Your weekly taste of Australia’s best food, drinks and spirited discoveries
Welcome back to Uncorked & Forked.
This week we’re heading to the Southern Highlands, where one of the world’s great masters of cooking over fire is back in Australia.
We’re also opening a perfect 100-point Margaret River Chardonnay, raising a glass to an Australian sparkling winemaker taking on Champagne’s best, discovering why a grand old Warburton pub has become one of Victoria’s best places for a feed, and finding out what’s happening when wine and comedy collide in North Queensland.
And if dinner needs to be on the table in 20 minutes, Julie Goodwin may have the answer.
Let’s get into it.
If your idea of cooking outdoors involves turning on the barbecue and hoping you’ve remembered the tongs, Francis Mallmann operates in a rather different world.
The legendary Argentine chef has built an international reputation around cooking with fire, smoke and embers, often outdoors and on a spectacular scale.
Now he’s back on Australia’s east coast for the first time in 15 years as the headline act at Horizontal Festival, being held at Centennial Vineyards in Bowral this weekend.
The festival brings together chefs, NSW winemakers, distillers, musicians and producers across several days, but Mallmann’s Fiesta del Fuego is the obvious centrepiece.
Mallmann’s cooking philosophy has always been beautifully elemental. Meat and vegetables meet flame, smoke and time, with the fire becoming as important an ingredient as anything on the plate.
That approach has taken him from Patagonia to restaurants and events around the world, along with appearances on Chef’s Table and numerous books exploring his fascination with open-fire cooking.
In Bowral, the setting should suit him perfectly.
Centennial Vineyards sits among the rolling hills of the Southern Highlands, and Horizontal has been designed as much around the place as what’s being served, bringing regional wine and produce into the mix rather than treating them as supporting acts.
Mallmann’s return alone makes this worth watching.
But add a vineyard, spring in the Highlands and an enormous fire, and we suspect finding the tongs won’t be a problem.
There’s a particularly good reason to raise a glass to Bruce Tyrrell this week.
The Australian wine veteran has become only the fourth person inducted into the James Halliday Hall of Fame, adding another chapter to a family name synonymous with Australian wine.
So what better excuse to pour something from Tyrrell’s?
The Blacksmiths Hut Shiraz 2025 comes not from the family’s Hunter Valley heartland but from Heathcote, where Tyrrell’s has been working with Shiraz for around three decades.
Expect generous dark fruit and spice with the richness Heathcote does so well.
My Verdict: The Hall of Fame gives us the excuse. Heathcote Shiraz gives us the reason. A ripper Australian red from one of our great wine families.
The Region: Heathcote, Victoria
Best with: Steak, lamb or slow-cooked beef.
Now here’s a score that’s difficult to walk past.
House of Cards Ace High Chardonnay 2025 has received a perfect 100 points at the 2026 International Wine & Spirit Competition, the first wine to achieve the maximum score since the competition introduced its 100-point system in 2019.
The certified organic House of Cards vineyard sits at Yallingup in Margaret River, where Travis and Elizabeth Wray have been making wine under the label since 2011.
The judges found white peach, citrus and cashew alongside saline minerality and integrated oak. House of Cards was also named 2026 Western Australian Wine Producer of the Year.
My Verdict: Margaret River Chardonnay hardly needs help making its case, but 100 points will get anyone’s attention. This is one I’d very much like to put to the test myself.
The Region: Margaret River, Western Australia
Best with: Scallops, grilled snapper, roast chicken or simply a decent glass.
Wine festivals can occasionally take themselves rather seriously.
Grapes of Mirth does precisely the opposite.
Comedian and wine lover Merrick Watts brings his travelling combination of Australian wine, food and stand-up to Townsville this Sunday for Grapes of Mirth Goes Troppo.
The comedy line-up includes Sammy J and Lizzy Hoo, with the laughs unfolding alongside wine, food and views across the Coral Sea.
It’s a beautifully simple formula: find a great location, bring along some winemakers and let professional comedians prevent anyone from talking too earnestly about tannins.
Grapes of Mirth Goes Troppo is on Sunday, October 4 in Townsville.
It’s been quite a year for House of Arras.
Chief winemaker Ed Carr has been named International Sparkling Winemaker of the Year for the second time, remaining the only non-European winemaker to have received the title.
And that’s only half the story. House of Arras has also been crowned 2027 Halliday Wine Companion Winery of the Year.
Carr has spent decades helping establish Tasmania as one of the world’s serious sparkling wine regions, working with Tasmanian fruit for House of Arras since the mid-1990s.
This year’s international shortlist put him alongside winemakers from Rare Champagne and Champagne Henriot.
That’s formidable company.
Carr isn’t trying to reproduce Champagne in Tasmania. The aim has always been to make sparkling wine that expresses Tasmania’s own cool climate and character.
Two international titles and Halliday’s Winery of the Year suggest it’s working.
There’s something comforting about the premise behind Julie Goodwin’s new cookbook.
Home for Dinner isn’t interested in restaurant food masquerading as home cooking. It’s about getting dinner onto the table and people back around it.
Goodwin has filled the book with practical, low-effort recipes for different stages of family life, whether you’re still feeding a household or suddenly cooking for two.
That’s a subject the original MasterChef Australia winner understands particularly well. Her own family table has changed as her sons have grown up, and the book reflects the reality that the way we cook changes with it.
Why it’s on my radar: Plenty of cookbooks teach us how to make impressive food. This one starts somewhere more useful: making it easier to sit down and eat together.
Home for Dinner by Julie Goodwin is released in Australia on October 6.
Three tiers. A glass of wine. Not a cucumber sandwich in sight.
The Westin Melbourne has turned traditional afternoon tea on its head with High Cheese, a three-tiered procession devoted entirely to cheese.
Executive chef Apoorva Kunte has teamed with cheesemonger Jeremy Spradbery to turn selected cheeses into savoury and sweet creations, with Victorian Punt Road wines along for the ride.
Guests can add a four-wine flight if one glass isn’t going to do the job.
And unlike high tea, there’s no requirement to pretend you’re excited by a tiny finger sandwich.
Our take: Three tiers of cheese and Victorian wine in a five-star hotel. Someone has finally understood the assignment.
High Cheese runs Tuesday to Saturday at The Westin Melbourne until October 17, from $100 including a glass of Punt Road wine.
Some pubs are worth the drive before you’ve even ordered a beer.
The Alpine Hotel Warburton has overlooked the Yarra River since 1885, tucked into one of the loveliest corners of the Upper Yarra Valley.
Owners Rachael and Anthony Northwood took over in 2021 and have done an extraordinary job breathing life back into the grand old hotel without polishing away its character.
Upstairs are beautifully appointed vintage-style rooms, including those looking across the Yarra towards the mountains. Downstairs there’s a sprawling beer garden and a kitchen that’s taken the food well beyond the standard country pub offering.
And somebody else has noticed.
The Alpine was named Best Casual Dining — Metropolitan at the 2026 AHA Victoria State Awards for Excellence.
The food has gone up several notches, but thankfully the Alpine still understands what it is. You can settle in for a top-notch meal without feeling as though your country pub has suddenly developed white-tablecloth ambitions.
Our take: Have lunch or dinner right near the most beautiful stretch of the Yarra river, wander through Warburton, return for a beer in the garden and, if nobody wants to drive home, head upstairs to bed.
Top Tip: Wander 100 metres down to the local bakery for giant homemade Wagon Wheels. You’ll want to buy 10!
That’s a Local Legend.
Until next Friday… keep discovering, keep tasting and never drive past a country pub on an empty stomach.
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