The Gundaroo Gourmet Gallop
28 May 2014 / Words and photo: Ken Keeling
The Canberra Chapter’s Gourmet Gallop Mk II to Gundaroo was held on Sunday 27 April, with 10 cars and 20 gourmands lined up at our Blamey Square rendezvous at Russell. Unusually, and for some reason as yet unfathomed, we departed on time at 10.30am for a meandering run to our luncheon venue at the Capital Wines Cellar Door & Café in Gundaroo. The weather was cool but benign and so it was mainly “tops down” for the run. The run itself was a gentle in-the-country tour of some 85 kms via Wamboin and the “by-ways of Bylong”, (the “Meanders of Mac’s Reef” and the “Tulip Farm Twisty-bits”, and a “foray along the freeway” to Lake George) and thence by the Old Federal Highway back to and along the Shingle Hill Way to our destination in Gundaroo.
Our hostess at Capital Wines Cellar Door & Café seated us outside on the patio in the Autumn sun and the menu provided a good choice of options, ranging from excellent small platters, various shared platters and standard main courses to an Epicurean experience, based on matched wines to complement selected plates.
The majority of our “Gallopers” seemed to opt for a number of small plates or the platters, shared between several. It was noted that several cast caution to the winds, being observed consuming dessert with their coffee! Clare and her team looked after us like royalty and a number of those who had not previously experienced the temptations of the Cellar Door Café, expressed intention to return later, unfettered by group condemnation re consuming to excess.
Post-lunch there was a short transit run toward Murrumbateman to Tallagandra Hill Winery, noted for its excellent cool climate wines. They offered a guided tasting of selected wines (with matched cheeses) for some and/or coffee and cake for those who had shown sufficient restraint to resist the sweet treats at lunch.
The return run home included the opportunity (seized upon by about half of the group) to stop-of at the Stripey Sundae (in the Gold Creek touristy precinct at Nicholls) for the dedicated gourmands to sample locally made artisan ice-cream. There was also the opportunity for more coffee (fair-trade for the politically correct) for those in whom the caffeine levels had fallen below par during home run. The Frugii ice-cream really was different, with options of salted butter caramel, liquorice and wattle seed as well as the usual favourites. I can personally vouch for the yumminess of both the licorice and salted butter caramel offerings. It seemed that by then all those in the residual group were well-fed and satiated as, strange as it may seem, there were no takers for the option of a final stop-off at the George Harcourt Inn to round off the afternoon.
We arrived home “fatter and happy” with some 155 kms under my wheels – another pleasant MX5-outing having fun with friends.
