Sat & Sun October 2 & 3, 2010
The major event on the Heathcote calendar is the Heathcote Wine and Food Festival. An annual celebration of Heathcote wines, great food and local and regional produce.

Heathcote’s ancient Cambrian soils have earned it a reputation as one of the finest shiraz-producing areas in the world. Many well known producers located both inside and outside the region, such as Wild Duck Creek, Jasper Hill, Tyrrells, Brown Brothers, Shelmerdine, Hanging Rock and Seppelts, have attained national and international acclaim with their Heathcote Shiraz wines.

The Heathcote Wine and Food Festival is a showcase of wines produced from grapes grown only in the Heathcote wine region. It celebrates all the grape growers and winemakers who have helped to make Heathcote a name associated with some of Australia’s finest wines, in particular Shiraz for which Heathcote is internationally renowned. However, Shiraz is not the only variety to perform in the region; increasingly we are seeing other varieties coming to the fore – Sangiovese, Marsanne, Viognier, Tempranillo, Petit Verdot, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. On cooler sites Riesling and Chardonnay can perform exceptionally well too.
The Festival is the ideal opportunity to taste these wines; this year the Festival will have over 50 wineries presenting around 200 wines available for tasting and purchase throughout the weekend.

All this tasting is supported by a range of serious and not so serious food and produce. Combine this with Free Tasting Seminars, Laid-back live music all weekend including The Davidson Brothers and ABC774’s Derek Guille and his ‘Ugly Uncles’ band. www.heathcotewinegrowers.com.au/festival

Heathcote is a small town nestled at the foot of the McIvor and McHarg Ranges. Once a bustling gold mining and logging town, people were drawn from many different cultures and nationalities, with hopes of making a gold fortune. To the north of the town, those immigrants disillusioned with mining struck a new type of gold, with the development of land for grazing, cropping and vines. Here the first vineyards were planted and today there are around 40 wineries, and 70 vineyards in the Heathcote region, including descendants of those early settlers, once again growing grapes on the range overlooking Colbinabbin.

 Getting there:  From Melbourne it is only about 1.5 to 2 hours to Heathcote.

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