PROFILED BY DE GROOTS MEDIAWinery restaurants on the Mornington Peninsula all seem to have great views across gentle vine-covered slopes, but this one is more gorgeous than most. This is truly, madly, deeply lovely. You’d pay just to sit in the modern rammed-earth building and gaze out the windows at the combination of bush, olive groves, vineyards, vegetable gardens and sculptures. The architect-designed building includes a restaurant – tableclothed but not stuffy – and a casual piazza with its own pizza oven. That’s where you head for a budget-friendly bite or with kids; the restaurant proper is for serious eating and drinking. Forget the idea that country restaurants are rustic and easy-going. This one offers food with real glamour that you’d be pleased to find in the big smoke.
Chef Barry Davis cooks in a contemporary style that owes a lot to modern French cuisine, and makes great use of local ingredients including organically grown vegetables from the garden tended by owner Wendy Mitchell. The menu changes daily, but certain themes recur. Think main courses like snapper with broccolini and yabby fumet with porcini-scented puree, or a Flinders Island lamb rump with ratatouille. You’re not here for a quick bite; take your time and enjoy. Two courses are $60, three are $70. The wine list features Montalto and a selection of local and imported wines. Try them at the cellar door before or after lunch, and pick up a bottle of Montalto olive oil while you’re at it.
Rita Erlich, January 2008
