SA Weekend food review: Clover + Stone at Howard Vineyard, Nairne
A cellar door and restaurant in the Adelaide Hills has a few surprises in store, writes Simon Wilkinson.
SA Weekend
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If you have been hanging around wineries for a decade or two you might recall the days before they began building wondrous temples of metal and glass.
Back then cellar doors were little more than a bench and a few stools at one end of a factory-sized shed, and the welcoming committee was likely to be a bloke on a fork lift and the resident hound.
Howard Vineyard’s home in the farming country just outside of Nairne still has some of that pioneering spirit, right down to Felix, the border collie, who likes nothing more than a good rub beneath the chin.
But forget a cheese plate or a stick of kabana. The winery has a restaurant, Clover + Stone, that is right up there when it comes to ambition and price.
While the main building is still a shed of sorts – one that is big enough to contain a small family home – it has undergone some significant renovations.
Out front the manicured lawns and extensive deck/veranda would be the place to hang out on a half-decent day but not one such as this that is about as wet and wild as the Hills can get.
Inside, the sheets of rippled steel have been cut away to fit in doors and windows looking out to the vineyard on the other side, while other parts are covered in timber panels.
The real genius, however, is that this new structure has been built over and around the ruins of an old stone barn.
One wall is just inside the entrance and helps create a comfy nook for tastings, with high tables and a pot belly stove. The other forms the backdrop to the dining space and no doubt has featured in hundreds of photos over the years (though whether this lives up to “set in our rustic stone barn”, as the website says, I will leave up to you).
Large functions, particularly weddings, have been popular here for many years and arguably are better suited to a space of such dimensions than an eatery pitched at this level.
The Clover + Stone package reads well, with the promise of executive chef Chang Koog Lee (known as Cookie) combining the best local produce with elements of his Korean heritage in the modern Australian manner.
The menu we see has just come into play and the staff are still getting to grips with details such as the “galbi” sauce that goes with a lamb cutlet or the “jorim” with barramundi (a glossary would certainly make it easier).
Prices are in the upper echelon for regional dining, with mains around $35 (plus sides) and a minimum of two courses per head.
A single king prawn, wrapped in shredded kataifi pastry, is $16 a pop.
Also listed as an appetiser are a trio of yaki-style dumplings, presented bottoms-up on the plate to display their crisp, lacy bases. They are filled with a lightly seasoned pork mixture and surrounded by a pool of well-balanced ponzu sauce and drips of chilli oil.
The best part of “salt and pepper squid” is the intense, funky, mildly fishy relish that is tossed through strips of seafood so pallid in every sense that I find it hard to believe this could be freshly caught local calamari, as one would expect in this setting.
A vegetarian main features cubes of lightly fried silken tofu, each topped by a clump of fried enoki that look like the arms of an anemone swaying in the ocean current. They are partnered by pieces of king oyster mushroom, pickled radish, threads of nori and a mushroom broth of immense, lingering flavour.
Slices of sirloin are dressed with what is described as a “perilla chimichurri”, an Asian herb translated to a South American condiment, as well as a Korean ssamjang paste. To the side is a celeriac and anchovy puree that somehow manages to taste of neither.
“Soy caramel brulee” is a bit of a misnomer as there is no torched sugar on top. This is more a crème caramel, crowned with segments of orange and pink grapefruit whose juices mingle nicely with the custard’s sweet layer.
The owners of Howard Vineyard have been through a tough year, with the December bushfires destroying a large chunk of their grape-growing property near Lobethal even before the COVID-19 lockdown.
With its unique take on cellar door dining, Clover + Stone shows they still happy to take on a challenge and forge their own path. The pioneering spirit alive and well.