I'M away again, this time doing three days in the north of Victoria covering a swathe of the landscape from Rutherglen up near the Murray to Bright at the foot of Mt Buffalo.
I am spending my first day in Rutherglen to see what the region is doing for the inaugural High Country Harvest, a food and wine festival happening at the end of May, and the locals are giving me a sneak peak at The Sweet Cycle.
It's an organised bike ride, set to be done on a lazy Sunday with participants decked out in the best vintage threads as they pedal around the village, and the event will include three grazing experiences at a selection of the region's loveliest locations.
We started with morning tea at Jones Winery on the outskirts of Rutherglen, and it was the chance to warm up with a 2km pedal from the centre of town to the cellar door where we found tables set with vintage cups and saucers and cake plates stacked high with sweet and savour yummies.
After a few more kilometres on the bikes we came to our second spot on the edge of town, where a table had been set under the birch trees beside the old Vidal Cellars for us to sample some of the region's famed fortified wines while enjoying charcuterie plates packed with more local produce.
One of the locals in my little touring group told me the Vidal Cellars were established in the 1800s as Rutherglen's first attempt at protecting the region's brand.
Back then there were dozens of vineyards and wineries producing a range of fortified wines, some good and some not so great, so the locals banded together to build the property as a place where all the grapes would be deposited after harvest and made into quality varieties that would build the town's reputation for the good.
It worked, with Rutherglen becoming one of the country's top spots for making sherry.
The Vidal Cellars fell into disrepair after a few decades of use and is now beautifully decrepit, with a family of sheep employed to keep the grass down, but word has it someone has bought the site and is keen to build a boutique hotel.
Not a bad place to stop for lunch, and our tasting plates were packed with local meats, pate, olives, a host of other savoury treats.
There was a marathon pedal to the next location - well, it was 7km - following the section of the Mountains to Murray Rail Trail that winds past the paddocks between Rutherglen and the hamlet of Wahgunyah where the All Saints Winery which is the last stop on The Sweet Cycle.
We were met by winery
staffer with a cold drink and then given a guided tour of the historic
vineyard and winery before settling in the cellar door to taste some of
All Saint's famed fortifieds, including a sherry and a muscat that have
both been aging in barrels for a handful of decades.
All Saints was established in 1864, making it one of the country's oldest wineries, and today the estate's buildings are surrounded by vines planted 85 years ago in the sandy-loam soils just south of the Murray.
