A new cellar door and restaurant will open at the gateway to Freycinet National Park tomorrow, capping a five-year project by a Sydney couple who bought the land while on holiday.
Wineglass Bay Estate sits on 52 waterfront acres next to Moulting Lagoon on Coles Bay Road.
The lagoon is a Ramsar-listed wetland, recognised internationally for its environmental significance.
The property has eight luxury retreats and from Friday it will also have the Kitty’s Mistake Vineyard Cellar Door and WADE Restaurant, housed in a large American-style black barn.
Kim Alfeldi, who owns the estate with her husband Robert, said everything was built from scratch.
“My husband and I were from Sydney and we went, did that whole thing of, you know, when you go on a holiday and you see something for sale,” she told Pulse.
The couple inherited an approval for a cellar door that was around 11 years old, but decided to start again with a more modern design.
Alfeldi said only around 1% of the land has been developed.
WADE centres on open-fire cooking from a new kitchen inside the barn.
According to the estate, chef-owner Wade Fordham grew up in Gippsland in a proud Italian family and cooked his childhood catch over open fires along the rivers beneath Mount Baw Baw.
The estate says he was named Best Apprentice in Victoria and has worked in kitchens including Rockpool Melbourne, building a style built on seasonality and simplicity.
His Argentine Asado grill sits at the heart of the restaurant and his dishes are made to be shared around the table.
The cellar door will pour Tasmanian wines alongside the estate’s own Kitty’s Mistake label. A hectare of young pinot noir vines has gone in the ground.
“It’s about beautiful detours and ending up somewhere, somewhere beautiful,” Alfeldi said of the name.
Out the front there is a games area with bocce and fire pits and the venue has three large open fireplaces.
Alfeldi said she wants walkers to stop in after tackling the Wineglass Bay track.
“We’re super excited to get going, especially coming into the busy season,” she said.
