Against the backdrop of the Easter long weekend, Daniel and Drew hit the road for a Cooking Your Calendar excursion to the De Bortoli winery and family home in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley. After spending some time at the Cellar Door and cheese tasting station, we made our way to meet Leanne De Bortoli and husband Steve Webber at their home on the grounds. We instantly hit it off, knocking back white wine on their gorgeous back deck, which overlooks Leanne’s organic veggie patch. Steve (in hoon-style Grand Prix mode) later took us on a hair-raising ride around the vineyard on his Moke. Drew fed their three big pigs a bucket of acorns while Leanne explained how the oinkers had a date with a smoke house and a salami knife come June. By sunset we met Leanne’s brother Kevin and wife Jennifer (who penned two of the calendar’s recipes) along with a bunch of their friends from the region. All up it was a great night of food, music, conversation and of course wine. Leanne and Steve’s hospitality was awesome!
We’ll let the pictures do the talking...
The vineyard after vintage
Daniel wondering where the bottles are
Drew and the Moke
Pigs before
Pigs after
Dining with the De Bortoli's
Jennifer and Leanne De Bortoli with the calendar
Steve shows us around the next day... Is that contemporary sculpture or what?
Barrels of love
Looks like a fun project. Any chance that you might add the recipes and cooking tips to the blog?
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny P
ReplyDeleteThe recipes can be downloaded as PDFs if you click on the name of the dish where it appears in the blog posts.