Wine & Food

More sheep graze around Coonawarra than almost anywhere else in this part of South Australia. This shows up on the region's tables. Many farms here supplied wool and meat long before the first vines were planted. Some of today's wine estates even stand on former grazing land. Lamb from the Limestone Coast is considered among the best in Australia. It's lean yet succulent, usually simply grilled or slow-roasted in the oven.

The Coonawarra Cabernet suits this lamb perfectly, as if the two were made for each other. Its firm tannin binds the fat of the meat, its dark fruit meets the char from the grill, and the cool mint note acts almost like a second herb note on the plate alongside rosemary and garlic.

Just an hour's drive south lies Robe on the coast, famous for its rock lobster, caught fresh from the Southern Ocean. This pale, sweet meat doesn't pair as well with the heavy Cabernet. Its tannin would overwhelm the lobster's delicate texture. Here, connoisseurs prefer the region's Chardonnay or a chilled Riesling from further north. At one restaurant right on Robe's harbor, rock lobster even appears on the breakfast plate, with scrambled eggs and pickled seaweed, far from any red wine.

In this way, a single dinner in Coonawarra reveals the full range of this landscape: grazing land for the lamb, limestone for the vines. And just a short drive away lies the cold sea, which gave the whole region its climate in the first place.