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Culinary experiences
What began as an alternative to travelling to France has become an annual Tasmanian culinary journey for Kyla Kirkpatrick, The Champagne Dame, and her guests. Image courtesy Kyla Kirkpatrick.
More than a tasting
By Tiffany West
Briefly …
What began as an alternative to travelling to France has become an annual Tasmanian culinary journey for Kyla Kirkpatrick, The Champagne Dame. Her Insider’s Tour brings guests together with winemakers, chefs and producers, with an approach to group travel that has particular appeal for people accustomed to travelling independently.
When we last caught up with Kyla Kirkpatrick – ‘The Champagne Dame’ – she reflected on the importance of making celebrations inclusive. Her philosophy was that the pleasure of Champagne extended well beyond what was in the glass, encompassing history, hospitality, craftsmanship and the people sharing the occasion.
It is a philosophy that also informs her Insider’s Tours, which take guests into the vineyards, cellars and dining rooms of Champagne. But when the pandemic prevented her annual journey to France, Kyla turned her attention to somewhere much closer to home. Tasmania offered an opportunity to bring the same approach to Australian winemakers, producers and chefs, and what began as an alternative has become a fixture on her annual calendar.
“I started this tour when I couldn’t take my clients to Champagne on my annual Insider’s Tour, but we had such a fabulous time that it has become a staple on my yearly travel,” Kyla tells The Solo Traveller. “I absolutely love it and I would go as far to say that my Insider’s Tour to Tasmania is as wonderful as my tours to Champagne. Tasmania is absolute heaven! The produce, the wine, the scenery. It’s a true oasis.”
Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain, Tasmania. Photographer: R E Walsh | Unsplash.
Kyla has been hosting tours for more than a decade, developing an approach that places as much importance on the people travelling together as it does on the destinations they visit. Her guests are interviewed before their bookings are accepted, allowing her to establish whether the experience will suit them and whether they will be comfortable travelling as part of a group. “I create a group What’s App Chat about four months before departure and people get to know each other via this chat so the time they meet they already feel that they have a bond,” she says. “Solo travellers never feel alone on my tours and they always come back! I watch for people’s needs and ensure that everyone feels safe, happy and included.”
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park, Tasmania. Photographer: Tom Jastram | iStock.
The itinerary itself is built around relationships cultivated over years of visiting Tasmania and getting to know its hospitality community. Rather than assembling a conventional circuit of cellar-door tastings and restaurant reservations, Kyla draws on friendships with restaurant owners and winemakers to arrange encounters with the people responsible for what guests are eating and drinking. “This is partly relying on ‘insider knowledge’ I have friends in Tasmania who own restaurants and wineries. I ask them where they are eating but now I have enough experience with the tours to know the best places and our amazing experiences are based on my relationships and experience.”
These relationships also shape the character of each experience. A winery visit can become an extended occasion with the winemaker, while a restaurant meal offers an opportunity to spend time with the chef or owner. Kyla considers this personal access fundamental to the experience, distinguishing it from what independent visitors could readily arrange for themselves. “Spending time with the Winemakers and Producers is the DNA of my tours, whether it’s in Champagne or Tasmania,” she says. “Breaking bread with the chef or dining with the winemaker is very special. We ensure the red carpet is rolled out and guests have a true ‘experience’ not just a ‘tasting’ or a ‘dinner’.”
Among the experiences she particularly enjoys is a day at Ghost Rock Vineyard, where guests share a meal and rare wines with winemaker Justin and his team. It is the combination of hospitality, conversation and the opportunity to spend time with the people behind the wines that Kyla believes makes these encounters memorable. “There are many wonderful moments, but I think that a day at the vineyard with Justin and the fabulous team at Ghost Rock Vineyard is pretty special. We drink rare wine and pair it with an exquisite meal all shared with the winemaker who is very charming and charismatic.”
But the journey is not exclusively concerned with what Tasmania produces. Beginning in Hobart and travelling north, the tour also incorporates the island’s history, heritage and landscapes. Kyla engages a historian to accompany guests on a private morning walk through Hobart, introducing stories that provide a different understanding of the city before the group continues its journey.
The view of Hobart from Mount Wellington, Tasmania. Photographer: Boyloso | iStock.
For first-time visitors, the itinerary offers an introduction to Tasmania that extends well beyond the capital. For those who have already visited, it presents an opportunity to encounter places and people they may not otherwise have discovered. “We seek out the best produce, the best restaurants and cultural experiences. I hire a historian to spend a morning with my guests privately to literally walk through Hobart and tell the stories of its incredible past so that people truly ‘see Hobart’ and Tasmania.”
The journey moves between informal encounters and more elaborate occasions. Long lunches in vineyards and time spent with local producers are complemented by one of Kyla’s signature events – a black-tie dinner marking the conclusion of the tour. Held in the dining room of Quamby House, the finale brings guests together with a private chef and a winemaker for an evening of food, wine and celebration. By then, Kyla says, the group has developed the easy familiarity that comes from several days of shared experiences. “We have a mix of casual experience but completing the tour with a Black Tie Candle Lit Dinner with a private chef and special winemaker as a guest is one of my signatures,” she explains. “It gives people a chance to dress and celebrate the wonderful week that was. By this point, all the guests have bonded, the inhibitions are down and there is often some dancing on the table!”
There is something appealing about that progression, particularly for someone arriving alone. The formal dinner is not simply another occasion on the itinerary, but a celebration shared by people who were strangers only days earlier. And while the evening is deliberately extravagant, its significance lies as much in the company as in the setting.
Binalong Bay, The Bay of Fires, Tasmania. Photographer: David Clode | Unsplash.
Kyla schedules the Tasmanian Insider’s Tour once a year, over Easter, when autumn is beginning to colour the landscape and the vineyards are busy with harvest. It is a season that offers a particularly engaging introduction to the island’s winemaking communities, with the work of producing the next vintage taking place around the visitors. “The Tasmanian Insider’s Tour is only run once per year over the Easter long weekend which is a beautiful time to travel to Tasmania. It’s still mild, the leaves on the trees are changing colour and the winemakers are in harvest so it’s a hive of activity in the vineyards and a feast for the eyes, the mouth and the soul.”
For Kyla, the appeal of Tasmania is not a lesser version of the experience she has spent years creating in France. It is a destination with its own history, people and character, deserving of the same attention she gives to Champagne. And for travellers joining her independently, the opportunity is not simply to experience the island’s culinary offerings, but to share them with a group brought together through a common curiosity.
Her clients may joke that she takes tours for people who do not do tours. Perhaps that is precisely the point. The journey provides access that would be difficult to arrange alone, without asking independent travellers to abandon what they value about travelling in the first place.
To learn more, visit Kyla Kirkpatrick’s Insider’s Tour of Tasmania. You can also read ‘Champagne, celebration and choice’, our Q&A with Kyla as part of our ‘The Alcohol Divide – A Health and Wellbeing Series’ here.