Fleurieu Food and Wine a Finalist in the SA Tourism Awards for 2026 after taking out Gold in 2025

A small family cooking school from The Fleurieu working across McLaren Vale, Willunga, Adelaide, Yankalilla, Normanville and Victor Harbor is back in the running at the SA Tourism Awards 2026, and the spring weekend that goes with it.

We are so excited to announce Fleurieu Food and Wine is a finalist in the SA Tourism Awards for 2026, after taking out Gold in 2025. This piece answers two things. What that actually means for a family business that teaches people to roll gnocchi in a vineyard shed, and how you can back us if you want to, along with what else is worth doing in McLaren Vale and Willunga while you’re here this spring.

We’re not going to pretend an award changes the flour on the bench. It doesn’t. But it does mean that when somebody in Sydney or Singapore goes looking for a reason to drive south out of Adelaide, the Fleurieu comes up, and the growers and winemakers we work with come up with it. That’s the part we care about.

What the award means, and how you can back us

Gold in 2025 was the sort of thing you tell your mum about. It was won on the strength of a lot of ordinary Sundays: people arriving a bit unsure, a glass of wine going into their hand, two hours of rolling and stretching and tasting, and everyone leaving louder than they arrived. Being a finalist again in 2026 says the standard held.

As the returning Gold Medallist in Excellence in Food Tourism, you can also vote for us in the People’s Choice awards https://solsticemedia.com.au/competition/ticsa-salife-peoples-choice-awards-2026/ until the 7th October.

There are three things that genuinely help a small operator more than a click does.

• Leave an honest review. If you’ve cooked with us, say what you actually remember. The smell of the pan, the bloke on your table who couldn’t stop salting. Judges and travellers both read the specifics.
• Bring someone new. A booked bench is the best argument we have that regional food tourism works outside the summer weeks.
• Spend the whole day here. Buy from the market, the cellar doors and the bakeries. The award is for the region as much as it’s for us, and it only means anything if the region gets the trade.

Two highlights for McLaren Vale and Willunga this spring

Spring is the easy season down here. The vines are running green, the mornings are cool enough for a walk and warm enough to sit outside afterwards, and the produce is at that point in the year where you don’t have to do much to it.

Start at Willunga Farmers Market

The market runs every Saturday morning and it’s the anchor food event of this whole patch. It’s the one place a visitor is already planning to be, and it’s where you’ll meet the growers whose names end up on our benches. Go early, take a bag, eat something on the walk between stalls, and talk to people. The stallholders are the best guidebook in the region and they’re free.

Last month we ran a free family butter session at the market: around 50 people, children cooking alongside a parent, shaking cream until it turns. It’s the easiest thing we ran for a visitor to say yes to, and it costs nothing.  We plan to add more dates and these land on our socials and in the newsletter.

Build the rest of the day around the drive

McLaren Vale sits about 45 minutes from Adelaide, which makes it one of the most forgiving day trips in the state. You can be out of the city after breakfast, at the market by mid morning and still have the whole afternoon for cellar doors, a bakery stop and a look at the coast. Our advice, learned the hard way: pick two cellar doors, not five. Sit down at both. Ask what they’re drinking themselves at this time of year.

Spring is also festival season across the peninsula, and the Fleurieu Peninsula tourism what’s on page is the right place to check before you lock in a weekend, because dates shift and we won’t quote one we haven’t verified.

Cooking classes in McLaren Vale, Normanville and Victor Harbor over the next eight weeks

Our closest public venue to Adelaide is Hastwell and Lightfoot in McLaren Vale, and classes there open with a glass of wine on arrival, included in the ticket. The venue also runs its own bar with a drinks package if you’d like to keep going afterwards. Two classes are on the books here.

Artisan Dumplings and Wine

Sunday 25 October at 11:00, $125 per person, with the vineyard doing the scenery. You can book Dumplings at Hastwell and Lightfoot online.

Mastering Gnocchi from Scratch

Sunday 8 November at 11:30, $125 per person, with 19 seats left. This is the class people book when they’ve tried gnocchi at home and produced something you could build a shed from. Hands in the dough, a bench full of strangers turning into a bench full of mates, then sitting down to eat what you made. Have a look at Mastering Gnocchi from Scratch.

A simple McLaren Vale day trip from Adelaide

If you want a shape to hang a Sunday on, this is ours. Leave town mid morning. Arrive in the Vale with time for a wander before class. Roll, stretch, taste and laugh for a few hours. Head to the coast afterwards for the light coming off the water, then drive home full and quiet. If it’s a Saturday instead, swap the class for the market and give yourself twice as long as you think you need.

Awards are lovely. Full benches are better. Come get your hands in the flour with us in McLaren Vale this spring.