Chardonnay May to showcase one grape in style

The month of May sees wine producers in the Adelaide Hills promoting local chardonnays with tastings, lunches and dinners all featuring the classic white grape for Chardonnay May.

Many of the cellar doors will host curated tastings, new-release showcases, museum and back-vintage pours, and immersive wine experiences.

May will see more than 30 chardonnay-themed experiences, with a Chardonnay Trail Passport available to help guide your trek.

“Chardonnay is the flagship white grape variety for the Adelaide Hills, with examples produced within the region rivalling the very best,” says Adelaide Hills Wine Region president Alex Trescowthick.

“Chardonnay May puts a spotlight on our region’s ability to produce world-class chardonnay, as well as the growing recognition for our Sparkling Blanc de Blancs. 

"For the month of May, we are all things chardonnay as we celebrate the different styles produced throughout the Hills. We invite everyone to come and discover Adelaide Hills chardonnay.”

One of the showcase events is the The Chardonnay Collective on May 16, featuring four courses of food, eight producers and eight wines over one evening.

The event will see some of the Adelaide Hills’ leading chardonnay producers joining together.

Chef John Simpson-Clements at Mount Lofty Ranges Vineyard will created the four-course degustation showing off seasonal South Australian produce.

Each dish will be served alongside two premium Adelaide Hills chardonnays, showcasing the diversity of the region, from Lenswood to the Piccadilly Valley and beyond. And every wine will be poured blind.

No labels. No hints. Not even the producers know what’s in the glass. Which sounds a lot of fun.

Producers include Ashton Hills , Gentle Folk, Koerner, Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard, Murdoch Hill, Shaw +Smith, Sidewood Estate and Vella Wines.

The event costs $245 per person. Book Here.

Another highlight of the program is the Tasting Australia event Adelaide Hills Chardonnay Heroes, to be held on May 9 at Mount Lofty House.

This special dinner will feature a line-up of the region’s top award-winning chardonnays.

Further details on individual events and offerings can be found at adelaidehillswine.com.au Chardonnay May

Image: Duy Dash 

French vineyards facing frost threat

A late cold snap is causing concern for grape growers across France. 

Vignerons across the country, from Champagne in the north to the Var in the south, fear frosts causing damage to vines that are well ahead of schedule in their development, wine news service Vitisphere reported. 

Vines emerged from dormancy two or three weeks ahead of schedule, making the icy conditions serious concern as growers used heated pots to prevent frost from destroying the buds on their vines.

"We're going to have to endure the frost and wait to assess the damage to the vines," industry news hub Vitisphere reported growers as saying. 

"Whether it's tonight or the nights to come, the risk of frost is confirmed in French vineyards," said Sébastien Debuisson, R&D Director of the Comité Champagne. 

"For many areas, the question isn't whether it will freeze, but how severe it will be."

There are forecasts for this week of -3 to -4°C in sheltered areas in Champagne. Growers in Chablis reported even lower overnight temperatures late last week.   

"A cold air mass is common at this time of year," Debuisson said. 

"What is unusual is the exceptional advancement of the vines: between 15 days and three weeks, especially for chardonnay but also for pinot noir, depending on the sector."  

Image: Vineyards in Quincy, Vitisphere

Experienced new chef aims to showcase local flavours

The South Coast of New South Wales has emerged as a serious gourmet destination in recent years, with Cupitt's Estate among the flagbearers.

At a time when consumer spending has tightened, the South Coast has seen restaurant dining numbers in the region increase by 15-16% across January and February compared to 2025, data shows.

Riding the continuing wave, Cupitt’s has appointed experienced Ryan Smith as executive chef, with Smith bringing more than 27 years of international culinary experience to the role.

Smith joins Cupitt’s Estate following an extensive career spanning fine dining kitchens in Sydney (Banc and Restaurant Balzac) and London, including events where has cooked for the British Royal Family.

His career includes a spell at London's The Square. Following this, he took on a head chef role within the Bill Granger restaurant group in the UK.

Closer to home, Smith has previously served as head chef at Rick Stein at Bannisters and says returning to the region feels like coming home.

His parents live locally, and he has strong South Coast connections.

Smith says his focus at Cupitt's Estate will centre on what he believes is the key to the success of regional restaurants; exceptional local produce, cooked simply and served fresh.

“Regional dining works when you embrace what’s around you," he says. "For us, that’s the local seafood and produce and the people farming and growing it. The closer you can get ingredients to the plate, the better the result.”

Libby Cupitt, strategic partnerships Manager at Cupitt’s, says: “The South Coast dining scene has evolved significantly in recent years and we see Cupitt’s Estate as playing a key role in that continued growth.

“There’s great producers, passionate chefs and a real appreciation from diners for quality local food matched to great wine.”

# Cupitt’s Estate is located nestled between Milton and Ulladulla and offers a winery, the restaurant, and luxury accommodation on site in the form of 10 architecturally designed stand-alone villas I've just added it to my "to do" list.

For more info see www.cupittsestate.com.au.

Long Island distillery sues global giant LIV Golf

You might remember LIV Golf, a group that promotes golf as a festival of drunkenness and pays some of the leading players obscene amounts of money.

It aimed to change the face of the sport but is now largely an extravagant irrelevancy - unless you are one of the lucky golfers raking in the dollars, or one of the fans fighting each other. 

Now LIV Golf has a legal issue.

A New York-based artisan distillery, Long Island Spirits, has filed a lawsuit against LIV Golf, alleging that the league depressed sales and confused customers, by selling LIV-branded products that infringed on the spirit maker’s trademark.

In a filing to the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the craft vodka producer claimed that the Saudi-backed golf league is infringing on its signature LiV brand by selling its own branded alcohol and apparel.

The LiV acronym originally stood for Long Island Vodka (see image right).

As well as its signature vodka, made from local potatoes, the distillery produces cocktails, whisky, RTDs and gin. It also sells its own branded t-shirts, hats and other clothing.

The Baiting Hollow (great name)-based distillery, accuses LIV Golf of “blatant trademark infringement”.

The complaint states: “Distributors, retailers, hospitality partners, and consumers have already experienced actual confusion about whether the LíV brand has affiliated with LIV Golf.

“Consumers’ mistaken belief that LIV is in league with a highly controversial and heavily commercialised venture backed by an immense foreign sovereign wealth fund is antithetical to the authentic, pioneering, craft spirit LíV brand that LIV has worked hard to build.”

Ouch.

So you are serious about whisky?

Are you serious about whisky? 

Want to know more about distilling in Tasmania and the Lark success story? 

Lunching in time for the Easter long weekend, Lark Distilling has launched a range of ways of exploring the Lark range right on the Hobart waterfront. 

Open across the whole long weekend, LARK’s Cellar Door, located on Davey Street, is offering bookable tastings designed to bring Tasmania’s whisky story to life in an immersive way.

Visitors and local alike can book for Welcome to LARK, a concise, 45-minute guided tasting that traces Lark’s origins and evolution, featuring three museum release malts for $149 per person. Daily from 1pm | $149pp | Booking link here

If you are keen to splash out, Fuse Whisky Blending Experience is a premium, hands-on session where guests create their own bespoke Lark single malt. Guided by a whisky specialist, guests blend from unreleased cask samples to craft a personalised, cask-strength bottle to take home.
Daily from 3pm for $499 per person. Booking link here.

For evening plans, LARK’s dining space, The Still, has just launched a new extended menu. To celebrate, all online dinner bookings will receive a complimentary tasting of Lark's new Fire Trail whisky (it's a ripper), over the next two week. (Closed Good Friday and Easter Monday). Booking link here.

The Fire Trail is part of a new portfolio of four Tasmanian whisky expressions that are presented in re-imagined 700ml bottle with a new design that was this week awarded World’s Best Design at the World Whisky Awards 2026 Global Dinner. 

The Collection comprises Fire Trail (RRP $170), Devil’s Storm (RRP $200), Ruby Abyss (RRP $400), along with Cinder Forest (available in May, RRP $160). 

Check out larkdistillery.com. 

Good fish, bad fish for Easter

Easter is one of the most popular times of the year for eating fish. But are you choosing seafood that align with your values?

Some of Australia's most popular seafood choices are linked to overfishing, impacts on threatened species, and habitat damage.

GoodFish - an independent guide to sustainable seafood - is urging Australians to think twice before choosing some seafood staples for their Good Friday menu.

The GoodFish list of popular choices to avoid includes Tasmanian farmed Atlantic salmon, imported squid, some wild-caught prawns and some flake (shark), although most gummy shark is sustainable. 

“Australians love seafood, and most expect what they’re buying over Easter to be sustainable, but that’s not always the case," says sustainable seafood guide program manager Adrian Meder.

“Some of our most popular seafood options are linked to serious impacts like overfishing, bycatch of threatened species including dolphins and sawfish, as well as serious habitat damage. Armed with this information, shoppers have the power to take their dollars elsewhere and reward fisheries doing the right thing.

“In Australia, we are really lucky to have sustainable alternatives readily available. People often feel sustainability is out of their hands, but with seafood, a simple swap at the counter genuinely makes a difference.

“Our free GoodFish app puts that power directly in shoppers’ hands. Sustainable seafood doesn’t have to be complicated. We’ve made it quick, practical and accessible for everyday shoppers, using a clear traffic light system so people can easily choose seafood that has a light touch on our ocean.”

Among the fish to say "no" to are Tasmanian farmed Atlantic salmon. 

Goodfish says this industry is linked to serious and ongoing environmental issues, including pollution, killing protected seals, contamination of wild fish, and mass fish kills, and antibiotic use so heavy that fishers have been warned to stay kilometres away from some sites.

"Most critically, salmon farming in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour could drive the extinction of the Maugean skate – a critically endangered species found nowhere else on Earth."

GoodFish says Atlantic salmon just aren’t suited to Australian oceanic conditions. Tasmania is the warmest place in the world where salmon are farmed on an industrial scale, and rising water temperatures place increasing heat stress on the fish. This weakens their immune systems and allows disease to spread rapidly through the crowded pens, hence the widespread use of antibiotics.

Instead, diners are encouraged to look at NZ-farmed king salmon, Australian-farmed barramundi, Murray cod or native Australian salmon.

Others to avoid include wild-caught barramundi from Queensland and the Northern Territory, which are caught using gillnets, which are known to entangle and kill a wide range of threatened marine animals, including dolphins, dugongs, turtles, hammerhead sharks, and critically endangered sawfish.