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A food lover's guide to the Byron Bay region The beaches are as magical as ever and the locals just as herbal, but the towns and countryside around Byron are also home to a host of ambitious new eating and drinking experiences (and some plush places to stay). Relax. Byron is still Byron. True, house prices have headed well north of a million bucks, a cottage industry has sprung up around Chris Hemsworth, and the density of shops that sell floaty linen and gussied-up camping gear is greater here than anywhere else in the southern hemisphere. But new Benzes and Beamers rolling through town carry surfboards and NO COAL SEAM GAS stickers. And the good news for visitors is that this influx of money has lifted standards, especially where...

Jared Dixon, winemaker, Jilly Wines   Whether you’re well-versed in the world of wines or simply appreciate a bloody good drop, you’d would have noticed more and more minimal-intervention and natural wines making their way onto cellar lists at most of your favourite dining spots. Unlike most industries, the shift toward the ‘less is more’ style of winemaking where additives and preservatives are ditched, isn’t being driven by the mass producers – it’s the smaller operators that are paving the way. One of which is Jared Dixon, who founded Clunes-based Jilly Wines. He used to work for the big players, then set out on his own after questioning why so much was being added to wines before we drank them. In the spirit of sipping, we had a cha...

Cask wine makes a quality comeback (plus five of the best to try) Sommelier Lillia McCabe pouring a glass of wine from bag to glass. Photo: Edwina Pickles   Forget magnums, embrace the "bagnum": large format wines that are fridge stable and respectable enough you can serve them to your friends.  In today's Good Food/Sunday Life, columnist Max Allen highlights the growing trend of good quality cask wine. And no, that is not an oxymoron. It's a trend leaning into high quality, small wine producers both local and international.  To begin with, he says, a lot of this trend was driven by marketing skewed towards upwardly mobile wine drinkers. Casks, cans and bags – anything but the bottle – were pitched as cute, retro alternatives. But n...

We share a vino with Jared Dixon from Byron-based winery Jilly Wines PUBLISHED ON MARCH 8, 2021 BY WILDTEAM Get to know Jared, a small-batch winemaker and the founder of Byron-based winery Jilly Wines, as he shares the story of his humble beginnings. How did you first get into winemaking? I grew up on the Sunshine Coast before my parents and I moved to Clunes, just outside of Byron Bay in New South Wales. I was a musician and gigged all around Australia before working in a kitchen in England. While overseas, I spent a lot of time hanging with French chefs and drinking wine. I loved it. The chefs had all these quirky stories about winemakers they knew and it really sparked my interest in the craft. When I moved back to Au...

Hop into spring Wine. "A field blend is a way of making wine that remixes a number of a vineyard’s grapes for a bit of old-fashioned fun celebrating place. Jared Dixon’s fruit tingle from Tingha contains – get ready, here we go – gewurztraminer, nebbiolo, shiraz, tempranillo, tannat, pinotage, tinta cao, touriga, barbera, chardonnay, viognier and petit manseng. One hundred per cent whole-bunch and fermented with indigenous yeast, the border-hopping blend has a palate dominated by citrus and vanilla with a red forest-fruits dancing down a dusty road. This would be a cracker in winter, too." Best with: old verandahs and lazy dogs; wood-roasted vegetables and fresh-baked damper. Good Food Guide, Sydney Morning Herald, February 2017.