Guildford and the various attractions of James Street; The Tale of the Stubborn Donkey; Colonial Building, three cafés and Terrace Street; Pinelli’s Wine Estate for tasting and beatific beef cheeks; historic Rose & Crown and its 1840 restaurant; brunch at Padbury’s; Mandoon Wine Estate tour and wine-tasting; dégustation at Wild Swan; B&B at The Colony; summing up and stocking up

After a month of record rainfall, howling gales and unusually low temperatures for Perth, I’d been resigned to our Swan Valley getaway being soggy, cold and blustery. But we needed to use Roy’s Ultimate Mandoon Experience* – a birthday gift from the kids – before the voucher expired. I booked it for a Friday night.

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To extend the treat, I added accommodation for the preceding night in Guildford, a historic village that’s just ten minutes from Mandoon Estate. We’d visited Guildford a couple of times before, most recently on a sunny Sunday in July.

That’s easily done – these places are only half an hour by car from home. (I think we tend to forget about nearby attractions, weirdly,  in favour of those that require a lot of effort to plan for and get to.)

We’d parked in James Street – what seemed to be Guildford’s main drag. It has several pretty good secondhand and antiques stores (we almost, but not quite, bought an unrestored 1930s cocktail cabinet); a couple of coffee shops; a bakery best avoided; and two hotels: the Guildford Hotel and the Stirling Arms, the façade of the latter uglified with a massive $4.99 lager sign and one of those Thirsty Camel bottle shops.

Views of James Street, Guildford

James Street also boasts a museum, plus two other appealing civic buildings erected in the 1930s: Town Hall and its adjacent Council Chambers.

Stubborn Donkey Story

Albeit reluctantly, Roy had agreed to join me in crossing the road and the railway line to take a closer look at what used to be the Post Office and is now a gardening/landscaping business and a café.

A few metres further is the Swan Valley Visitor Information Centre – closed on a Sunday – and that was where my man dug in his heels and refused to go any further. There was and could be nothing of further interest around the corner, he brayed.

There have been similar occasions when I’ve pointed out a handy bench and marched on without him; this was not one of them. Today, I was feeling mellow.

Interestingly, if you carry on past the Colonial Building (I did; Roy didn’t – no surprise there), Terrace Street is lined with late 19th  and early 20th  century houses. Continue around the curve and you come to buildings associated with private educational institution Guildford Grammar School – its main buildings to the left, and smaller, ancillary ones on your right – including a brand new co-educational boarding facility. At the end of Terrace Road is St Matthew’s Anglican Church.

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Review: Pinelli’s Wine Estate

Next up was a spot of tasting and lunch at Pinelli’s Wine Estate in nearby Caversham, which I’d chosen mainly for its being only 5km from Guildford. Another option – perhaps for next time – is Riverbrook.

On duty was the laid-back and lovely Daniel Pinelli, who let us taste a sparkling, a wooded chardonnay and a couple of others before we settled on a bottle of Breanna Rosé (named for his daughter on her 18th birthday; the son is still sulking, he says) and another of the divine Durif. (Being lunch guests gave us a welcome discount of 20 percent.)

The beef cheek Roy ordered had just debuted that day on the restaurant menu – and it was probably the best either of us had ever tasted: huge, meaty and unctuously gelatinous. My meatball spaghetti was fine, too. (A random choice, though, for someone who no longer eats pasta.)

A glass of the Breanna rosé went perfectly with lunch on the terrace – Roy overlooking the vineyards, me the shiny roofs of the Discovery Park chalet across the road. (A fellow taster said he was staying there – shaking down a new caravan, he said – and that he was very happy with the caravan park facilities.)

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Review: the Rose and Crown

The Rose and Crown is said to be WA’s oldest operating hotel, and it’s  been  beautifully restored and maintained. Its neat façade belies the size of the beer garden and reception rooms, including the Posh Convict bar and two restaurant areas, all nice and toasty thanks to blazing fires.

For dinner at Rose and Crown’s  atmospheric old restaurant, 1840, I had the pork belly, broccolini, endives and slaw; Roy ordered the vegetable frittata with a lovely salad of leaves, asparagus and feta. (Clearly still digesting his beef cheek lunch.) Dessert was a Verdelho sticky in front of the lounge room fire.

As for our motel-style room in an adjacent block, it was spacious enough and had king-sized bed. It lacked a full-length mirror, and a way to stop icy air coming in above the bathroom window. Reasonable value at $150, however, and the pool would be a welcome feature come summer. Next time, though, I’d try to score one of those two original rooms upstairs in the main building.

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Day 2

Though we tried to bestow our custom on Little Guildford, the panicky staff were so under the whip that they could have been nothing but thankful to see us quietly move off after 15 minutes. It wasn’t particularly full, but clearly understaffed.

So we had coffee at Willing, instead, no doubt overstaying our welcome as we whiled away the time till noon and brunch at Padbury Café. Excellent! – Roy was content with plain scrambled eggs and bacon ($11), while my succulent Asian-style prawn omelette topped with a crispy turmeric crepe and festooned with bean sprouts, green leaves and fried shallots ($19) was outstanding!

Ultimate Birthday Treat

As mentioned, Mandoon Estate’s Ultimate Experience was a voucher gift from the kids (big kids, granted) for Roy’s 70th birthday in May. Nice that I got to be spoilt, too!

It included:

• A behind-the-scenes tour of the estate
• A wine-tasting session
• A six-course degustation dinner with wine-pairing at its fine dining venue, the Wild Swan
• A night at The Colony, Mandoon’s swish new accommodation, and
• Breakfast at The Homestead.

To set the mood, South African wine fundi Mark, behind the bar, poured us a glass of bubbly while we waited for 2.30pm and Rob’s tour of the estate. It was a bit disappointing that the tour did not include the massive wine-making facility across the vineyards. But we did get to see the large kitchen and the pristine micro–brewery that’s located in the main building.

Overlooked by The Colony (where we’d be spending the night) are verdelho vines planted in 1895.

Mandoon Estate history

It’s amazing what’s been achieved at this estate since its new owners began developing it in 2010! In 2008, Allan Erceg bought land from the Roe family. Their ownership went back all the way to early settlement of the valley in the 1840s, when Sir John Septimus Roe was the first Surveyor General of the nascent Swan River Colonies.

Winemaker Ryan Sudano presides over the production of a boutique range of premium wines – grown not only here in the Swan Valley, but also on Mandoon-owned vineyards in Margaret River, which has a more temperate climate conducive for growing chardonnay, cabernet and merlot (for example).

Immediately after Rob’s informative tour followed a generous session of tasting most of the Mandoon Estate wines.

Did I mention that the weather had been wet, windy and otherwise foul for weeks? – and now, suddenly, the skies had cleared beautifully. This is what a typical Perth winter’s day looks like, and how we expect it to be.

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Come dinnertime, I can’t remember when last we enjoyed such a great dégustation: well balanced, delicious, inventive, and just the right amount to savour from start to finish. Of course we drank more wine than was good for us. It would have been rude not to.

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Staying overnight is definitely the way to go. You can truly relax over your meal, knowing that bed is just an easy 200-metre stroll away, following the edge of the vineyard.

The Colony’s luxurious units are discretely located away from the main development, overlooking the serene Swan River. Designed four to a building, two are on the ground floor and another two are upstairs. Ours was at the end of the row and on the upper level.

As for breakfast at the Homestead Brewery, included in our experience, I can only say that Roy has a cast-iron constitution. After the previous night’s over-indulgence, a bit of toast and tea was as much as I could manage – and that only because it was included in the experience.

Summing up

During our tour, Rob had mentioned something interesting. The focus of the estate, he said, was to offer a range of experiences that would bring people back time and time again: be it for wine tasting, for a gourmet dinner, for a casual family brunch, for laid-back Sundays on the lawn with pizza and live music, or for a romantic weekend getaway. Now, that’s what I call a good business plan.

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