‘No one would choose to eat like this’ - SC Pannell in McLaren Vale fails to impress
It’s a beautiful view, with wine that has few peers. But when our reviewer headed to this McLaren Vale winery for a long lunch, the service was baffling.
delicious SA
Don't miss out on the headlines from delicious SA. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Just because someone is good at doing one thing doesn’t mean they will be equally gifted at doing something else. Think of actors who try to sing or singers who try to act. Star sportspeople who can’t string two words together. Or celebrities who have a crack at politics.
S.C. Pannell has few peers when it comes to producing wine – particularly the kind of enchanted juice you want when lunch is showing signs of extending towards the hours normally reserved for dinner.
Generous in spirit, precisely balanced, ever so drinkable, it is always made with the consumer in mind. Strange, then, that the dining experience at its cellar door should prove quite the opposite.
It is five years since S.C. Pannell set up headquarters on the same strip in McLaren Vale that is home to d’Arenberg and Maxwell, among others. While the acclaim for the label has continued to build, the company has moved carefully with this development, restricting food to simple platters and the like in the early days.
More recently, the offering has become more sophisticated and, on paper/screen at least, seems worth consideration alongside the region’s other options.
The cellar door is set on the higher side of the road, looking west over a vast expanse of grapes and gum trees that is pure Aussie wine country. The main structure includes a tasting room, an enclosed courtyard and “kiosk” servery, while a large deck across the front makes the most of the view and is set for lunch when the weather plays ball.
A mix of regular and high tables are arranged under the shade of large umbrellas permanently bolted to the ground but otherwise the site is exposed, with nothing in place to block the prevailing wind.
The only other people on the deck decide to leave because they are too cold, while some of our mob take up the kind offer of blankets. Nice one.
This, however, is the high point of customer service on an afternoon that leaves us feeling we are an unwelcome distraction. Yes, they are preparing for a function that evening, but if they didn’t want us there why did they take the booking?
The menu features eight main items (plus starters and sides) which are all ideal for sharing, we’re told. We order seven of them, as well as two bottles of wine, and settle in for what we are hoping will be a lengthy relaxed graze. Five or so minutes later slices of house-baked sourdough arrive with oil and spiced dukkah.
Another 10 or so minutes go by until the next two plates are presented, followed closely by another two, and then the final three. Before we have a chance to even murmur “slow down”, everything is on the table at once. Meat and seafood and veg. Hot and cold. Who cares?
Manoeuvring plates takes on the complexities of managing air traffic at Heathrow. Warm food chills. Flavours become a blur. The acidic juices from a mussel escabeche spoil anything else they touch. No one would choose to eat like this.
The shame is that, in other circumstances, some of these dishes would shine. Brittle, bubbly taco shells are loaded with pieces of smoked kingfish, puffed rice and plenty of fresh dill to bring it all to life.
A flaky, extra-short empanada pastry is filled with beef cheek braised in Barolo and served alongside ribbons of pickled kohlrabi and a celeriac cream. It’s a meat pie you’d happily serve if the Queen popped by.
Turkish dumplings (manti) of minced lamb flop about in a puddle of yoghurt streaked with vivid tomato butter and are given a final sprinkle of zaatar.
Less impressive is a salad bowl of roasted cauli, freekeh, broad beans and mixed leaves that seems a random collection, and is dominated by a sharp dressing. Zucchini flowers stuffed with a crumbly ricotta mix have no chance going up against the tag-team of dukkah and lemony gremolata.
When one of our number asks why everything has to come at once, we are told that this is how the kitchen rolls, or words to that effect.
Dessert? It’s usually panna cotta or lemon sorbet, our waitress says, but the first isn’t available today and she’ll need to check on the other. She returns from the kitchen with a memorable punchline. “We’re all out of sorbet … can I get you some wine?”
S.C. Pannell
60 Olivers Rd, McLaren Vale , 8323 8000, pannell.com.au
OWNER S.C. Pannell
CHEFS Hayley White and Cameron Clarke
FOOD Contemporary
STARTERS $10-$12 MAIN $20-$42
CHEF SELECTION $55 DESSERT NA
DRINKS The reason to visit. Full selection, many by glass, with bottles from $30.
OPEN LUNCH Thu-Sun
Score 11.5/20