Visiting the Limestone Coast from Adelaide is no quick trip – getting to the heart of this large and varied region is a good three-and-a-half-hour drive, but it is a journey that will not only replenish your cellar with some interesting wines, it will also nourish your gastronomic soul with new food memories.

This month’s Coonawarra Cellar Dwellers celebration of the region’s aged and museum wines offers even more reason to visit.

If you have the time, you can take the Princes Highway with its pink-hued salt pans and Coorong views and then cut back inland to Naracoorte, but the most direct route from Adelaide is right down the centre via Keith on the National Highway.

Henry and Rose Cafe at Keith. Photo: supplied

Keith is a two-and-a-half hour drive from Adelaide and a good spot to stop for a break. Henry and Rose Café is a refreshing example of what a small country town can do to catch the passing trade, with a flair for fresh local food, generosity and a bit of style. Drop in for takeaway country favourites such as homemade scones, lemon slice, egg and bacon toasted sandwiches (made with Hood’s free range eggs and Van Leuven artisan bread), burgers and locally roasted Mahalia coffee. While you wait you can browse the gifts, fresh flowers and art, or better still take a table at near one of the open fires (both indoors and in the courtyard) and choose from homemade soups, fresh salads, tapas and local wines.

If you turn off at Keith and head towards Naracoorte on the Riddoch Highway, in around 40 minutes you will arrive and Padthaway. This is where you will start to see the first of the majestic red gums and vineyards for which the region is famous, and it’s worth stopping to taste some of the Padthaway Chardonnay and Shiraz. You will see the grand 1880s homestead of the historic Padthaway Estate from the road. The cellar door here is home to Australia’s only known traditional French Cochard Champagne press with which the Eliza Pinot Noir Chardonnay is produced. As well as wine, Padthaway Estate also produces its own olive oil and cider.

A bit further out is Henry’s Drive Vignerons, a purpose-built cellar door for tastings of Longbottom Vinters wines. It’s also a great place to stop for panini and pizza.

To the south east of Padthaway, surrounding Naracoorte and extending towards Coonawarra and the Victorian border, is the Wrattonbully wine region. Wrattonbully is a relatively new wine region, with vineyards being established there only in the 1960s, but the excellent soils and sites have since attracted many winemakers and the wines produced (Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and Chardonnay) are becoming world-renowned.

One of the winemakers the Wrattonbully/Coonawarra region attracted was 2014 Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology Winemaker of the Year Sue Bell, who started out making wine for Penfolds, Seppelts and Hardys before pursuing her dream of building a small wine brand of her own.

Bellwether Wines. Photo: supplied

Once Bell set her eyes on the derelict 1860s Glen Roy shearing shed on the Riddoch Highway just outside Penola, she set about restoring it to become a working winery and cellar door while preserving the original elements of the historic building. If you want to taste her wines, make sure to book an appointment. Most people then don’t want to leave and now Bell has provided a place to stay.

If you fancy glamping, book yourself a site at Bellwether Wines’ exclusive new camp ground. Beneath the gums to the rear of the cellar door, Bell has created 10 generous camp sites with power and water, a communal fire pit, cooking facilities and separate showers and toilets, each with a 1950s ceramic pedestal basin and a real bathroom complete with a claw-foot bath that sits beneath a huge picture window with a countryside view.

As well as cellar door tastings, Bell offers soup made with produce from her extensive kitchen garden and runs arts projects and cooking classes.

On your way to Bellwether, stop in at Naracoorte to pick up some supplies. Award-winning butchers Tender Cuts on Omerod Street has a huge range of handmade sausages (including Vegemite and cheese, which they assure us are delicious) and Watson’s Lamb, which is locally raised using “stress -free” practices on natural pasture. Next door to Tender Cuts is renowned artisan baker and patissier Jason Van Leuven’s Naracoorte outlet (he is also currently running a second outlet as a pop-up in Penola, which is rumoured to become a permanent fixture). Unfortunately, Van Leuven is no longer producing chocolate, but his sourdough bread, pastries and cakes are a must.

Van Leuven vanilla slice. Photo: Mary Taylor/InDaily

Fresh fruit and veg and just about everything else that is locally produced – including Limestone Coast Cheese, Nolan’s Road organic olive oil, Jenny Wisbey chutneys and pastes, Mahalia coffee and Cornucopia gourmet popcorn – can be found at The Veg Shed on Robertson Street.

While in Naracoorte, you can also visit the world-heritage-listed Naracoorte Caves, the Naracoorte Swimming Lake (if it’s warm enough to swim) and the Mini Jumbuk for some locally designed and made wool bedding. A bit further out towards Coonawarra is Bool Lagoon, one of the largest and most diverse freshwater lagoon systems in southern Australia and home to a wide range of wildlife and many rare and endangered bird species.

Bool Lagoon. Photo: supplied

At Coonawarra, there are around 25 winery cellar doors which are open for tastings along the wine region’s 20km length along the Riddoch Highway. Most are within walking distance of one another. If you’re looking for accommodation, the Coonawarra Vignerons recommend a good list here.

Upstairs at Hollick is a winery restaurant that has a strong focus on high-quality regional and seasonal food, and is a special place for lunch or Saturday night dinner. The winter menu includes dishes such as crispy quail, mograbiah braise and kale ($36), and Watson’s lamb, ras el hanout cauliflower florets and purée, quinoa, goats curd and Shiraz jus ($36).

Goat cheese custard, pickled zucchini, shaved salami and sauteed mushrooms. Photo: Mary Taylor/InDaily

For a more casual place to eat, Fodder at Ottelia Wines is doing great, thoughtful food, including braises, tasting plates and woodfired pizzas (“house rule: fodder doesn’t do pineapple/chicken on pizza!”) using produce from its own garden. Fodder is open for lunch and dinner from Thursday to Monday only.

At the southern end of the Coonawarra wine region is historic Penola, where bike hire is available and the landscape is flat enough for biking to be a viable option for most people. While in Penola, visit the Koonara Wines cellar door in the main street (Church Street) – which is also a kitchenware shop – for a tasting of Dru and Nicole Reschke’s range of boutique wines.

Sharam Cottage, Petticoat Lane. Photo: Flickr/denisbin

Also a must is a walk down state heritage-listed Pettitcoat Lane to visit Sharam Cottages, a bittersweet reminder of the harsh conditions under which people survived 150 years ago. Penola is also a great place for collectors of vintage clothing and bric-a-brac – a number of stores contain some real gems.

Simon and Erika Bowen’s acclaimed restaurant Pipers of Penola is open for dinner only from Tuesday to Saturday. The winter menu includes dishes such as grass-fed porterhouse of beef, medium rare, horseradish lentils, spiced beetroot relish and fine crisp potatoes ($37), and barbecue-roasted pork loin, grilled pork belly, local cabbage slaw, crackling and mustard beurre blanc ($36).

The Border Inn at Apsley. Photo: supplied

On your way back to Adelaide, take a detour across the border to Apsley, a tiny Victorian town just 30km east of Naracoorte. Apsley is home to The Border Inn, an unusual Art Deco weatherboard pub with a welcoming country vibe and a great menu designed by executive chef Ian Perry that features local beef and lamb. The Border Inn has some accommodation indoors, a separate bungalow and a caravan park in the making, but in the meantime campers are welcome to light campfires and hook up to the power and toilet facilities outside.

Mark, Alana, Matthew and Cindy Cross at Amber Ridge. Photo: supplied

A few kilometres outside of Apsley on the Wimmera Highway is Amber Ridge, the pot of gold at the end of the journey. Cindy and Mark Cross restored a 110-year-old cottage, developed a productive kitchen garden and, armed with a passion for food, started this tiny café and nursery on the outskirts of the tiny township.

Open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm, Amber Ridge grows and sells fresh seasonal heirloom fruit and vegetables, produces more than 30 different preserves, and grows and sells a large range of flowering shrubs, heirloom vegetable seedlings and advanced trees. Best of all, you can stop for the most amazing morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, made from scratch using their home-grown produce.

Beef Bourgignon pot pie and fresh garden salad. Photo: Mary Taylor/InDaily

The winter menu includes woodfired pizzas; open-steak “manwiches” made with aged scotch fillet steak, smokey bacon, farm eggs, caramelised onion, cheddar, lettuce and house-made aioli served on thick-cut local bread ($18); and gourmet farm lamb burgers served with beetroot chutney and fetta ($18). On the day InDaily visited, the specials board included an heirloom beetroot tarte tatin topped with balsamic and homemade labne and served with a seasonal salad ($16), and individual beef bourguignon pot pies served with seasonal salad ($16). Amber Ridge is also licensed and has an interesting list of local wines, cider and beer.

We took home some jars of delicious champagne figs in vanilla syrup, preserved limequats, and a huge amount of respect for the food and wine producers of the Limestone Coast.

Coonawarra Cellar Dwellers offers visitors a rare opportunity to taste and buy aged wine during the month of July. Coonawarra wines are well known for their aging ability and Cellar Dwellers provides the region with an opportunity to showcase wines that are usually not available for tasting at cellar door and also at the many dinners and degustations held as part of the Cellar Dwellers program. The South Australia Tourism Commission offers accommodation suggestions here.

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