TOP 10 highlights from my trip to Australia in January 2017

I'm a slow girl, a typical northener, you see. Back in January I had the opportunity to visit Australia, courtesy of the Australian winemaker, Jacob's Creek, and it's probably about time I shared some of the highlights from that whirlwind tour.

First of all, I almost didn't go, meaning I almost turned down the offer to visit. Leaving our three small kids in charge of my busy partner in the middle of the school term seemed a bit daunting, but he was more than happy to accept the challenge and let me go on a business trip for a change. Our girls were 4 and 7 in January, our boy turned 6 on the day of the departure - and there was school for the oldest and kindergarten for the two younger ones, violin practices, ballet classes, basketball and football/soccer sessions and so on and so on to be followed. On hindsight, he did a great job, my dear K, so next time such an exciting opportunity arises, I'll accept it without hesitation :)

Meeting new friends

Jacob's Creek invited two Estonians to participate at their first international Our Table event. I was travelling with a well-known Estonian wine expert, Kalev Vapper, whom I knew only from the TV screen. He used to host several TV shows few years ago, and is now the wine buyer for one of the big supermarket chains here in Estonia.

A trip to Down Under is not an easy one, when travelling from such a small country far north. We met at the Tallinn Airport late on a Sunday evening and hopped over to Helsinki in Finland - that's less than 30 minutes up in the air. We then had a few hours to chat in Helsinki, then spent the next 11 hours on a Finnair plane from Helsinki to Singapore. Another few hours of waiting, then 8 more hours on a rather, well, cramped Jetstar carrier to Melbourne. Factor in the different time zones - and here we are, all exhausted and bleary-eyed after arriving in Melbourne on Tuesday morning:

Catching up with old friends #1

While my travel companion headed straight to the hotel, I had a date at the airport. Back in 1992-1993 I spent a year in Denmark as an exchange student, part of an AYUSA programme. It was at the beginning of the programme that I met Anthony, a guy from Melbourne. He actually spent his exchange year in Sweden, but the orientation programme for all the Estonians, Americans and Australians was in Denmark. We've kept touch over the years, and Anthony has actually been to Estonia twice.

I was of course looking forward to catching up with Anthony while in Melbourne, but as it happened, he was due to go on a family holiday in Tanzania on exactly the same dates. We did manage to meet a at the airport, however, and I'm extremely happy about that.

room picnic with Heidi Gruyere from Tasmania, potato crackerthins (Valley Produce Co.), mushroom and verjuice pate (@maggie_beer) also a bottle of @puntrdwines 2015 Pinot Noir from Yarra Valley and some mineral water :) #hotelroompicnic

Melbourne welcomed me with a soaring 33 Celsius - little did I know that this was only the beginning!

Lovely, lovely food #1 (Sezar, Melbourne)

After waving goodbye to Anthony, his lovely wife Maryanne and their two kids, I headed to the hotel. Although the initial plan was to unpack, refresh and get out to explore the city, I  succumbed to sleep and only woke up before the first meal. Our Table group (rather big, 40+) was bussed toGlen Waverly, a suburb of Melbourne, for a welcome dinner and drinks at a trendy Sezar, a restaurant specialising on Modern Armenian food.  I love Armenian food - although there's just lone recipe on this blog -  with its heavy use of lamb, aubergines/eggplants and soft lavosh flatbreads, and I adored the food at Sezar. Served family-style, subtly spiced, well seasoned, cooked to perfection - That lamb! That pumpkin! The place was crowned, the buzz was overwhelming and I left the place very satiated indeed.

 Here's a list of my three favourite dishes from Sezar:

Roasted Pumpkin, Red Pepper Paste, Crispy Bulghur, Sheep's Milk Cheese

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Kataifi Wrapped Lamb Neck and Sesame Mayo

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Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder, served with Sour Cherry Sauce, Garlic Yogurt and Tahini Yogurt

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Twice-Cooked Chicken Wings with Pomegranate Glaze, Pistachio and Coriander

(I'm also a lucky recipient of recipes of all those dishes - thank you, Kora & the Sezar team!)


This being a wine tour, we drank lots of good wine. Our wine ambassador for the night was Stockholm-based Australian musician/oenophile Richard Doumani (see @clarinet2claret), and he had paired the food at Sezar with Reserve Chardonnay Pinot Noir (Vintage 2016), Adelaide Hills Reserve Chardonnay (Vintage 2015), Limited Release Mataro Rosé (2016), Adelaide Hills Reserve Pinot Noir (Vintage 2015), Double Barrel Shiraz Barossa 2015 (which ended up being one of the favourites during the trip). Lots of good Australian wine, lots of it :)

Visit to Steingarten Wineyard, where it all began

To be continued...