Award-winning wines and premium produce: Why Orange is still a hot ticket for Sydney's tree-changers

Orange has forged a reputation as one of the country’s premier food and wine regions. There are more than 30 wineries and great produce is available at the farm gate and farmers’ markets.

LJ Hooker Orange principal Alistair Miller says the region’s award-winning, cool-climate wines have come a long way in a short time.

“Thanks to a unique combination of geology, soils, climate and temperature, the local wine industry has established itself as a serious player nationally and internationally in only five decades,” he explains.

Eat, drink and be merry

This week, the population of Orange will swell by up to 12,000 visitors to the annual Orange Wine Festival. The festival program includes more than 90 events, such as the much-loved Festival Night Market this Friday, Wine in the Vines on Saturday and Vino Express on Sunday.

“The food and wine culture here is terrific,” says artist and former Wallabies footballer John Williams, who moved from Sydney to Orange with his wife, Di, in 2003.

“We’ve got lovely vineyards where we can go and have lunch, good produce from the local farmers and the quality of food is excellent.”

Good food and fine wine are stapes of the Orange lifestyle.
 Photo: Destination NSW

Williams nominates Sister’s Rock Restaurant at Borrodell Vineyard – one of Australia’s highest vineyards – as one of his favourites for a long lunch. “You can sit out on the lawn under the trees and there’s a view right across Orange, it’s a very pretty place,” he says. He also enjoys Friday pizza nights at Philip Shaw Wines.

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Inspired by nature

Williams is well known in Orange for his portraits of the locals, which have been entered in the Archibald Prize competition every year since 1998.

MasterChef 2011 winner Kate Bracks and retired chef Michael Manners, of Selkirks, live in Orange and have sat for Williams, who has been exhibited three times in the Salon des Refuses – the “alternative Archibald selection”.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Orange.
Photo: Evolving Images / Destination NSW

Williams says the natural beauty of Orange and its wonderful residents provide plenty of inspiration for his paintings.

His connection with the region dates back to his school days at Sydney’s Newington College.

“Some of the boys there came from farms here and in the school holidays I used to come up here,” he says. “I always enjoyed it and when it came time to retire and get out of Sydney, this is where we came.”

Miller says the region is about three-and-a-half hours’ drive from either Sydney and Canberra, and offers four genuine seasons with average temperatures ranging from one to 26 degrees, with the occasional dusting of snow.

Top home in the area

1162 Forest Road, Spring Creek. Photo: Supplied

Set on more than 40 hectares of fenced, quality farming land just five minutes from the centre of Orange, Uralla is a family sized residence with vast, open-plan living spaces, a formal dining room and an enclosed al fresco terrace overlooking a heated pool.

Features include a stone and gas kitchen with skylight and polished timber floors.

It goes under the hammer in mid-November. 
Photo: Supplied

It’s headed for a November 18 auction and has a $2.5 million-to $2.7 million price guide through LJ Hooker Orange.