Hand-picked: Pair’d Festival

There are some difficult decisions to be made at Pair’d Margaret River Region. Which wine to try next. Whether to spend Friday evening on a catamaran or at Chow’s Table. How much room to leave for dinner. Fortunately, these are the sorts of problems we can get behind.

Returning in 2026, the “wine-first” wine and food festival brings together local winemakers, visiting chefs and musicians for four days of particularly good company.

There are big gatherings and smaller affairs, vineyard tables and a tasting with an ocean breeze. You can come with a well-trained palate or simply a healthy interest in lunch.

To help narrow things down, we’ve hand-picked seven events from this year’s program. Pick your favourites, gather your people and make a weekend of it.

If your idea of research involves a wine glass, start here. The Grand Tasting brings the region’s producers together on the lawns at Howard Park Wines for four hours of tasting, conversation and discovering what deserves a spot in your wine rack.

There are familiar names to revisit and bottles you might otherwise never meet, with producers including Cape Mentelle, Cullen Wines, Leeuwin Estate, Moss Wood and Vasse Felix. It’s a lovely opportunity to ask the questions you’ve been saving for your next cellar door visit, without driving between five of them.

Food from Matt Moran and Aaron Carr and a program of live music round out the occasion. Come curious. Leave with a few new favourites.

The wine is adventurous, the food is Mal Chow’s and Boo Seeka is on the bill. That’s a fairly convincing Friday or Saturday night sorted.

New Wave Gathering at Chow’s Table, brings next-generation Margaret River producers together with Chinese festival dishes inspired by Mal’s Malaysian-Chinese heritage. Your ticket includes four wine tasting tokens, with extra pours and food available to buy. For those who prefer dinner decisions made in advance, the Chow’s Table ticket includes unlimited dishes from his Greatest Hits menu.

There are also complimentary wine masterclasses hosted by Emma Farrelly, Katia Taschetti and Foni Pollitt. A little education between bites and beats. Very civilised.

South Fremantle favourite La Cabaña is heading south, and Eagle Bay Brewing Co is making room at the table. For Eagle Bay x La Cabaña, chefs Ben Fossilo and Constanza Jimenez join Eagle Bay’s Hayden Vink for an evening built around Mexican flavours and Western Australian produce.

The six-course menu includes three small and three larger dishes, with oysters and ceviche at a live raw bar. A welcome beer or Luda Mala wine is included, while additional drinks are available to purchase with pairing suggestions to guide you.

Meet the people behind the food, beer and wine, catch DJ Sian’s set and see what happens when two coastal favourites get together. You can even take home the collaborative hot sauce. A souvenir with practical applications.

Sometimes a cellar door needs a change of scenery. Wine on the Water takes the tasting out onto Geographe Bay, with the Clairault Streicker team joining guests aboard the Alison Maree for a two-and-a-half-hour sunset cruise.

Head chef Michael Talbott supplies the canapés, while guided tastings introduce wines from Clairault Streicker. The coastline does the rest. It’s a particularly appealing pairing for anyone who likes their wine with salt air and a little room to look up from the glass.

Your phone has had quite enough of your attention. Touch Grass with Flying Machine & Melissa Palinkas encourages guests to put it away for an afternoon of shared food, vineyard wandering and conversations that aren’t interrupted by a notification.

Melissa Palinkas is cooking a generous, vegetable-forward feast, with her thoughtful approach to seasonal produce and reducing waste at its heart. A glass of Willespie Estate’s newly released Gamma Ray II is included, and you can settle at a vineyard table, on the balcony or on the lawn with a picnic blanket.

Between helpings, explore the marked trails or try a lawn game. The afternoon runs from 1–6pm, giving lunch the sort of breathing room it deserves. Handing over your phone is encouraged rather than compulsory. We suspect you’ll survive.

There’s something about a long table between the vines that makes dinner feel like an occasion before the first course arrives. Juniper Sunset Vineyard Dinner adds Wilyabrup Chardonnay, Cabernet and selected museum releases to the picture. Now we’re talking.

Juniper winemaker Andrew Bretherton will join guests to share the stories behind the estate and its wines, with live acoustic music accompanying the early part of the evening. Then it’s time to sit down to a four-course dinner celebrating regional flavours as daylight gives way to stars.

If you’re inclined to squeeze one more evening out of the weekend, Live at Mr Barval makes a persuasive case. Set beside Calgardup Brook with karri forest beyond, it pairs local music with Mr Barval wines and food from CIBO, the winery’s Italian-inspired food van.

Dan White has curated a line-up that moves from Olive Mae’s country sounds through Nathan Parsons’ indie-folk, Nicky Sandover’s storytelling and Mufassa’s reggae and roots, before DJ Brightsider and saxophonist Lindsay Baker take things through to close.

Your ticket includes a welcome spritz, with wine and food available to buy. Find a patch of lawn, order a pizza and give Monday very little thought.