Bigger restaurant makes its Mark

Appellation, one of Australia's finest regional restaurants, has reopened after a substantial renovation that has doubled its seating capacity. The restaurant, which is part of The Louise, a vineyard retreat in the Barossa Valley, can now seat 48.

Its cellar, consistently rated the best in the state, has doubled its listings to 460 vintages. Still to come for summer is an outdoor terrace overlooking the rolling vineyards of the north-western section of the Barossa.

One thing has remained: Mark McNamara is still in charge of the kitchen.

Phone (08) 8562 4144; see appellation.com.au.

Tasty notes

There are plenty of reasons to visit the Bird in Hand Winery, at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills and we're not just talking about the excellent, award-winning wines it produces.

Come March 7, baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes and tenor David Hobson will sing among the vines. This is the third concert the winery has staged and, like the last two, it is expected to sell out.

But if you are after a bit of fun and some gentle exercise in the next few months, tomorrow is the start of the Bird in Hand's summer series of croquet. The games will be held on Sundays from 2pm.

Tickets for the concert are $130, including wine and dinner, or $65 for general admission. Entry for the croquet is $35; for that you also get a glass of sparking pinot noir and canapes. Phone (08) 8389 9488; birdinhand.com.au.

Leaps and bounds

Watch out, Barossa producers: with its wine, honey, lamb and seafood, Kangaroo Island is a serious contender for the title of the best food region of the state. And it even has its own spirit distillery, producing liqueurs largely from Kangaroo Island ingredients.

Jon Lark from the Kangaroo Island Spirits Distillery says he can barely keep up with demand for his liqueurs, which include a honey and walnut version using the Ligurian honey for which KI is famous and a sambuca-style liqueur using KI's wild fennel.

He has also expanded the range recently with the launch of a gin using native juniper berries and two vodkas. Of special interest, Lark says, is the vodka flavoured by a succulent known as samphire, which can be found on the beach around Kingscote. "It has a salty, savoury kind of flavour and martini lovers say it's fantastic for making dirty martinis," he says.

The distillery's cellar door, at Lot 641 Playford Highway, Cygnet River, is open Wednesday to Sunday or by appointment.

Phone (08) 8553 9211; see kispirits.com.au.

Hills, vines and wines

There are almost as many ways to visit wineries as there are wineries in South Australia. One of the newies is the Hills, Vines and Wines tour from mountain bike specialist Escapegoat Adventures. And it is not as hard as it sounds.

"No, you don't have to ride a lot of hills to get to the wine," says the company's director, Ian Fehler.

"We pick you up in Adelaide, take you to one of the highest points in the McLaren Vale and it's all downhill fun from there." He adds that the full-day tour takes in three wineries but only involves about three hours of pedalling and even that's at a leisurely pace.

It's just enough to work off the calories from lunch but not enough to count as a workout, Fehler says.

Escapegoat Adventures' Hills, Vines and Wines tour costs $120 and includes return transport from Adelaide, use of a mountain bike, a mixed-platter lunch, wine tasting at three wineries and a guide.

Phone (08) 8121 8112; see escapegoat.com.au.

Study at Sticky Rice

The Sticky Rice Cooking School at Stirling has gone from strength to strength since opening a year ago.

Next month, internationally renowned chef David Thompson, who is coming home for the launch of his new book, Thai Street Food, will conduct a series of classes at the school.

Unfortunately for lovers of Thai food, those classes are sold out but there are plenty of other chefs on the menu, including Katrina Ryan, the former head chef at Rockpool, who will conduct classes in February, while in May, Christine Manfield will don the Sticky Rice apron to divulge her culinary secrets to budding master chefs.

For more information, phone (08) 8339 1314; see stickyricecookingschool.com.au.

Quality, not quantity

In six years of operation, the Barossa Valley Cheese Company has built a strong reputation. But, according to founder Victoria McClurg, its reputation is the only thing that is big about the company and that is the way it is going to stay.

McClurg started her cheesemaking career as an artisan producer and she is determined to finish it that way. However hard she is prodded by suppliers, McClurg cannot see any advantage, or joy, in going into mass production.

The growth will come from the varieties of cheeses she makes, not from the numbers. Or from the wines she produces to go with them.

McClurg originally trained as a winemaker and decided she needed a change of career while working in Bordeaux. Now she has put what she learnt to good use, producing three wines – a pinot grigio, cabernet shiraz and cabernet sauvignon – to complement her range of 14 cheeses.

Both the wines and the cheeses are available at the Barossa Valley Cheese Company at 67B Murray Street, Angaston. (And make sure you leave time to have a wander around her cottage garden next door.)

Phone (08) 8564 3636; see barossacheese.com.au.