48hrs Indulgence in Tasmania! 🥂Luxury Designer Suite, Fine Dining, Wine Tasting & Truffle Hunting!

Two-headed gingerbread man. Mom, is that because Tasmanians have two heads? Probably. Don't worry, I'm from Tasmania and I had to deal with that a lot. Where's your scarf? Hilarious. It's here. Joke's on you, Tasmania's awesome. How extra is that? Oh my goodness, Chris, seriously. I think I've been waiting for this moment ever since I left the last one. Oh, really? Amazing, that's so lovely. We're all good to go. New artwork just for you in. Joey, what's changed? Oh, we have new cocktails from Taylor & Smith. We've got the beautiful sourdough bread. Elf & Grove popcorn with fennel salt at the moment. Dog & Wolf Pinot's new. What else is new? Your potato chips were the only thing that weren't Tasmanian. That's correct. And they're still the only thing that aren't Tasmanian. And then one bottle of wine that's French rosé. Oh, okay. If you know about Vandal Rosé, you know about Vandal Rosé. Okay, I shall allow it, even though we're not Tasmanian. 98% Tasmanian. 98%. I like this feeling in this suite because you're quite low-lying. Yeah. So you don't really expose things. Yeah, they were originally painted white, so we couldn't take those off, unfortunately. So we painted it dark, but it all fits in very well. It does. And that view in the morning when you pull up those blinds and all the tides in, it's very special. We better enjoy this room then. Yeah, enjoy your stay. Can I send you up some oysters? Stop it. I wouldn't say no. Like a couple of oysters, I'll send you up. How's that for a welcome drink? Oh my gosh, I love this place so much. Cheers. Do you know what I like most about this is they email you before you check in and they're like, what can we do to make your stay a little bit better? And they heard on the grapevine, Jono, that you love oysters. I love oysters more than anything. So they've arranged to eat this for you. So good. That is just the best thing I've ever heard. Well, you know what I'm going to eat, right? Popcorn. Oh my God. Plus the popcorn. This is literally the tastiest. Salted caramel popcorn, chocolate coated raspberries. Freeze dried blueberries. Two headed gingerbread man. Oh, is that because Tasmanians have two heads? Probably. Don't worry. I'm from Tasmania and I had to deal with that a lot. Where's your scarf? Hilarious. Yeah. Joke's on you. Tasmania is awesome. Oh, this is my favorite drawer as well. This is what I love. Yep. But how beautiful is that? Peppermint English breakfast. So good. Haven't even opened the fridge yet. Would you like to see? Cheese. Double cream lighthouse cheese company. Beauty. Look at that. We basically got our own grazing plate. This is absolutely ridiculous. Well, I think you should get out of the fridge because we've got stuff on the table. Do you want an oyster? Oh my God. Yum. Jono, this is for you. To be honest, I don't want to... I'll drink more champagne if you eat more oysters. Time to go. Oh, that smells good already. Hello. Everyone I've spoken to that if they're not familiar with Stillwater 7, the combination, everyone's familiar with Stillwater. That's right. Everyone's like, the food is ridiculous. Well, the restaurant has actually been in 21 years now. Yeah, I had to make my mark. So what we decided to do was to renovate. The kitchen was then 10 years old. So we renovated the kitchen. Yeah, right. And we renovated the front. And we launched a new menu, new chef, that kind of thing. Yeah. And it's sort of been up and up from there. Well, we change the menu reasonably regularly. So nothing's really sticking around for long to become a signature dish. Probably at the moment, it's our beef dish on the main menu. It's a Koji aged diet fillet of caper and beef. And that's with some locally grown grilled mushrooms. Pretty simple description, but quite complex. And it's in Mexican cuisine. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I recommend that one for diet. Yeah. And possibly the fish and vexosauce and celeriac. That literally might be what we're ordering. Oh, yeah. And for a starter, have the prawn dumplings. They fly out the door. Oh my gosh. I love it. Yeah. Okay. It's a bit more bold. All right. Beautiful. And dry? Dry. Lemon or olive? Olive. 100%. And sparkling or still? Sparkling. Funny. That's straight scallops that have been baked in a half shell. And you have a paprika, lemon, butter. A rugar caviar, or the little black dots. And then crisp salt butch. Can't talk. Scalloping. My goodness. I love it. Thank you so much. This is not MasterChef, okay? This is Hunting for George. Until there's food and wine involved, and then it's like, get out of the way. I think it's time to get into it. All right. Get in. Thank you so much, guys. All right. Did you sleep well, Joe? Yeah, I did. Very comfy bed. I know. I'm still floating on a champagne-infused cloud. And it's going to continue today. So today, we are actually experiencing a brand new experience that Stillwater 7 are offering. It's called, and wait for it, Every Day I'm Truffling. I don't know if it comes with that song. But it's basically all about truffles. And it's about to start now. We're waiting patiently for our breakfast to arrive, which I believe is going to have some shaved truffles over our eggs. And later today, Sarah and James from Experiential Tasmania are going to be meeting us, and they're going to take us on a truffle adventure. You ready for this? Yeah. Here we go again. I'm always ready. So this is all part of the Every Day I'm Truffling experience. It's all part of the Every Day I'm Truffling experience. There's a bit of shaved truffle on there for breakfast as well. I don't know where to start. Where are you going to start? Coffee, Bloody Mary, eggs, truffle. All of my favorite things are on this table. Cheers. Oh my god, look at these truffles. Truffle infused and shaved eggs. Let's go start our new adventure. I'm so excited for today. We are so excited to have you. Chris and I have pulled together this itinerary, but we've been to both these places numerous times, but we're putting together a really special package. Yeah, don't need to bring anything. We'll just hit the road, and we're going to head to Tamar Valley Truffles first to get our truffle on, which is about a 15 minute drive from here. And Marcus is there. He's a legend. He's such a nice guy. And then from there, we'll be there about an hour, and then we'll head up to Stoney Rise next week. And she's just lovely. So when do you get your truffles then? What's truffle season? Beginning of June, middle of June, through to September. These guys have no idea how they grow or anything. They don't know anything about it. Yeah, so they tell us everything. Let's go for a walk in the valley. Yeah. We free them heavily every couple of years to keep the sunlight in. So the north-south, and you can see the morning sun's on this side of the tree. Yeah, right. And then the sun will go over in the afternoon, it'll come on the other side of the tree. So the summer truffles you harvest in the summertime, and they're black on the outside and yellow on the inside. And then a winter truffle is black on the outside and the inside, but they're opposite seasons as such. Right, and so you still eat? You can still eat it, but it's not as strong. It's not as good as a winter. It's just as good. It's not as strong a flavour. Okay. So it's a different flavour. And I think a black truffle per kilo is how much? Yeah, so let's just say a black truffle is $3,000 a kilo, and then a summer truffle might be $1,000 a kilo. Okay, all right. The value's not as high. But for example... Oh, shush you. They're like, what's happening? You can see a little lump there. Sorry, where? Oh yeah, it's okay. So this will be a winter truffle. So that's what Marcus is looking for, that little mound in the ground. But do you have dogs that do that, or are you your own sniffer dog, Marcus? No, no, no, no, no. So we have a dog that'll come in all week long and harvest, or mark them and harvest them. Oh my goodness. I'm like, I'm not standing on anything valuable, am I? Oh my gosh. Would that actually... Like if I was to tread over that... That's probably not a good idea. No, so that would literally like... I don't want to ruin your investment, Marcus. I'm so excited. Not only for wine, but beautiful architecture as well. When was it finished? Because this is very new, right? We opened in August, but it was finished before then. So look at this, 90% done by this one last week. Gosh, I love this entrance. This was one of the last weeks. This would be the path, and it was the landscaping, sowing the seed for the grass. Oh, it feels wonderful. Gosh, that window there is just amazing. That frame out to the vineyard. Oh, wow. I love this treatment of the brick. The way this is just acted as a very natural display. I love that. Probably not something I would have chosen. Yeah? Or would have... I didn't have brick in mind. Cladding, yes. Yeah. That sort of thing. And yeah, it was Pippa who came up with the idea of using brick, and we've used it really heavily, but it's worked really well. It really, really does. Like, it's very grounding, and it has a wonderful feeling with it, but it works beautifully with that timber. I love it. This is fun. This is a great time. Yeah. That's Joe. Is it? I love it. The label's done by a graffiti artist in Sydney, a guy called Cindy Sim. Oh my God, I love that. I'm a chardonnay and a pinot girl, but I'm going to have to try that, and I reckon a stony rice chardonnay. There isn't any right or wrong when it comes to what you're tasting. Yeah. At all, because it's personal choice. It's like a piece of art. It's, you know, what appeals to one may not appeal to another. Beautiful. Oh my gosh, that looks amazing. Lovely to meet you. Thank you so much. Thank you. How's that? So good. Truffles, fine. Now I need to lie down and have a cup of tea. Yeah, I reckon that's a good plan. We have had such a good day. We had a sleep-in this morning. Went for a walk along the Cataract Gorge. Kraken Walk. How's that hill? Bloody straight up. Zigzag track was really cool. I liked it. And our delivery has just arrived of popcorn and bread and ice, except I ate the popcorn, so it doesn't exist anymore. And you gnawed on the end of the bread. Just a little bit. But I'm going to take advantage of this epic ice cube delivery and have a cheeky before dinner drink, because tonight we're actually going to Black Cow for dinner, which will be fancy. And James, a sommelier who's also a part owner at Stillwater, is going to meet us there and talk wine and meat, I think. Oh, so good. Oh my god, it smells so good. I often tend to judge a bottle by its wine label. I know that's really bad, but I'm, you know, that's the designer in me. And you know, I'm not a stats man, but I'd say 90% of the market do. Yeah. And that's why I guess a lot of the bigger guys spend so much time developing their labels. But I mean, it's a crazy thing. I mean, a lot of the old world wines from Spain, yeah, the labels are quite old school. A lot of the guys still try and mimic that, because it's what we do. But then I feel like then you know what you're sort of getting. So I'm like, oh, that one's trendy. Let's support a young independent business. But is that, that's just me. I'll show you, the wine that arrived yesterday, super, super small quantity. So this is a collaboration. That's a beautiful label. Yes, it's a collaboration between Steve and Mark Ljubljana. So father and son. Oh, that logo is epic. That's called Deep Valley. Oh my lord, look at that. That is cool. So this is Sam Konu's Riesling from Stargazer at Culver Valley. So Sam Konu, I think, is one of Australia's best winemakers, let alone the best female winemakers. I'm going to copy you, because I don't want to look like I don't know what I'm doing. A guy called Dr. Andrew Pirrie taught me something I've never, ever forgotten about putting in your own glass of wine. Right. Completely detach your brain to pretend you've walked into your pantry at home. Okay. What aromas are you smelling? So we tend to have mind over matter with wine, particularly the brass button culture of wine going, I should smell X, Y, Z. Or you shouldn't smell anything. I mean, you might know what lavender smells like. I may never smell lavender in my life. So I'll throw my nose in this glass. I just get beautiful white flowers, lemon, lime, fresh cut red apple. I'm only getting that when you say it. It's okay though. Is that all right? I've seen this wine, you know, 25 times. It's a catalogue of my brains. You've got the catalogue. I don't have the catalogue here. I feel like I've only got a couple of times. You add into the catalogue. So I'll say the same, it's a Friday night. You magically don't have work on. So you get home, you open the fridge or the cellar. What are you drinking? Beer. That's just your go-to. What's your favourite beer? Bogs Red. So you're just like wine is for work, beer is for home. And my cellar at home constitutes of like, I'm talking three to four bottles and my wife bashes her head against the wall about it. It's like the mechanic that drives the shitty car or the builder that can't finish his house. She's over at my beautiful wine cellar. What is happening? People go, you must have 30,000 bottles at home. She's like, no, we've got one bottle of cooking wine. And Bogs Red. One bottle of Grange and a case of Bogs Red. So this is what quite often said, this is not a kitchen, this is a cupboard. So we had a couple of judges from MasterChef dining a couple of years ago. I'm like, where's the kitchen? This is not the kitchen. So these guys do a fantastic job in such a small space. Hey, how hot is it in there? Because I'm feeling the heat from here. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, this looks beautiful. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. Oh, Jono. You've got to try that, Jono. I will try. Oh my god. That's beautiful. I'll do my crazy eyes again. When my eyes roll back in my head. Yeah. That's when it's good. No. How was the meal? I need to go lie down. Thank you so much. Oh my god, that was so good. Very excited. Oh, what an entrance. We can do some scones and oysters first, and then you can do dumplings if you'd like. Wonderful. Let's do that. Yeah. And how many oysters do you want? Why are you looking at me like that? No, nothing. Why? I'm just looking at you. I'm taking control of the situation. And I'm just like, I'm thinking about you and your belly. What a woman. Thank you. Someone else needs to have a wine with me. I feel elitist and wrong. I mean, I'm happy to have wine.