 200 local and international wines, and the tapas-style menu features such delights as goat’s cheese croquettes and popcorn chicken.
We sip a sprightly pinot noir from Misha’s Vineyard, just down the road, and listen wide-eyed as Andy tells us about his previous life in London tour-managing bands such as The Rolling Stones, the Spice Girls and the Foo Fighters.
It’s gold for a journalist, but sadly I can’t share any of the wild tales, as I’m sworn to secrecy.
What I can tell you is to get yourself to Andy and Anna’s hotel for some of their delicious baja fish tacos washed down with a local drop before they run out.
This article was produced with the support of Tourism New Zealand.
This region, an hour and a bit from Queenstown, first made headlines in the 1860s when gold was discovered here. Today, the small towns strung across the land like jewels in a necklace are where beauty meets great wine and food.