• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Lambs Ears and Honey | A Food & Travel Blog
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • About Me
  • Work With Me
  • Cookbooks
  • Cookbook Club
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • About Me – Lambs Ears and Honey
  • Work With Me
Ă—
Home » Artisans and producers » Porchetta Party at Oliver’s Taranga

Porchetta Party at Oliver’s Taranga

27/08/2012 by Amanda

Share

Share
Pin

It’s a tough life being a food blogger, facing daunting challenges on a daily basis and struggling, on a personal level,  to cope with overwhelming difficulties.

Oh, that’s such a lie.  I love every minute of what I do.  I get to meet some of the most amazingly inventive, productive people who generously share with me their stories, their histories and their food and wine.  The only things I struggle with are my waistline and my diary dates.

Such has been the case with Oliver’s Taranga (the diary dates bit, not the waistline bit) who’ve invited me to share in some of their pop-up food/wine events in the past, but we’ve not been able to synchronise our timings.  As a greedy girl with a profound respect for all things pork, I was bitterly disappointed to have to miss the pop-up Porchetta Party Oliver’s Taranga hosted, with porchetta from Marino Meats, in the Adelaide Central Market earlier this year.  Combining the almost spiritual properties of Marino’s porchetta with Oliver’s Sagrantino was an inspired move and the event was wildly successful, with both porchetta and wine being inhaled by the very appreciative Friday night shoppers, so when another Porchetta Party was announced I was there with bells on!

This time the party was held at Oliver’s Taranga picturesque McLaren Vale winery on a sheltered deck overlooking their vineyards.  I was quite spoiled and sat with Oliver’s winemaker, Corrinna Wright, enjoying the fruits of her labour, Marino Meats bliss-inducing porchetta and learning some remarkable things about their historic property.

The history of white settlement in Australia is a relatively recent one so, unlike family-owned land in Europe, we don’t have many properties that have been in the one family for hundreds of years. In fact, Oliver’s is one of these few in South Australia and one of the very few in the Mclaren Vale area.

Corrinna is one of the sixth generation of her family who have lived and worked on the same property since it was settled in the 1840’s by William and Elizabeth Oliver who sailed to Australia from Scotland.  They took up the land in what was largely a wheat belt in the southern vales of Adelaide, planting wheat, fruit trees and, for reasons that remain an utter mystery to their descendants, grapevines.  For equally obscure reasons, William then proceeded to make wine from his successful vineyards, even entering it in the Willunga Agricultural Show in the 1850’s, although there is absolutely no record of why he was inspired to do so or where he learned any of the skills.  Aside from being in the same family for six generations, Oliver’s Taranga also has the distinction of being one of the few properties in the area which has been home to vineyards for over 170 years.  The original Shiraz, Mataro, Grenache and Doradillo vines, which were un-irrigated and largely unproductive, were pulled in 1948, but were immediately replaced with new cuttings grown from the old stock.

These grapes have for many years been sold on to other wineries in the area, making their way into top-end wines, including the likes of Penfolds Grange, and Corrinna’s choice to become a winemaker had as much to do with seeing the premium wine potential in their own grapes as it did with taking the opportunity to build their own brand and safeguarding the property in the hands of the family for another generation.  While the Doradillo  is no longer produced by Oliver’s Taranga, the Shiraz, Mataro and Grenache find their way into award winning wines.  Corrinna has been quick to see the advantages inherent in some of the lesser-known, but more drought, heat and disease tolerant grapes which are growing in popularity in South Australia and her Vermentino and Fiano wines are attracting attention and awards and her Sagrantino – which pairs so very well with porchetta – is turning more than a few heads.

I’d suggest you keep an eye on what’s happening at Oliver’s Taranga as they are working closely with chef Todd Steele and there are more pop-up dining events planned for the very near future.  There might be more pleasant ways to pass a sunny afternoon than eating fine food and enjoying some splendid local wine in glorious surroundings, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.  I’m also hearing that there is something pretty special, but very secret, happening there later on in the year so keep your ears to the ground – or just keep reading me and I’ll update you!

 

 

[mc4wp_form id="16750"]

Related posts

  • In My Kitchen – December 2016 In My Kitchen – December 2016
  • In My Kitchen – November 2016 In My Kitchen – November 2016
  • Maxwell Wines in South Australia’s McLaren Vale Maxwell Wines in South Australia’s McLaren Vale
  • In My Kitchen March 2015 In My Kitchen March 2015
  • Celebrating Regional Food & its Producers at Terroir in the Lovely Clare Valley Celebrating Regional Food & its Producers at Terroir in the Lovely Clare Valley

Share

Share
Pin
« Cookbook review – Olive & Rosemary Fougasse & Fast Ed Halmagyi’s “The Food Clock”
Meet Annabel Langbein – Author of “Simple Pleasures”, her 19th Cookbook! »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hotly Spiced

    August 28, 2012 at 6:30 am

    What a lovely family history and how fortunate they are that the property is still in the family xx

  2. Catherine Bedson

    August 28, 2012 at 8:38 am

    This property looks beautiful and the wine and porchetta sound like a perfect lunch..I’d love to do something like this for my husband for his 50th in Adelaide. Does anybody in there do porchetta parties or hire out the equipment? Catherine

  3. Amanda

    August 28, 2012 at 8:44 am

    Give Marino Meats at the Adelaide Central Market a call – I’m sure they’ll help!

  4. Kate

    August 28, 2012 at 1:33 pm

    That experience sounds like all round perfection! Once again it make me wish I lived in S.A.

  5. Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella

    August 28, 2012 at 7:00 pm

    Ahh yes struggling with the waistline when the food and wine is this good is a real battle I’d imagine!

  6. Maureen | Orgasmic Chef

    August 29, 2012 at 10:42 am

    I loved this post. What a lovely spot and to think it’s been “theirs” for so long. The pop up events sound like a lot of fun. Nothing like that up here – yet.

  7. InTolerant Chef

    August 29, 2012 at 5:10 pm

    What a great event to be invited to, you lucky thing you! What a fantastic history, it’s amazing that they have been there that long

  8. Chompchomp

    September 01, 2012 at 7:04 pm

    Lucky duck! I totally understand what you mean about the waist line! I struggle with the same battles lol

  9. Lizzy (Good Things)

    September 02, 2012 at 4:47 pm

    SA has such beautiful wineries… those pop up dining events sound like fun! As for the waistline, hey, someone’s gotta do it!

Primary Sidebar

Don't run the risk of missing a post! Subscribe to Lamb's Ears and Honey

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Connect with me

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS

Recent Posts

Christmas in the cookbook club

Christmas in the Cookbook Club – And the New Year Cookbook Selections

Sweet Tooth Central – “Sweet Enough” from Alison Roman for November in Lambs’ Ears Cookbook club

join the cookbook club

Join the Cookbook Club in October – And Get the Cookbook Free!

leave single-use plastic behind

Leave Single-Use Plastics Behind – With the Help of the Fleurieu Milk Company

COMMENTS, FEEDBACK, QUESTIONS?

I love to hear what you think so please leave a comment or ask me a question!

Search This Website

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Footer

Featured Recipes

Featured Posts

COPYRIGHT © 2023 LAMBS' EARS AND HONEY