Canberra Region Celebrates Winter With a Crackling Festival

Degustation dinners, horseback riding, wine and cheese matching master classes and a lantern cinema inside historic stone stables are among the varied activities in the Canberra region's Fireside Festival starting this week.

This annual month long event is all about curling up by the crackling fire with some hearty winter cuisine while enjoying a glass of fine local red with friends and family.

Highlights include:

• Grazing of Gundaroo's Duck and Pinot Degustation Dinner - combining six delicious duck dishes with local Pinot Noir (Saturday 17 and 24 August). Grazing was this week named Best Restaurant in ACT Savour Australia Restaurant and Catering HostPlus Awards for Excellence.
• Burnelee Excursions on Horseback. Enjoy a camp oven style lunch after a horseback ride (24 August) around Lindsey Butt and his family's 4000 acre property.
• The re-opening of Old Saint Luke's Studio (31 August). Fire damaged the home and gallery of the 1848 Old Saint Luke's Church but after a painstaking rebuild the Studio reopens to sell the prized ceramic work of owners Ian Jones and Moraig McKenna.
• Master classes at Lerida Estate. Explore the similarities of wine and chocolate tasting (3 August) and the match between wine and cheese (3 August) or learn everything about Pinot (10 August).
• Hot August Nights at Country Guesthouse Schonegg/Flint in the Vines (Wednesday and Thursdays in August). Stay in a luxurious spa room, enjoy a glass of premium local wine and canapés on arrival, dinner by the open fireplace at Flint in the Vines and a home cooked breakfast at Schonegg.
• An evening with the Hannah Cabinet - Bungendore Wood Works Gallery (16 August). The $1.5 million Hannah Cabinet must be seen to be believed. A three course dinner follows a demonstration of the Cabinet plus fire twirling and in-depth discussion.
• Lantern Cinema at Capital Wines (Tuesdays in August). The Capital Wines stone stables housing its cellar door will be transformed into a movie cinema. Enjoy a delicious dinner and glass or warm while watching a movie by the warm fire.

The Fireside Festival is run by members of The Poacher's Way - a collection of 20 venues in the Canberra region including wineries, restaurants and cafes, galleries and accommodation providers.

View the full program online at www.firesidefestival.com.au