Grape Escape to Pyrmont Food & Wine Festival

If your daily serving of fruit includes a mandatory glass of wine, then between the 15 – 24 May, you need to be at the Pyrmont Festival. 

  

This regional festival showcases the very best of the area with more than 50 wine bars, hotels, restaurants and winemakers enticing you to sample, taste, swig and avoid spittoons at all costs.

Unlike most wine & food festivals, where you snoop around, taste samples and head home, the Pyrmont Festival pushes the social boundaries. You can enjoy wine tastings and dinners, art displays, photo exhibitions and wine-meal parings for lunches and dinners throughout the 10 days.

Now into its fifth year, the festival also includes the Mudgee Region and all its palate offerings.  With Mudgee located a 3.5 hour drive from central NSW, not many locals or tourists get to sample their Napa-competitive wines so this is a rare treat. The region’s renowned for more than 40 boutique wineries and one of the state’s first established wine regions. 

Marrying the best of the region, the city and culture, this event has attracted quite a fan base over the years. From Burrundulla Wines to Huntington Estate, the vineyard exhibitions are extensive. This is before we even get to the foodie lovers who can sample tasters from Blue Eye Dragon, the new LuMi bar and Flying Fish.

Making this a family affair, the highlights are on the two free headliner days (16h and 17^th) from 11am – 5pm. During this time, there will be live music, kids rides & entertainment and around 100 winemaker stalls. So the kids can spin themselves on the rides until they feel dizzy while the parents can do likewise, from wine samplings.  You do need to note that there are charges for wine tastings, but the wine packages are reasonable at $20 AUD.

When it comes to the food/wine pairing packages, we felt the prices were decent, starting at $65. They do climb to $150 for LuMi but then race back down to $16 for the Biaggio Café wine lunch special. Depending on your budget or need to experience the best, we felt the price ranges were extremely accommodating for all wallet holders.

If you’re on a tighter budget but do want to experience NSW at its best, just 15 minutes car drive from Pyrmont, you can be at a Sydney boutique hotel. One of the city’s oldest, most affordable 4 Star hotels, you’ll not break the bank while you experience the most incredible skyline views from Cremorne Point Manor.  No wonder Tripadvisor’s given the Manor a Certificate of Excellence, for the 4^th consecutive year!