Today his son Peter has inherited his dad’s skills in creating sensational sparkling wines from fruit from the Logan premium, cool-climate vineyards on the frosty hilltops outside Orange in Central Western NSW.

His latest release is a 2009 ‘M’ Cuvee named in honour of his dad and interestingly, and unusually, made from equal portions of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier – with two-thirds being from red grapes its got a nice salmon pink colour and brims with strawberry and spice characters on a creamy palate.

Beaut buying at $35 for that next big celebration.

ONE FOR LUNCH: A FLAVOUR-explosive Rosé from Margan Family Winemakers shows just how good this style can be when it comes from a stand-out vintage such as the Hunter Valley enjoyed in 2011.

Made from Shiraz fruit from the company’s 40 year old Fordwich Sill vineyard, winemaker Andrew Margan has labelled it Rosé, but with ‘Shiraz Saignee’ on the label as well – Saignee (which is pronounced sanyay) being a French term that refers to the juice run-off from the red grape skins.

The Fordwich Sill vineyard produced just 0.5 tonnes to the acre of fully-ripened fruit in 2011, giving Andrew Margan the opportunity to create a wonderfully-flavoured wine that’s bright pink in colour, has vibrant berry and cherry aromas, a palate of juicy red fruits and a dry finish.

At $17 it’s a great drop to enjoy with barbecued prawns, or pork chops with a sweet and sour sauce.

NICE drop for that next big celebration

ENJOY this with barbecued prawns or pork chops with sweet ‘n sour sauce

(NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out  http://www.vintnews.com )

Written by David Ellis

In those days, it was a lively settlement dotted with coaching inns where travellers could eat well, quaff thirsts, sleep and rest their horses.

NOT quite Hollywood, but a welcome mat from the heart.

The welcome mat is still out, despite the now-highway by-passing the town. And it’s not so much a mat, but a giant hillside sign of white-painted car tyres that have been arranged to read “Kempton Welcomes U”.

The classified historic town – population around 400 – is 49kms north of Hobart and marks the start of the Silhouette Trail on The Heritage Highway. That trail runs 23kms to Oatlands, a larger colonial-era village of Georgian architecture put on the media map in recent times by the restored and working wind-powered Callington flour mill, and then on to Ross and eventually to Launceston.

In the paddocks along the highway between Kempton and just north of Oatlands, fifteen larger than life black steel cut-outs define the Silhouette Trail and reflect on the region’s frontier days: stage coaches in full flight, bushrangers, sheep farmers, gold-panners, surveyors, convict road gangs, railway workers, soldiers, a hangman, emus and Tasmanian Tigers amongst them.

CUT-out of history: the start of the Silhouette Trail at Kempton.

A cut-out stage coach at the highway exit to Kempton marks the start of the trail. The first significant building is Dysart House, a large stone two-storey Georgian inn built in 1842 and regarded as one of the finest coaching inns on the old Midlands Highway.

It is now a private residence owned by Leo Schofield, and a good spot to park the car and take a stroll into the village. The square tower and tree-lined entrance of the 1844 sandstone St Mary’s Church of England heads the list of other noteworthy buildings, along with the Congregational Church built in 1840 and the 1844 Wilmot Arms Inn built by convicts and operated as a licensed inn until 1897.

WILMOT Arms Inn was built by convicts in 1844 – and a good place to stay today.

It was restored in 1978 and today is part of Tasmania’s Colonial Accommodation Circuit for a cosy and comfortable stay, with five double rooms, modern facilities, and an overnight tariff that includes a full English breakfast of home-made muesli, fresh eggs from the Inn’s chickens and hostess Dot’s home-made jams.

A small room at the top of the stairs has facilities for making hot drinks as well as a comfy chair and a fridge for guests’ own food and drink. A sitting room was once the inn’s main room but is now used for group dining and as a guest lounge.

The big garden out the back is filled with cottage garden flowers, roses and European trees, but it’s a giant Tasmanian Blue Gum that dominates.

A contrasting standout building though is the weatherboard ex-Presbyterian Church now community hall, painted blue, and known affectionately as The Blue Place. The interior is beautifully preserved Baltic pine.

ONE-time Presbyterian Church is now a community hall known as the Blue Place.

Clinging to its accommodation history yet adapting to modern travel, Kempton has created an off-road, no-charge park for campervans including for the third Sunday of the month when a popular local market is held at the Blue Place. And during the third weekend of September “A Kempton Affair” really turns it on with three art exhibitions, a film show, a quilting display, Raku firing, local artists stall, music, historic town walks, coach museum and historic house inspections.

On one of the walks, the former Catholic Church garden and the Anglican cemetery reveal graves from the First Fleet.

The organising committee is staking claim to the Affair’s Cafe providing “the best coffee and scones this side of the island” but dropping in at Kempton at other times, the local pub, the Huntington Tavern, serves lunch and dinner (from Wednesday to Sunday).

And we’re told that in the weeks leading up to the Affair – one of the 28 arts events in 12 locations across Southern Tasmania – the white tyres on the hill into town mysteriously rearrange themselves into “A Kempton Affair”.

DETAILS: A Kempton Affair, www.tasregionalarts.org.au, (03) 6268 6196; Wilmot Arms B&B www.wilmotarms.com.au, (03) 6259 1272; Huntington Tavern, bar, lunch and dinners Wed-Sun, (03) 6259 1292.

Written by David Ellis

Look at UFC fighters such as Anderson Silva, George St Pierre and Jake Shields. One can learn Muay Thai from many places, local dojos and gyms, so if you’re interested nothing compares to the experience of learning the sport from where it started Thailand.

There are many training camps and schools found across Thailand, but the gyms in Phuket are proving to be highly popular with foreigners, as you get the relaxing atmosphere of a tropical island with lush jungle, awesome beaches with warm pristine water, the excitement of the night life that doesn’t seem to stop, Muay Thai fights every night, water sports, there’s an endless list of activities at your disposal when not slugging away at the bags, makes it the ultimate training holiday destination.

Nai Harn beach-Phuket

Phuket has many gyms to choose from and they all offer outstanding training and coaching. The list can include such camps as Lion, Dragon, Sinbi and Rawai Muay Thai just to name a few But after talking to local friends and training partners, Tiger Muay Thai is a favourite amongst tourists and the Muay Thai professional.

Tiger Muay Thai (TMT) is situated in Chalong, southern Phuket. Offering high quality coaching and training by current and former Muay Thai and MMA champions, excellent facilities including 6 full size completion rings, MMA training area with an 8 metre cage, 36 workout stations fully decked out with a variety of bags, weights and exercise equipment to get you ripped. The training at TMT is top class and anyone who chooses them will not be disappointed and you might find yourself training alongside UFC legends such as Royce Gracie, John Fitch, Paul Dailey and many more.

Classes in Yoga, Western Boxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, MMA, basic fitness, weight loss, body building, cardio, nutrition, detox programs and Krabi Krabong-traditional Thai sword and stick fighting – on the books. The training is for everyone whether you’re a beginner, amateur or professional, kids to adults, male or female, there is something for all even if you don’t practice Muay Thai.

At TMT they also provide many social activities, which can include group adventure tours, parties, going to the fight night’s, BBQ’s, simply relaxing at one of the many beaches Phuket has to offer or they can offer you a cultural experience and immerse yourself with the Thai way of life, Buddhism and traditions of the sport

TMT offer a wide variety of accommodation depending on your needs and comfort from tropical style bungalows each with air con, cable TV, Wi-Fi internet and bathroom, to dorm style rooms or the staff can happy organise for you to stay at any of the luxurious resorts and hotels across Phuket. TMT can also give you a meal plan at a great price.

Now down to the business side of things. Airfares and the cost of accommodation can vary depending on what time of the year you wish to go, as Thailand has high-November to February -, mid- February to April- and low-April to October- season prices. High season you can expect to be charged up to triple the amount of low season for accommodation for example I was recently charged $800 Australian dollars (AUD) for a three week stay in May but to stay at the same hotel in December was near $2000 AUD with mid falling between the two. Airfare costs also vary depending on the airline you wish to fly with and how soon you book with an average cost of $800 to $1500 AUD. So if you’re on a budget choose the right time of year and get in early. The cost of training usually doesn’t get affected by the seasons only the exchange rate which is lower in the high seasons, most camps charge very similar rates. One day of group training is around 500 Thai Baht-$20 AUD- and you can expect to get two lessons in Muay Thai plus two classes in Muay Thai technique and unlimited use of the camps fighting and fitness equipment. Private training is a bit more expensive but well worth it at 600 Thai Baht- $25 AUD – for one hour of top quality one on one lessons. When compared to costs back home this is very impressive.

The above pricing is a guide only and do not include 7% vat tax. For more information and pricing see www.tigermuaythai.com or email info@tigermuaythai.com

So if you want to be a fighter, lose weight or simply improve your skill and fitness levels this is one of the best ways to do so and remember that if you want to fight the Thai way you need to train the Thai way.

Written by:  Adam Wallace

As spectators watched the airship take flight little did they realise that the awkward fledging was just a short generation away from becoming an elegant form of transportation and an ideal model for an ‘alternative take on the future’ – a century later.

Ignoring the world’s obsession with aeronautical speed, British design firm, Seymourpowell believed there was a place for a luxurious flying hotel in today’s sonic jet-age.

So much, the firm conceived a leisurely transportation concept called Aircruise – an enormous kite-shape, vertical airship measuring 265 meters from base to tip – and designed to carry travellers in graceful style and splendour.

Coming under the radar of Samsung Construction and Trading who was motivated by the firm’s intent to use innovative materials for building, the Korean conglomerate appointed Seymourpowell to refine the visualisation and produce a detailed computer animation to illustrate how the proposed ‘hotel in the sky’ experience could become a reality.

So began the journey.

According to Seymourpowell, on Aircruise, it is the very profusion of time and space that defines the luxury experience.

“The Aircruise concept questions whether the         future of luxury travel should be based around space-constrained, resource hungry and all too often stressful airline travel. A more serene transport experience will appeal to people looking for a more reflective journey, where the experience of travel itself is more important than getting from A to B quickly,” said the firm’s key designer, Nick Talbot.

But there are some fundamental rules. The physics of the airship requires an immense volume of lifting gas that simultaneously commands limited weight. In turn, this allows for a generous amount of interior space and fewer passengers onboard, a luxury for any discerning traveller.

“It’s a world cruise not limited to the ocean, offering instead the dream-like quality and absolute freedom of flight. Passengers can choose to dine thousands of feet above a city, or take in the view whilst moving through the air over the ocean or a national landmark,” remarks Talbot.

HOTEL IN THE SKY:

From the man who designed the interiors of the world’s first private spaceship, Virgin Galactic, Nick Talbot has ditched all notions of blasting off into the cosmos frontier. And he has abandoned the lie-flat beds in the polar jetstream.

The hotel-airship concept is all about leisurely travel and understated luxury.

Speaking last week at Tourism Queensland’s Tourism Futures, a ‘forward perspective’ tourism conference, the designer prophesised, ‘Slow will be the new fast.’

And if he has his way the visionary, ‘clipper in the clouds’ will become more than a mere flight of fancy.

Talbot has allowed for Aircruise to carry up to 100 passengers, with its spacious internal spaces offering immense public areas including a tri-level, ultra-modern cocktail bar and guest-lounge, a penthouse, four duplex apartments, and smaller deluxe apartments.

And though passengers will want to enjoy the luxury of standing on an open-air promenade deck while ‘bathed in gossamer clouds,’ the indisputable spot to seen at will be right on Aircruise’s transparent floor aptly called the Moon Pool, a personal slice of heaven where you can watch the world float by beneath your feet.

Flying up to 3,567 metres and dropping as low as a hundred metres to take in the sights, Aircruise will have a maximum cruising speed of up to a maximum of 150 kilometres without a tail or headwind, and will be powered by solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells.

In travel time says the firm that equates to 37 leisurely hours from London to New York and 90 hours from Los Angeles to Shanghai.

Aircruise will also have six flight crew including two flight engineers and 14 staff to service the rooms in the sky.

UP IN THE AIR:

For the ‘clipper in the clouds’ to achieve giddy heights the next step is for the concept to sprout wings.

And by all means, Samsung C & T – the principal contractor of the world’s tallest man-made structure, Burj Khalifa in Dubai – is one corporation who is keen to make this happen.

“This was a dream concept project for us, helping to realise a future of sustainable buildings combined with innovative and luxury lifestyle, said Seung Min Kim, design director at Samsung C&T.

Since viewing Seymourpowell’s conceptional specifications, Samsung C & T has begun looking for new-fangled engineering solutions in hope that the airship can fly off the drawing board and into the sky.

“In an age when environmental impact is a key consideration for architecture, we are keen to extend this vision of the future by searching for solutions that can be realised by 2015 – the year that many futurologists foresee as the turning point for the future,” the executive added.

FROM ZEPPELIN TO AIRCRUISE:

Hydrogen was the initial element used in commercial Zeppelins and today the modern airships or ‘blimps’ as they are coined, still combine the highly inflammable gas but with advanced fuel cell technologies.

Yet the lightest and most abundant element in the universe has often been negatively associated with the 1937 Hindenburg disaster (it was the airship’s coating that actually ignited the fire).

All the same, the Zeppelin remained ahead of its time.

According to Seymourpowell the concept of contemporary airships has largely originated from the progression of materials, structures, stabilisation and clean propulsion technologies.

The utilisation of composite frames and fabrications also allows the lightweight, semi-flexible structure to be built at a mass scale.

As a result Aircruise’s visionary four primary flexible envelopes with self-sealing lift bags containing 330,000 cubic metres of hydrogen gas, will be fitted with solar panels, allowing travellers to soar through the clouds without leaving a carbon footprint.

Even when Tiger-Moths were buzzing like blow-flies in the skies, Luftschiffbau Zeppelin had long modified their clumsy airships, and turned them into graceful birds.

None were more elegant than the popular Graf Zeppelin, which made 144 ocean crossings and carried more that 13,000 passengers over a ten year lifespan.

By 1930, the art of distinguished flying was well underway.

The pinnacle came when the luxurious Hindenburg was launched to much fanfare in May 1936.

With its state-of-the-art design and luxuriously appointed Art-deco interiors, complete with a lounge area located in the hull, the airship was an engineering masterpiece.

But in one short year, after making 17 Atlantic crossings, and travelling 308,323 kilometres, the stylish airship came to a fiery end at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 of its 97 passengers onboard and a crew member on the ground.

After the Hindenburg disaster, the onset of World War Two and the age of transcontinental airliners halted the progress and commercial use of the airships.

Despite this, Talbot and his transportation design team were not deterred by the comparisons their visionary Aircruise would likely receive in connection to the long-ago tragedy.

Instead they asked, “How can we reinterpret it for the 21^st century?”

Nick Talbot – Seymourpowell’s lead designer Aircruise Images © Seymourpowell

With the floating hotel’s lift bags minimising the risks of catastrophic hydrogen leaks and ruptures, Talbot believes that the sole challenge now lies with the creation of finding suitable material to support the vertical structure in the air.

“If they could do that they would have developed a whole new way of constructing buildings,” he said at the Tourism Futures conference.

Whether Aircruise is built, Talbot still believes that the airship’s visionary spirit – a floating hotel in the sky – encapsulates the golden days of leisurely travel.

It also makes us think about the future and the options that will be presented in hospitality and aviation.

“The fundamental reason for the project was just to get people to think about the way we travel and the way we’re going to travel in the future,” Talbot concluded.

“I hope it happens, but who knows?”

One would have imagined than von Zeppelin asked his own engineers that very same question when his airships were merely inventive blueprints.

Download : The Evolution Of The Airship: Now A Visionary Hotel In The Sky

Written by Jill Walsh

CAMPERDOWN Lodge, where Eliza Donnithorne was jilted and lived the next 40-years in virtual darkness.

The first of many exhibitions to be staged in England to honour Dickens is A Hankering after Ghosts; Charles Dickens and the Supernatural that opened at the British Library in London in early December, and will run until March 4.

From when he was a young boy Dickens had a fascination for ghosts which culminated in arguably his most famous novel, A Christmas Carol in which the skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge changes his ways after a visit by three spirits.

He also based many of his reformist novels on personal experiences when growing up, including when his father was imprisoned in the notorious Marshalsea prison in Southwark for an unpaid debt to a baker.

ELIZA was buried in the same grave as her father in Camperdown Cemetery.

The twelve-year-old Charles jumped school to work in a factory to help pay off his Dad’s debt; pilgrims this year will find only a part of the prison’s wall remaining, and a plaque placed there by the local council.

Also marked by a plaque is the site of Furnival’s Inn in Holborn where Dickens rented rooms during the mid 1830s and began writing Pickwick Papers, the serialised novel that set him on the path to popularity. Today the impressive Holborn Bars stands on the site and is home to many law firms and convention and meeting halls.

Tavistock House on Devonshire Terrace, near London’s Paddington Railway Station, is also marked by a commemorative inscription as it’s the location of the home in which Dickens wrote Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities in the 1850s.

And the town of Shrewsbury in Shropshire will also attract its fair share of Dickens disciples during his bicentenary celebrations: it was here in its Music Hall in 1867 that he gave the first-ever public reading of A Christmas Carol.

CHARLES Dickens: fascination for ghosts – and Australia and the tale of the tragic Eliza Donnithorne.

Shrewsbury was also transformed into Victorian London for the 1984 filming of A Christmas Carol, which starred George C Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge –the movie’s grave of Scrooge still lays amongst a host of real ones in the grounds of the local St Chad’s Church.

But what is not so well-known about Dickens was his fascination with Australia which he saw as “a place of opportunity,” and which he actively encouraged two of his sons to migrate to.

He also had several close acquaintances settle in Sydney, and they sent him letters detailing “the many curious aspects of life in the colonies.”

One of these included the tale of Eliza Emily Donnithorne, the daughter of a retired East India Company judge with whom she lived in his gracious Camperdown Lodge in Sydney’s Newtown. The letter detailed how after her father’s death, Eliza was to have married in the Lodge in 1846, but on her wedding day and dressed in her wedding gown, her guests assembled in the Lodge’s large dining room, and with the wedding breakfast set before them, Eliza’s fiancé failed to appear – and in fact was learned to be sailing to India.

Jilted and heartbroken she bade her guests goodbye, locked the dining room with the wedding breakfast untouched, closed the window shutters and lived in the darkened house with two female servants until her death there 40 years later. The dining room was never opened again and the wedding breakfast moldered away until eventually eaten by rodents.

Dickens allegedly turned the tragic and factual Eliza Donnithorne into the equally tragic and fictional Miss Havisham in Great Expectations in 1860 – but unlike his Miss Havisham, Eliza did not live the rest of her life in her wedding dress: she lived four decades as a recluse, but well-off and comfortably, seen only by her servants, doctor, solicitor and clergyman.

And bizarrely she kept the front door open, but secured by a chain, in the event her fiancé may one day return…

Eliza Donnithorne died in Camperdown Lodge in 1886 aged 60, and is buried in nearby Camperdown cemetery in the same grave as her father.

MOCK “grave” of Ebenezer Scrooge in St Chad’s churchyard in Shrewsbury.

MARSHALSEA Prison where Dickens’ father was jailed over a small debt; the young Charles left school to work in a factory to have his Dad freed.

(Photos: Friends of Charles Dickens)

Written by David Ellis

Here are some tips on how not to be one of those who drive fellow travellers to the point of rage and temporary insanity.

THE bigger they get the more comfortable they become to fly in – it’s the passengers who can make flying an ordeal.

Check-in: Check out your allowable baggage allowance before you pack – remembering you will be charged for being overweight. There’s nothing worse than being behind someone rummaging through an open suitcase on the airport floor cramming boots and jumpers into their carry-on pack. And there’s no use arguing when asked to pay for the extra weight – you’ll only holding up yourself and everyone else.

The departure gate: On many flights you board according to where you are sitting on the plane. So, if you are in row 5 and they’re calling passengers for rows 25 to 30, don’t force them to push past you. You won’t be left behind.

Carry-on luggage: If there’s no room to store your carry-on in the overhead bin immediately above your seat, don’t throw a tantrum. Just put it in the bin in front or behind where you are sitting… remarkably every bin is going to the same place the plane is.

Reclining your seat: So you want to drop your seat back. It actually makes little difference on short flights. But it certainly does to the person behind you, especially if he or she is trying to have a snack, a sip of wine or watching the TV screen on the back of your seat. (A colleague carries a broadsheet newspaper on long flights. If the person in front reclines the seat too far he opens his newspaper, ensuring the top of the page keeps falling forward onto the offender’s head. Their seat quickly returns to the upright position.)

JUST what you don’t want all the way across the Pacific.

Safety instructions: It’s just as boring for air crew to have to give their safety demonstrations as you think it is for you to have to listen. And even if you aren’t interested in the possibility of it saving your life, try to show respectful interest.

Little darlings: Parents travelling with children often appear oblivious to their little darlings kicking the back of the seat in front, poking faces over the top of their seat at passengers behind, yelling, or making a general nuisance of themselves. Just because you as a parent are used to such behaviour, don’t expect all others to be. And if it’s you whom you feel has to ask parents to pull Dennis the Menace into line, do so politely. Harsh words will only inflame the situation.

Smelly armpits: Please make sure you use a deodorant, and please, please, please no singlets exposing hairy armpits.

Carry-on food: If you are on a low-cost carrier that allows you to bring food onboard rather than buying theirs, be considerate in what you choose. Many fast foods, especially those with lots of onions, can simply stink in confined spaces. If you must eat, try non-odorous sandwiches, muffins, biscuits or fruit.

Respecting people’s space: The seats are small enough without you hogging the armrests or sticking your elbows into those next to you. And as for …how shall we say … those of larger body size, don’t flick up the armrest so you can spread out. Each person is entitled to a seat – not half a seat or a seat and a half.

Mobile phone etiquette: So many people make a nuisance of themselves shouting through mobile phones on the street, how can we expect them to be different on an aircraft? When you land and want to inform loved ones, your fellow passengers couldn’t care less. Why not just send a short text message?

Getting off: Once its time to get off the plane, don’t try to elbow your way past those in the seats in front of you. Give them time to get their stuff together – it may seem like it, but you’re not in a heavy metal concert mosh pit.

The carousel bunfight: The conveyor belt is long enough for every passenger to get decent access. So don’t squeeze in front of someone already waiting to collect their baggage. If you miss your bag it will return again quickly enough.

Bon Voyage!

The first is a group of around a dozen couples who through Mother Nature’s misfortune, have never experienced the joy of having children. They come together early each December, pull out their cheque books and go on a buying spree for kids’ toys… which they give to agreed charities and childrens’ hospitals.

On Christmas Day they come together again and share their love of Chardonnay, each contributing the least-known label they can find and sharing it over a Very Long Lunch, and interestingly this year two of them have chosen the same label. It’s from Diamond Creek Estate in the small, cool-climate winemaking area of the NSW Southern Highlands, and the vintage chosen is the excellent 2008.

Our colleagues tell us that its beaut stone-fruit characters and tropical pineapple overtones will make it a great choice with their salmon mouse and lobster salad Christmas Day Long Lunch; it’s not widely available so ring (02) 4872 3311or look at www.diamondcreekestate.com.au if you are interested in finding out where to buy it. It’s certainly good value at $20 a bottle (by the case.)

The second of our unusual Christmas lunches is hosted by a mate who invites all his single employees – this year that’ll be around forty of them – to another Very Long Lunch at which he, his wife and their adult ‘kids’ will cook ten legs of lamb in a battery of hooded barbecues, and roast vegies in as many electric frypans.

And as he says he’s got to pray it won’t rain, we’ve tipped him towards a Cabernet Sauvignon that’ll be ideal with his roast lamb luncheon – and is appropriately-labelled Hail Mary Full of Grace. It’s made by the irrepressible Julie Barry who owns the equally delightfully-titled Good Catholic Girl winery in the Clare Valley; with fresh and intense black fruit flavours and spicy tannins, it’s got lamb and home-made mint sauce written all over it. Julie made just 133 cases; phone her on 0419 822 909 if you want to grab one or six at just $25 a bottle.

And the final unusual one is a mate who traditionally finishes his family’s Christmas lunch with a homemade apple pie and custard to a recipe handed down a half-century ago by his Grandmum who always said “on Christmas Day we don’t have to eat stodgy English Christmas pudding.” And the wine he’ll have with it will be a Chenin Blanc, not one of our biggest sellers and mostly made in Western Australia, with his choice a 2011 from Voyager Estate; at $20 its great value to enjoy with his Grandmum’s apple pie and custard.

And a Merry Christmas to you all…

FLASHING idea from NSW’s Southern Highlands’ Diamond Creek Estate with Christmas seafood.

HAIL MARY – a Good Catholic Girl’s idea if you’ve a mob coming for Christmas Day and lamb’s on the menu.

GRANDMUM’s recipe apple pie and custard ideal with West Aussie Voyager Estate Chenin Blanc.

Written by David Ellis

In the early 1790s a group of convicts stole one of the only two sailing sloops in the-then fledgling Sydney Town and fled north to what is now known as Port Stephens.

NEWCASTLE’s grand colonial City Hall.

They lived there for several years with the local aboriginal people, before being found by accident by the sloop HMS Providence that had been swept north in a fierce storm while on an exploratory trip out of Sydney.

The four surviving “miserable and half-starved” convicts happily returned to Sydney Town aboard the Providence to face the music for their escape. But after just a couple of years two of them organised another escape… this time taking the colony’s only other sailing boat, the “Cumberland” and once again heading north.

Colonial Governor John Hunter ordered a search for them, and bizarrely Lieutenant John Shortland took off in pursuit of the sloop in just a row-boat manned by a handful of sailors.

That was 1797 and he never did find the escapees, but he did come across the broad entrance to a river that some lost fishermen had earlier dubbed Coal River after discovering coal along its floodplains.

On his return, Lieutenant Shortland told Governor Hunter of the rich potential of the river (which Shortland officially named after the Governor,) and free settlers and pardoned convicts were encouraged to go forth and settle there.

They quickly discovered just how rich those lands were, and soon a port town called Newcastle grew up, supplying the new settlers with their needs and shipping their produce to Sydney Town, Hunter Valley coal to India… and by the early 1820s, wine to Sydney from the first Hunter Valley vineyards.

CLASSIC landmark: the city’s famous Nobby’s Head and lighthouse.

And while by the mid-1970s the Hunter Valley’s wine and allied industries were booming with a new kind of tourism sassiness, industrial Newcastle seemed trapped in a time warp, its image reflected by stand-up comic Bob Hudson’s The Newcastle Song reminiscing long and clear on the mating habits of the night-time occupants of the city’s Hunter Street Mall…

But today Newcastle has found itself internationally-recognised, listed this year in the Lonely Planet travel guide as one of the World’s Top 10 Cities to Visit  — alongside such legends as New York, Valencia and Delhi.

So, how did the ugly duckling turn into such a strikingly beautiful swan?

In reality many facets of that swan have been obvious but unappreciated since the city’s founding — grand colonial public buildings, imposing commercial and residential streetscapes, and a magnificent coastline of stark rocky outcrops contrasted by temptingly sandy beaches…

But most importantly has been a more-recent appreciation of Newcastle’s history, together with a seemingly new-found devotion to landscaping, the arts, tourism and cuisine, and an interesting scheme called Illumination Newcastle that nightly bathes some of its most historic buildings under soft floodlights.

CHIC new accommodations, the Sebel Harbourside.

The transformation is most obvious in the city’s eastern end, where the old Royal Newcastle Hospital site has given way to tourist accommodation, cafés and apartments, paving the way for a 24-hour life rather than a drab nine-to-five existence.

Amongst new accommodations is the Sebel Harbourside, a near-beachside hotel whose 88 guest rooms feature chic, contemporary furnishings, and all the mod cons of a 4.5-star property.

Many of its rooms also offer spectacular ocean views.

Amongst historical nearby attractions is Fort Scratchley that formed an integral link in our defences against potential invasion — real and imagined — and during World War II, whose canons were Australia’s only-ever to fire in anger against an invading naval force.

COURTING history, elaborate coat of arms on Newcastle’s historic courthouse.

The Fort’s resurrection allows visitors to spend a couple of hours touring its tunnels, and to enjoy the most spectacular views of the port and its most significant landmark, Nobby’s Head.

Nearby, the grand Customs House attests to Newcastle’s maritime and trading stature, and if visiting Newcastle don’t miss the East Newcastle Heritage Walk that embraces eighteen historic sites from the old Customs House, to the original gaol site, the beach promenade and an historic convict-era lumber yard.

See www.visitnewcastle.com.au or Freecall 1800 654 558.

(Photos: Sandra Burn White)

Written by David Ellis

In fact we ‘fess up that at the price and with a dozen or so family invading for a Christmas Eve seafood buffet this year, we’ve already put a case in the fridge to go with it – and if you are thinking chicken either hot with the baked vegies or cold with a salad on Christmas day, it’ll go excellently with those too.

Peter Logan’s Apple Tree Flat vineyard is at Mudgee in NSW that was one of the first regions in Australia to produce Chardonnay, and his cool-climate vineyards are amongst some of our highest at around 850m to 1000m above sea level, resulting in wines with delightful citrus (predominantly grapefruit) and cashew flavours – ideal with a buffet of shellfish and white fish cocktails.

CHRISTMAS DAY LUNCH: IF turkey’s on the menu, many of us will opt for a good Cabernet Sauvignon to go with it – but with rels coming from the Shakey Isles, we’ve put aside several Pinot Noirs from New Zealand’s YealandsWay.

Their 2010 has rich, ripe dark-cherry fruit flavours and a hint of savoury spiciness that makes it a beaut companion with that turkey and seasoned stuffing; made from Marlborough/Central Otago fruit, it’s value at $21.99.

CHRISTMAS MUST:  THERE’S still time to pick up Rob Geddes’ excellent 29^th edition of Australian Wine Vintages for yourself or as a gift for a wine buff: rather than list every wine made in Australia and New Zealand, Rob and his tasting team have reviewed 4000-something wines from consistently-good makers, or from those they consider offer excellent value for money.

There’s also a review of 1000 interesting older vintages – and a useful travel section with advice about cellar doors and places to stay and sightsee in wine country. Dubbed “the little gold book” its great value at $34.95 in-store or online from www.thegoldbook.com.au

(NEED A FOOD/DRINK IDEA? Check out  http://www.vintnews.com )

Written by David Ellis

there’s a street that’s so narrow it’s officially named Woman Kisser Lane, and whose tradition demands that you offer a kiss as you squeeze past anyone coming in the opposite direction.

LUISA Spagnoli: sweet tooth for success

There’s no mention if you give them a chocolate afterwards.

Perugia is the capital of Umbria about halfway between Rome and Florence and it’s Perugina chocolate factory makes the world-famous chocolates called Baci – Italian for ‘kisses’.

As anyone with a sweet tooth knows, these tasty little bundles of chocolate incorporate nougat and ground hazelnuts, and are then topped with a whole hazelnut, covered with another coating of chocolate, and finally wrapped in foil that carries an expression of love in a half-dozen or more languages.

Luisa Spagnoli started the Perugina chocolate factory with fellow confectioner Giovanni Buitoni in 1907 when she was 30 years old.

Locals say the pair fancied each other and initially exchanged clandestine messages through their own hand-made chocolates – but historians scotch that as fanciful urban myth.

LUISA’s fashion store in Perugia, one of over 100 world-wide

The factory started with a hand-full of workers, but today is owned by the multi-national Nestlé company that ships its chocolates, candies and after-dinner mints around the world.

Free tours of the factory, in the Perugian suburb of San Sisto are held in specific languages daily, and include a visit to the Museum of Chocolate, a video on how chocolate is made, a guided walk along the production line, and a shop that sells the full range of chocolates, candies, nougat and biscotti, T-shirts and memorabilia.

And, yes, for chocoholics the guides offer free samples from silver trays at different points throughout the tour.

WHAT started it all – Luisa’s famed Baci chocolates

And possibly the best time to visit Perugia is in October when the annual nine-day EuroChocolate Festival is held. But be prepared for the crowds: it attracts more than one million tourists, and is one of the largest chocolate festivals in the world, with visitors able to buy such delights as chocolate-covered bananas, chocolate liqueur, chocolate moulds, and giant bricks of chocolate.

And wallow in a spa-full of chocolate.

But Luisa Spagnoli, the woman whose talents spawned the town’s fame, didn’t stop at just chocolates.

TIGHT fit may bring rewards in Perugia’s oddly-named Woman Kisser Lane

She turned her business acumen to the breeding of angora rabbits and in 1928 became the first person in the world to turn the soft, silky fur into shawls, boleros and fashion garments under the name l’Angora Spagnoli.

Today some 100 Luisa Spagnoli fashion stores are scattered around the world, with headquarters firmly entrenched inPerugia.

The townsfolk are also proud that it was here that the famous Renaissance painter Raphael learned his trade. He was apprenticed to another master Perigino (who was born Pietro Vannucci, but took the name of the town where he grew up).

FAMED artist Raphael: his original Entombment of Christ was stolen in strangest of circumstances

Art lovers flock to Perugia’s Exchange Guild to see one of the best-preserved Renaissance frescos in Italy, painted between 1498 and 1500 by Perigino and some of his students including the young Raphael.

Art historians attribute the figure of Fortitude, seated on a cloud, as the work of Raphael – who, incidentally, the locals delight in telling visitors died at an early age of 37 “from an over-indulgence in sex.”

Another must for anyone interested in art is a visit to the town’s Franciscan Church to see a copy of Raphael’s painting Entombment of Christ. The original caught the eye of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a wealthy and powerful nephew of Pope Paul V, while he was on a visit to Perugia in 1607.

The painting wasn’t for sale but the Cardinal had some men “acquire it,” and the original remains to this day in the Borghese museum in Rome.

And if you take a visit to Perugia, you just simply can’t miss a visit to Vicolo Baciadonne (Woman Kisser Lane.)

But just remember – before you head along the half-metre wide laneway, make sure you check who is coming the other way, and whether or not you would enjoy the traditional greeting.

Carolinasusi Italian Tours have 3-week escorted tours to Umbria and Tuscany every northern Spring and Autumn. Details (07) 3396 8652, (07) 3262 6332 or www.carolinasusi.com.au.

(Photos: Carolinasusi Italian Tours)

Written by David Ellis