Tasting Australia festival 2017: Best food and wine tasting in South Australia

Appearing on the menu this year

A new addition in 2017 will be the Glasshouse Kitchen, the striking centrepiece to the free festival hub in Victoria Square, in the centre of Adelaide.

The restaurant will be constructed from glasshouses, allowing diners to look out, and passers-by to see into the kitchen.

International chefs, including Britain's Marco Pierre White and Slovenia's Ana Ros – who was named the world's best female chef for 2017 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards – will be cooking alongside national and local chefs. They plan to create unique menus featuring local produce.

Among local identities taking part is Jock Zonfrillo, creative curator of Tasting Australia and the chef/owner behind the acclaimed Adelaide eatery Restaurant Orana, known for its skilfully crafted food and innovative use of indigenous ingredients.

Zonfrillo has curated the collaborations for the Glasshouse Kitchen that will also feature Paul Carmichael (Momofuku Seiōbo, Sydney), Clayton Wells (Automata, Sydney), Mitch Orr (ACME, Sydney), Analiese Gregory (Bar Brose, Sydney), Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook, Melbourne) and more.

"There will be a focus on a new region every night," Bryant says. "It's going to be a four-course stellar line-up of food."

More tasty new events

Last year Adelaide joined an exclusive group of food and wine destinations called the Great Wine Capitals of the World. This prestigious network is made up of just 10 cities, including Cape Town, Bordeaux, Porto and San Francisco (representing the Napa Valley wine area).

To celebrate Adelaide being ranked among the world's best wine cities, Tasting Australia has introduced the Great Wine Voyage, which involves a blind tasting of a glass of South Australian wine, and a wine from another of the Great Wine Capitals of the World. The tour takes place across Adelaide's hottest small bars and new restaurants.

Also popping up for the first time are masterclasses hosted by Adelaide's East End Cellars. The events intend to raise a glass (or two) to the many famous wine regions around the city, the winemakers behind the bottles and the varieties that are synonymous with excellent Australian wine. Masterclasses include the Grange Experience – in which you can taste six different vintages of Penfolds Grange – and a celebration of Australian pinot noir.

Many more Tasting Australia events will take place across Adelaide.

A moveable feast

Other places in South Australia are joining the Tasting Australia banquet too.

There will be lunches among the vines in the Barossa, and meals of seafood and spit-roasted meats on the Yorke Peninsula, a gorgeous coastal getaway that has some of the best beaches in the world.

You can learn to make sparkling wines in the Adelaide Hills, and join the olive harvest on the Fleurieu Peninsula, a vineyard and coastal destination known for its wines and whale breeding grounds.

Also on offer is a five-course degustation meal among the giraffes at Monarto Zoo near the mighty Murray River. Or you could cook your own abalone and saltbush-crusted lamb under the stars in the rugged red dirt country of the Flinders Ranges.

See the Tasting Australia website for more events to whet your appetite.

MORE INFORMATION

Tasting Australia

GETTING THERE

Virgin Australia flies to Adelaide from all major Australian cities. Most major hire car companies are located at Adelaide Airport.

This article brought to you by the South Australian Tourism Commission