We didn’t start the fireside festival.

Towards the end of May, I noticed the Fireside Festival website was still carrying information for August 2008. Having survived a memorable long weekend during Stanthorpe’s Brass Monkey Season in my youth, I subscribed to email updates/newsletters for this year’s event. By late June nothing had come through, so I checked back and found the 2008 information was still up.

Yesterday the ABC carried a report the festival was set to kick off on 1 August. Also that fine journal of record Canberra Weekly Magazine ran a full page advert of the festival program.

I’m yet to receive any updates and by the looks of it, a couple of events are already booked out, so if you fancy fine wine, food, flicks and fires just point your browser here for more details.

Tags:
Canberra, Fireside Festival,Canberra Weekly Magazine, Canberra tourism.

Sausage dog at Wallaroo Wines

The first weekend of April is the Canberra district wine harvest festival and this explains why, around noon on Saturday I was at Wallaroo Wines enthusiastically putting a bratwurst roll into my face.

The sausage was a spicy, juicy little number, perfectly barbequed by the team from The Cook & Grocer for which, once they banish raw capsicum chunks from the salad mix that was also in the roll, they’ll get a gold star.

A 2006 Wallaroo shiraz was the drink of the moment. Good dark fruit but not a great deal of length didn’t stop me from having a second glass before giving Molly, the obligatory friendly winery dog scrounging for sausage, a final pat and heading home.

It wasn’t meant to end that way and the original plan was to visit the other nearby wineries including Surveyors Hill and Pankhurst. However, offer me rolling views, succulent snags washed down by a light red and murmuring jazz (plus a shady spot and a labrador to pat) and I’m the first to give up on the idea of the afternoon improving.

Except maybe if I would’ve gone for the cab sav instead...

Tags:
Canberra, Canberra district wine harvest festival,Wallaroo Wines, Canberra wines, cuisine.