Every few months, my friend Liv and I plan a weekend getaway somewhere in Victoria. We decided on High Country, since it was one of the few regions of Victoria I was still yet to visit, and Liv was keen to explore more of the area.  At 3 hours from Melbourne, it’s the perfect candidate for a weekend getaway rather than a day trip.

High Country Victoria encompasses Victoria’s northeast, including the Alpine Region and the King Valley wine region. The region boomed during Australia’s Gold Rush in the 1850s and many of the towns in the area have been beautifully preserved, especially the largest, Beechworth.

Read More: The Most Beautiful Travel Destinations in Victoria

High Country is also Kelly Country – the lands where Australia’s favourite outlaw, Ned Kelly, once roamed. In case you’re not familiar, Ned Kelly is an Australian legend. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that a country that was built on the backs of convicts glorifies a notorious criminal, even if he doesn’t have much relevance today. Ned Kelly is famous for the suit of bullet proof armour he wore during his final shootout with police.

Today, High Country is best known for it’s King Valley and the Milawa food & wine region, as well as the ski resorts farther north, on Mt Hotham and Mt Buller. Since we visited in the middle of spring, we stuck to the lower region of High Country and focused on wine and cheese! Unlike our last trip, to The Grampians, this trip was at a much slower and more indulgent pace – I don’t think I worked up a sweat once!

Dinner at the Yea Peppercorn Hotel

We had dinner in a small town called Yea (pronounced Yay!), at the Yea Peppercorn Hotel, a charming historic pub which was built in the 1860s. The Peppercorn is EXACTLY what I think a country pub should be. It’s cosy and charming, the service was warm and friendly and the food was hearty and delicious. Even better, the Peppercorn Inn has a killer local wine list, proudly flaunting local drops from around the nearby Goulburn Valley and King Valley wine regions. One of the many great things about travelling around country Victoria is that most country towns are close to a great wine region, so the pubs in Victoria have better wine lists than your average Australian pub.

I had the pasta alla funghi, which was hearty and yet not too heavy or oily, and I counted at least five different varieties of mushrooms. No sad pub dinners here! Liv had the Peppercorn Parma which from all reports, was delicious. This is a terrible iPhone photo, but I left my DSLR in the car and still wanted to share how cute this place is!

Stay in High Country Victoria: Burnt Creek Cottages

We were staying just outside Mansfield, at Burnt Creek Cottages. Our cottage was one of ten self contained cottages on the sprawling property, and the owners let us know they were happy for us to drop by their cottage if we needed anything.

The cottage was spacious and functional, with simple furnishings, but the highlight was the floor-to-ceiling windows that offered an uninterrupted view of the bucolic countryside. Rolling hills, a lake and a smattering of trees.

Glenrowan: Ned Kelly Country

I’m sure there’ s a lot more to Glenrowan than a giant statue of Ned Kelly, but that’s all we made time for. Ned Kelly’s infamous final shoot out with police, in his now-legendary armour, was in Glenrowan and the town is lined with shops named after Ned, with a large statue of Ned Kelly outside the post office.  If this is all you were planning on doing, you could probably skip seeing the statue altogether, but if you had time I’m sure there is a lot more to Glenrowan than what I saw.

On the way, we made a bathroom stop at Swanpool & District Memorial Hall, the bathroom was a bust (no toilet paper) but I loved photographing the super cute cinema.

Beechworth

Beechworth is one of the most charming country towns in Australia. A former Gold Rush town, in its heyday in the 1850s, Beechworth flourished as a commercial centre amongst the goldfields in northeast Victoria, and as a trading post between Melbourne and Sydney. We wandered around the main street and were spoilt for choice of cafes and wine bars. Surrounded by vineyards, dairies and farmland, Beechworth is a hotbed for gourmet local produce.

Read more: The Most Charming Country Towns in Australia

Bridge Road Brewery

After doing a lap of the main street, we stopped at Bridge Road Brewery so Liv could do a beer tasting. Bridge Road is regarded as one of Australia’s best craft breweries, so I did feel a little guilty trying a Beechworth cider instead – I don’t think I’ll ever be a beer drinker.

Even though I don’t drink beer, I thought the tasting notes they provide with the paddle was really well done – definitely worth checking out if you are a craft beer drinker.

Beechworth Honey

Afterwards, we went to Beechworth Honey’s flagship store. Beechworth Honey is one of the most-loved brands of Australian honey, and despite already having a jar at home, I left with another two – varieties that you can’t find at the supermarket!

I was tickled pink to find an enormous honey tasting station inside the store – there would have been at least thirty different pots of honey to try. When I was a kid, one of my favourite parts of visiting Brisbane’s Royal Show (The “Ekka” as everyone called it), was going to the honey tasting pavilion and giving myself a sugar high by sampling as much honey as I could before a responsible adult reigned me in. Not much has changed!

I tried at least ten, before settling on two to take home. They make it easier to choose by categorising their honey into a few major groups – I brought the green mallee honey which is in the Fruity category, and then the Tasmanian Leatherwood which is in the Bold category. I could have stayed all day, but Liv had a little honey accident and ended up with a hand covered in honey, so we moved along to the pub for lunch (and so Liv could wash her hands in the pub bathroom).

Lunch at Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel

I’d read that Tanswell’s Commercial Hotel in Beechworth is one of the best country pubs in Australia, and I was excited to put it to the test.

We sat in the beautifully preserved public bar area, which faces onto the street. Again, the wine list was a tempting menu of good local drops, but given we had a day of wine tasting in the King Valley ahead of us, I abstained. We also had two cheese tastings planned that day, but that didn’t stop us from ordering a blue cheese baked gnocchi and a beetroot & feta salad to share for lunch. The gnocchi was out of this world delicious, but I’m glad we shared it with a salad.

The Commercial Hotel was originally built in the 1850s in response to the influx of miners during the Gold Rush. The son of a convict, Thomas Tanswell, bought the pub and built the facade you see today in the 1870s. The Tanswells became one of the most respected families in Beechworth, and owned the pub for nearly one hundred years, until its sale in the 1960s.

On the wall, I noticed a framed photograph of a battalion of ANZACS (Australian & New Zealand Army Corps, who fought at Gallipoli in World War I). I got up to have a closer look, and found myself totally transfixed. The photograph was over one hundred years old, taken in 1915. The soldiers were positioned on the steps of Cheops Pyramind in Egypt, before they were deployed to Gallipoli. It’s an incredible photograph, not only because of the moment in history that it captured but because the soldiers were photographed at ease. The men in the photo weren’t just soldiers – you could see the personality captured in each of them – many of whom were being photographed for the last time. The weight of the human cost of war was writ large across their young faces and it completely broke my heart.

Cheese Tasting at Milawa Cheese Co

Our first cheese tasting was at Milawa Cheese Co. The tasting is free, and there are at least a dozen cheeses to try, from fresh chevre to washed rind cheeses, to mature cheeses and my favourite, blue cheese. There was a variety of goats and cows milk cheese, and to be honest all of them were tasty, but my favourite was the mild Mt Buffalo goat’s milk blue cheese which is HEAVEN. We bought a thick wedge of it to have for later, and I’ve since found a stockiest for Milawa Cheese at the Prahran Market in Melbourne.

Our next stop was meant to be King Valley Dairy, which I’m sure we originally found on a tourism website, only to find that it isn’t open to the public. Luckily, we’d had our fill of cheese at Milawa, so it wasn’t a total bust.

 

Wine Tasting in The King Valley

The King Valley is a cool climate wine region best known as the home of Italian wine varietals in Australia. Italians immigrated to the area after World War II, in the 1940s and 1950s, and initially grew tobacco but soon saw the area’s potential for Italian grape varieties.

Pinot Grigio, Prosecco, Sangiovese, Barbara & Nebbiolo are some of the most popular Italian varietals that you can find in the area. We visited four wineries: Red Feet, Brown Brothers, Dal Zotto and Pizzini.

Brown Brothers

First up was Brown Brothers. Brown Brothers is a popular mainstream winemaker, best known for their range of affordable moscatos and prosecco. Liv suggested swinging past, as they’re known for having a beautiful cellar door setting. The outdoor area is lovely, and there were lots of groups enjoying the sunshine on the lawn, gathered around tables or plonked down in bean bags. I have to admit, neither of us were particularly taken with the first two wines we tried, so we didn’t stay for long. It was very busy, with a very large cellar door (tasting room) and lots of groups of hens parties.

If you’re new to wine drinking, Brown Brothers is a great place to start with a range of sweeter wines. Personally, I prefer drier styles, so they’re not for me.

Red Feet

Our second stop, at Red Feet, was much more my speed. Red Feet’s cellar door is a large shed which opens onto a lawn with panoramic views over the countryside. When we arrived, we were the only customers there, so we had winemaker Damian Star’s full attention as he talked us through the tasting. Damian was a great host, and was full of interesting knowledge – yet was totally approachable and unpretentious. Halfway through the tasting, he brought out some of their house-cured salami, crackers and cheese to complement the wines. I don’t eat red meat, but Liv assured me I was missing out and the salami was delicious.

All of the Red Feet wine we tried, whether red or white, was so smooth. I bought a glass of their to-die-for Chardonnay to enjoy on the lawn after the tasting, and bought a bottle of the rose to take home with me. Liv and I also split a bottle of the Pinot Noir to drink that night back in the cottage. I wish I could have taken home a bottle of the Sangiovese too, but my wine cupboard is tiny, and I’m also meant to keep other things in there because it’s actually the pantry.

Dal Zotto

Dal Zotto is probably the King Valley’s most famous winery, known for their range of prosecco as well as their hospitality, with an onsite restaurant. We’d planned to eat here, but we lost track of time at Red Feet, and by the time we arrived it was closed.

I’ve tried their prosecco many times before – in fact, many of the pubs and bars I work for have Dal Zotto prosecco on their list. I’m not that fussed on prosecco these days, but I was excited to try some of their other Italian varietals.

Despite being a bigger and busier operation than Red Feet, it still felt intimate and never rushed. The guy who led our wine tasting was passionate about wine and once again, was very down to earth and approachable. He juggled the handful of groups he was looking after with ease, and was happy to chat at length about any of the wines. It was a really great experience, and was the perfect example of how tastings at a busy winery should be done.

I tried several wines at Dal Zotto, and to be honest, would have loved to buy a bottle of nearly all of them. Their Nebbiolo is particularly delicious! I took home a bottle of their Barbera, which is going to go perfectly with a hearty tomato-based pasta.

Pizzini

 Our final stop was at one of the other famous wineries in the region, Pizzini. Pizzini is famous for their reds, and their long list available for a free tasting – some 27 wines! Pizzini is a family operation, and they are clearly very passionate about wine & hospitality, judging by their generous tasting list and range of experiences on offer, including a cooking class at Katrina Pizzini’s A Tavola Cooking School.

The cellar door here was very crowded, and the girl who served us was polite but didn’t seem particularly passionate about wine, or at least about leading a wine tasting. She seemed happy to elaborate with a little prompting, but I didn’t get as much out of this tasting as I did the others. I’m not sure if it was just a one-off experience, and since it’s just down the road from Dal Zotto, it might be worth checking out if you’re in the area.

Dinner at the Delatite Hotel, Mansfield

We stopped in Mansfield, for dinner in the courtyard at the Delatite Hotel. I had a haloumi burger, which I was actually really impressed by – it wasn’t heavy or greasy like I half expected it to be, it was just plain delicious. While it wasn’t as charming as the Yea Peppercorn, it was a good solid pub.

We ended the day with a glass of our newly-purchased Red Feet Pinot Noir on the balcony back at Burnt Creek Cottages – the best place to start and end each day!

The following morning, we drove back to Melbourne with a stop for a coffee in Yea and a brief stop at Masons Falls in Kinglake National Park. I loved visiting High Country for the first time, and was so charmed by the historic towns, family-owned wineries and warm hospitality wherever we went. I will definitely be back!

Have you been to the King Valley? What’s your favourite weekend break destination from your hometown?