Two Days in the King Valley: Accommodation, Wine, Long Lunches and a Little La Dolce Vita

There are weekends when you come home feeling as though you need another weekend to recover. And then there are weekends in the King Valley.

We arrived in Whitfield on Friday afternoon with a fairly simple plan: drink some good wine, eat extremely well, and spend as little time in the car as possible. By Sunday afternoon we’d achieved all three — although we’d also accumulated several bottles of wine and a list of places we hadn’t managed to visit that was almost as long as the list we’d started with.

Our base for the weekend was 3BlackSHEDS, tucked away in Whitfield at the upper end of the King Valley. It turned out to be a particularly good place from which to explore because so much of what we’d come for was clustered around Whitfield. We stayed in one of the small sheds, which was wonderfully comfortable and cosy. The modern layout and the simple setting were just what we needed to relax and unwind. A generous breakfast is included, so we made the most of the supplies provided..

But we didn't come for breakfast!

The first thing we discovered about the King Valley is that you shouldn’t try to do too much.

The second is that it’s almost impossible not to.

Friday afternoon: starting with Pizzini

After checking in and dropping our bags, our first proper stop was Pizzini Wines.

If there’s one thing that quickly becomes apparent in the King Valley, it’s the influence of the Italian families who settled here and transformed what was once predominantly tobacco country into one of Australia’s most interesting wine regions.

Pizzini is a wonderful introduction to that story.

The cellar door specializes in Italian varieties — Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, Pinot Grigio, Prosecco, and a surprisingly long list of others — and the tasting is relaxed rather than intimidating. The things we noticed were that the tasting was both entertaining and informative, and we have to praise the staff’s knowledge not just of wine but of the King Valley’s Italian history.

You arrive thinking you’ll taste four or five wines. An hour later you’re discussing the difference between Sangiovese and Nebbiolo and wondering how many bottles will fit in the car.

Pizzini is open daily from 10 am–5 pm, and tastings are best booked ahead. (Pizzini Wines)

Friday night: dinner at the Mountain View

One of the pleasures of staying around Whitfield is being able to leave the fine-dining formality behind when you want to.

Dinner that evening was at the Mountain View Hotel.

Calling it simply the local pub doesn’t really do it justice.

There’s still a proper bar and the relaxed atmosphere you’d expect from a country hotel, but there’s considerably more ambition coming out of the kitchen. The Pizzini family also owns the Mountain View, so naturally, the local wine list gets plenty of attention.

We settled in for dinner and understood why the place has such a loyal following. We enjoyed excellent pasta and steak, and the service and atmosphere were awesome. It was a bit cool for the beer garden, but that looked really fantastic, and we would definitely try that sometime.

The pub feels polished without losing the thing you actually want from a country pub.

And after a day of wine tasting, being able to have dinner without turning the evening into another expedition was exactly what we wanted.

The Mountain View is currently open seven days for lunch and dinner. (Mountain View Hotel)

Saturday morning: coffee first

Saturday began at Hobbledehoy Cafe and Distillery.

This is the sort of café you hope you’ll find in a small country town but don’t always.

Good coffee, breakfast, cakes, and pastries — and the feeling that plenty of people sitting around you are locals rather than tourists.

The almond croissants have something of a following, and the local tourism people even warn that Hobbledehoy’s freshly baked pastries have a habit of selling out early, so get there early!

We can understand why.

Coffee became cake, which probably wasn’t strictly necessary considering where we were heading for lunch, but weekends away aren’t really the time for that sort of restraint. (Hobbledehoy)

Saturday lunch: Chrismont

From Whitfield, we drove further up the valley to Chrismont.

And this is where the landscape suddenly becomes part of lunch.

Chrismont sits high above the valley at Cheshunt. The dining room and terrace look across vineyards and farmland towards the ranges, and it’s one of those restaurants where almost everyone pauses for a moment after being shown to their table.

The view really is that good.

Fortunately, the food isn’t relying on it.

The menu has a strong Italian influence and lends itself to sharing, accompanied, naturally, by Chrismont wines.

It’s also remarkably consistent judging by other diners’ experiences. A visitor celebrating an 80th birthday with a group of 12 praised both the meals and attentive service, while a repeat visitor described her fifth meal at Chrismont as another excellent experience. Other reviewers repeatedly mention the combination of food, knowledgeable staff, and that extraordinary view across the valley.

We intended to have a reasonably quick lunch.

We failed.

But that seems to be one of the central principles of visiting the King Valley: if you’ve booked somewhere beautiful for lunch, don’t make plans for 2 pm.

Chrismont’s cellar door normally opens daily from 10 am–5 pm, while the restaurant serves lunch Friday through Tuesday. Bookings for the restaurant are essential. (Chrismont Wines)

Saturday afternoon: Dal Zotto and the home of Australian Prosecco

After a long lunch, our next stop was Dal Zotto Wines.

If Pizzini tells part of the King Valley’s Italian story, Dal Zotto tells another.

The Dal Zotto family produced Australia’s first locally made Prosecco and helped turn the variety into something of a calling card for the entire region.

So starting a tasting with bubbles seemed appropriate.

There is a warmth and lack of pretension about Dal Zotto that makes it very easy to linger. Staff were knowledgeable, friendly, and we tasted excellent Italian varietals and the attractive vineyard setting.

The current cellar door offers guided tastings covering Prosecco as well as the family’s whites and reds. (Dal Zotto Wines)

We left with more wine.

There was by now a pattern developing.

Sunday: one last lunch at Darling Estate

By Sunday we’d abandoned any idea of fitting everything into one weekend.

Instead, after a slow morning, we headed to Darling Estate Wines.

The new cellar door sits amongst the vines at the family’s Koombahla vineyard in Whitfield, looking towards Mt Cobbler. It’s contemporary but relaxed — more somewhere to settle in with a glass than simply taste six wines and leave.

The Darling family has been farming in the valley for more than a century, while vines were first planted at Koombahla in 1970. Today the property is run by John Darling with daughters Grace and Sophie. (Darling Estate Wines)

We ordered wine and a collection of things to share and found ourselves doing exactly what we’d promised we wouldn’t do: stretching lunch well into the afternoon. Darling’s new cellar door is a popular long-lunch stop, particularly its share-style food and vineyard setting.

It was a fitting last stop.

There was no rush, no elaborate itinerary, and nowhere else we absolutely had to be.

Which, after two days in the King Valley, we’d realized was precisely the point.

The problem with a King Valley weekend

The problem isn’t finding enough to do.

It’s leaving enough things undone to justify coming back.

We hadn’t made it to Gracebrook Vineyards for lunch in the historic stables, despite several people recommending it.

We’d missed Politini Wines and Nonna Josie’s cannoli, and hadn’t explored the smaller cellar doors further down the valley such as Redfeet, La Cantina King Valley and John Gehrig Wines.

Then there’s Milawa.

Brown Brothers alone could occupy half a day with a cellar-door tasting and long lunch, while Milawa Bread is enough reason to detour for anyone who believes a road trip should involve unnecessarily large quantities of bread and pastries.

There’s Sam Miranda King Valley in Oxley, more cellar doors, the little towns of Moyhu and Milawa, and the spectacular drive further into the mountains towards Lake William Hovell, Powers Lookout, and Paradise Falls.

The Milawa Cheese Factory!

And we hadn’t even started on the distilleries.

Clearly, two days wasn’t enough.

A weekend that feels longer than it is

Driving away on Sunday afternoon, what struck us wasn’t any single restaurant or bottle of wine.

It was how personal the King Valley still feels.

Many of the wineries remain family businesses. The person pouring your wine may be related to the person who grew the grapes, made the wine, or planted the vineyard decades earlier. At the café, someone knows the winemaker who recommended the pub where you’re having dinner.

There’s sophistication here — some seriously good restaurants and excellent wines — but very little attitude.

And perhaps that’s the King Valley’s greatest attraction.

You can have a beautiful long lunch overlooking the mountains, spend an afternoon tasting Nebbiolo and Sangiovese, eat dinner at the village pub, and then retreat to the quiet of 3BlackSHEDS.

We arrived with a weekend itinerary.

We left with half a case of wine, a slightly alarming amount of food consumed, and another itinerary titled:

Next time......