A Clare Valley Slow-Food Weekend
Long lunches, farmers' market mornings and dinners worth dressing up for.
The Clare Valley rewards travellers who slow down. This weekend is built not around ticking off cellar doors but around the table: market produce, long regional lunches and dinners worth lingering over. Wine is the thread that ties it together, not the whole story.
The plan
Start Saturday at the Clare Valley Farmers' Market if your timing lines up, filling a basket with bread, olives and smallgoods for a picnic later. Mid-morning, ease into the day with a tasting at Mount Horrocks in the old Auburn railway station, where the organic Rieslings set the tone. Lunch is the centrepiece — a long, leisurely table at Reilly's Restaurant in heritage Mintaro, regional plates matched to estate wines.
Spend the afternoon walking it off among the slate buildings of Mintaro before checking into your base. As evening falls, dinner at Terroir Auburn is the weekend's highlight, refined French-leaning cooking and a deep cellar of local bottles.
Sunday is gentler. A morning tasting at Skillogalee sets up an early lunch, then drift home with a final stop at the Clare Valley Wine & Food Centre to track down the bottles you fell for along the way.
Day 1
5 stops-
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Clare Valley Farmers' Market
ClareFill a basket with local produce to start the weekend.
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Day 2
2 stops-
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On the map
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Image credits
- Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church, Auburn, South Australia (2010-01-11).jpg by Mattinbgn , CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons