IS QUEENSLAND THE NEXT FOODIE HOTSPOT?

Queensland is Australia’s unquestioned Tourism jewel, entrancing visitors with ivory beaches, aquamarine waters, the rainbow corals of the Great Barrier Reef and all that glitters on the Gold Coast. Australians love the sun, surf and sand and the international market can’t get enough of the koalas, islands and rainforests. But is there a reason to visit the Sunshine State beyond warming the winter chill from southern bones? When Tourism Australia’s Restaurant Australia campaign recently searched out Australia’s most exciting food and wine, Queensland emerged as the surprise new foodie standout.

The Hunter, Yarra, Barossa, Margaret River, and now Tasmania may be Australia’s wine regions of renown, however the lush hinterland of Mt Tamborine and Somerset Valley, just forty minutes west of Brisbane, together with the Burnett and Sunshine Coast regions, are staking their own claim. Their boutique wineries are crafting award-winning chardonnays, cabernets and stickies, as well as themselves into perfect vacation spots for the food and wine lover. Further north, the tropics is pressing their bounty of passionfruit, mango, strawberry and coffee into delicate liquers and fruit wines, adding distinctive regional twists to cocktails by the pool.

A decades-long influx of hospitality talent deposited along the full length of the coast has resulted in a new generation of chefs experimenting with local produce and game to create succulent and surprising range of tastes and textures matched to the sun-drenched climate. Urbane, Esquire and Ortiga were among a dozen Queensland restaurants to make the cut on Australian Gourmet Traveller’s 2013 top 100 restaurants list.

It’s not only locals discerning the subtle shift in Queensland tourism, Shoretours.com.au has launched their Food and Wine Cruise Series for February 2015 with a Queensland itinerary. Director Hope Kramer explains “We were, of course, already familiar with Queensland’s natural treasures, and with the array of unique food and wine delights, including seafood and beef, we couldn’t go past it for our Food and Wine Series.”

It may be a good time for many of us to start revisiting our reasons to why we should head to Queensland next before the foodie secret is well and truly out.

***********************

NOTE TO EDITOR:

Shoretours.com.au will be exploring Queensland’s tantalising foodie temptations with an eleven-night food and wine cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas departing February 17^th 2015. Prices from $2875AUD per person.

Photos available upon request