Best food and drink
offers and events
this winter

Eating seasonal produce and drinking Tasmanian tipples (preferably beside the fire) is part and parcel of the Off Season experience.

During the Off Season, bespoke tastings and immersive experiences celebrate Tasmania’s cool-climate spirits, wine, beer and cider. Get cosy with a dram inside a charming distillery or discover your new favourite wine within the warm and welcoming walls of a cellar door.

Cool-climate indulgence permeates lively local markets, bespoke tours and tastings and farmgate feasts with the lowest food miles imaginable in winter.

Want to connect with the island’s premium ingredients and the people who grow them? Tasmania has winter food experiences aplenty. Try these full-flavoured food and drink offers and events in Tasmania – only in the Off Season.

Taste wintry whisky

Would it be winter in Tasmania without a dram of worldclass whisky to savour?

Hand-fill your own 200ml bottle to keep and learn how to draw the golden elixir from single malt barrels at Spring Bay Distillery on the east coast. Or venture to Launceston Distillery inside the historical Hangar 17 at Launceston Airport for a tour through history, complete with a hand-filling whisky experience.

And Tasmanian Whisky Week (2–10 August) brings you the crème de la crème as more than 40 distilleries in the state’s north and south open their doors for 20 spirit events and counting.

Get on the farm

Tenderised by fire and nurtured by ice-cold soil – it doesn’t get any more authentic than produce fresh from the source.

The Off Season conveniently coincides with Tasmania’s truffle harvest: button up your coat and go hunting for some aromatic orbs at the Truffledore in Lower Barrington. Stay for two nights, wander the property with the truffle dogs, then enjoy as owners Ina and Timo transform your freshly harvested truffles into a farm feast.

Craving a unique take on Tasmania’s agricultural experiences? Head to agriCULTURED (31 July–3 August), a toothsome northern food and art festival offering farm tours, community conversations, delicious workshops and other sensorily stimulating surprises.

Want more Tasmanian winter food festivals? With sweeping lush farmland and red volcanic soil as fertile as it gets, you can sample the best of Tasmania’s north-west region at Stanley and Tarkine Forage Festival (15–18 May) – a culinary event featuring a Street Feast, Foraging Adventures and indulgent dinners.

A farm of fungi in southern Tasmania, Tunnel Hill Mushrooms illuminates a shadowy realm of flavour cultivated in an old 1891 railway tunnel under Mount Rumney. Learn how to harvest and prepare the mushrooms for cooking, culminating in a winter barbecue feast. Or feast on something meatier at Fork it Farm in Lebrina up north, when an entire pig’s head is plonked on a plate for all to share. This is a low-waste, low-intervention farm using the whole happy pig from snout to tail.

From happy pigs to happy cows, drop into Duck River Meadows Robotic Dairy for a tour and tasting. A delicious spread awaits; taste farm-fresh milk and La Cantara Venezuelan cheese, Blue Hills Honey, artisan nuts and homemade scones on the dairy farm during the Off Season.

No matter which farm gate you choose to peek behind, these Off Season offers are a chance to connect with the humble makers and growers behind the masterpiece that ends up in your stomach.

Sip crisp cider

A passion for fruit growing runs deep on the Apple Isle of Tasmania.

Sip fine northern-Tasmania fruit libations in the cellar at Brady’s Lookout Cider while you watch a silent film capturing the essence of endangered wildlife in Tasmania. Pair the cider with Tassie cheese amid the flickering light of candle flames and contemplate the power of nature.

In southern Tasmania at Grove, Willie Smith’s Apple Shed warmly welcomes guests to enjoy its hearty Off Season activities, from immersive mid-winter events celebrating the folklore of the onsite apple orchard to a family feast of roast chicken smothered with cider gravy. Need more Tasmanian winter comfort food? Try the winter braised beef cheek cottage pie paired with hot spiced cider.

Sample the ocean’s offerings

During the Off Season, discover truly unique opportunities to sample Tasmania’s aquatic staples.

Tassie Scallop Fiesta (3 August) rings in the new fishing season in style at Bridport. Winter is prime oyster and mussel season at Freycinet Marine Farm – warm your belly with hearty seafood chowder, washed down with a glass of local riesling.

And the wonders of nature stretch into the nocturnal hours on a Tasmanian Wild Seafood Adventures Sea to Sky cruise. Head off from Margate Marina, feasting on warming soup, a scallop pie (the Tassie staple) and cake. Watch the stars gleam above you and learn about the palawa / Tasmanian Aboriginal culture connected to these waterways for tens of thousands of years. Keep an eye out for the green and pink hues of Aurora Australis in the sky and marvel at the bewitching sea life below.

Wine and dine

In a restored farmhouse at Sassafras on the north-west coast, Eastford Creek Vineyard hosts the Burning of the Canes (21 June) – a fiery gathering celebrating the rebirth of the vines: canapes, specialist wine and two hearty courses included.

And we couldn’t discuss wine without mentioning the globally revered Tamar Valley wine region. Westella Vineyard and Cellar sits in tranquil Rowella near kanamaluka / River Tamar. This site among the vines hosts a candlelit Winter Feast (21 June) pairing the showcased produce with pinot noir and sparkling. Or opt for a more intimate sparkling wine flight and cheese plate for two at Jansz Tasmania in Pipers Brook, finished with a premium bottle of rosé.

Are you full yet? Browse all Off Season food and drink offers and Off Season events in Tasmania.