We recently headed up to the Milawa gourmet region of Victoria, (unsurprisingly a favourite destination!) and stayed at the superb Lindenwarrah at Milawa Hotel, a small boutique style country house that is rather fortunately located directly opposite the Brown Brothers winery. The hotel is very comfortable, with a lovely open fire in a lounge room where after our second night’s dinner at the onsite restaurant we sat and played board and card games while lingering over a delicious bottle of red…

The Lindenwarrah Hotel is a really cosy place to spend a weekend in this lovely region, which is approximately 250 km north east of Melbourne in the lower reaches of the King Valley. It is also famous for the Milawa cheese factory which we have visited many times, as well as the wonderful Milawa Mustards shop.

Being a good drive from Melbourne, we naturally developed an appetite for lunch which we duly satiated at the most excellent Pickled Sisters Café, located at Cofield Wines in Wahgunyah. We have eaten here several times, and the food is always sublime; highly recommended!

Lunch at Pickled Sisters!

Brown Brothers winery was originally founded in 1889 by John Francis Brown, and I believe is still operated and owned by his descendants. It was the first winery to be established in the region and continues to offer a wide range of grape varietals, all of them quite excellent and available for tasting. Knowing that we had booked lunch at the Brown Brothers restaurant we headed off on a brisk walk in order to enjoy the countryside and build our anticipation of the gourmet feast to follow, naturally with the Canon 5D’s in tow.

With enough exercise completed to justify the extra calories, we wandered down to Brown Brothers for a pre-lunch tasting. The wines here are, as already alluded to, just excellent. It is virtually impossible to have a tasting and not end up purchasing a good collection for home! We had never eaten at the restaurant before but were certainly aware of it’s fine reputation. I believe I have probably exhausted my supply of superlatives, but it would be no exaggeration to say that this was one of the best meals that I have enjoyed in a very long time. The food, the wine and the service that we received were what makes this restaurant so highly regarded, and I will definitely be returning as soon as time allows.

Staying in Milawa we were reasonably close to the Rutherglen region, which is renowned for Port’s, Muscat’s and Durif, which we naturally took advantage of. This really is a region with so much to offer in terms of fine food and wines, truly a wonderful escape after a long hard week!