Hosted 3-day weekend packages to one of Australia’s most exciting emerging gourmet and wine-growing regions. Roaring fires, crisp country air, great food and wine. What’s not to love?

Silver Compass Tours, curators of fine gourmet and cultural travel experiences, has introduced a series of Hosted packages for groups to the emerging wine-growing and gourmet destination of Orange in the Central West of New South Wales, Australia.

The three signature Food + Wine Winter Weekend packages will initially be available throughout July and August 2015, and are aimed at encouraging groups of friends and colleagues to enjoy a weekend getaway that has been fully curated for them.

The three packages are the ‘Bella Borenore Experience (for groups of 10-12), ‘Byng 1850s Goldfields Experience’ (for groups of 6-8),and the ‘Tuscan Towac Valley Tuscan Experience’ (for groups of 4 or couples). All packages include 2 nights boutique accommodation; a Hosted vineyard tour to local cellar doors, with transport and driver provided; a breakfast hamper; and a gift pack.

A pop-up rustic Italian restaurant is also a key feature of the ‘Byng 1850s Goldfields’ and ‘Bella Borenore’ Experiences for larger groups, which sees guests treated to a three-course Roman menu on arrival inspired by fresh, local produce and paired with a regional vineyard.

“It’s a wild-style degustation welcome dinner for our guests, cooked and served in situ at their boutique accommodation. Both venues for our larger groups feature a communal dining area and large kitchen, so we thought it would be fun to really bring to life the experience of living like a local with good people, good food and good wine,” says Chief Experience Officer of Silver Compass Tours, Kelly.

With rolling Tuscan-like hillsides, a distinctive terroir and cool-climate wines grown at high altitude, Orange is increasingly being viewed as one of Australia’s most exciting emerging new wine regions. Complementing this, and growing symbiotically alongside the cultivation of vineyards for the last 30 years, is a local food culture that is also capturing the attention of gourmands.

“We’ve got 38 vineyards, more than 4o cafes, two hatted restaurants and a bunch of additional local dining venues that are producing innovative and imaginative food, as well as a small bar transplanted straight from the city laneways, and annual food and wine festivals – it’s a foodie’s dream come true,” continues Kelly.

“There’s also nothing quite like the experience of rocking up to a local cellar door, chatting with the people who’ve made the wine, sampling the fruits of the harvest, and then going home with bottles of superb wine at cellar door prices – it’s glorious fun and glorious local living, and we’d very much like to share this.”