Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard a peak performer
An Adelaide Hills cellar door restaurant with fabulous views makes the most of its natural assets, writes Simon Wilkinson
It’s lovely weather for ducks. A steady drizzle, punctuated with the occasional violent downpour, has made the winding route north through the Adelaide Hills more precarious than usual. The bitumen is slick and the landscapes blurred by a soft, misty filter.
For the aylesbury ducks living in an apple orchard at Forest Range, however, this weather is custom-made for dabbling around the grass and trees.
I’ve driven right by, not knowing the flock was there, until questions are asked over lunch a few kilometres further on at Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard.
This cellar door and restaurant, clinging to the roadside and looking over beautiful country views, makes a big deal about its connections to all things local – and rightly so. Chicken, venison, apples, quinces and more all come from nearby growers, while pine mushrooms have been plucked from the other side of the property’s fence.
For British chef Adam Bowden, it is all a source of inspiration. His cooking is a reflection of his CV from home, which includes a stint as sous chef at The Ritz in London but more recently a job with a highly regarded café group that has links to an organic farm. So, locavore meets Larousse.
Owners Garry Sweeney and Sharon Pearson are backing their man, investing in a just-completed expansion that has doubled the size of the indoor dining room, while two levels of deck seating outside will come into play when spring comes around.
For now, however, we are seriously contemplating the crocheted nanna rugs that hang over the back of each seat and wishing the open fireplace were just a little closer.
Given these conditions, it’s good to see a few other brave souls around us, mostly travellers following the wine route, but also a cider maker from over the hill.
But here, the beverage focus is grapes, not apples, and from this elevated vantage point the sites for fruit behind different MLRV labels are pointed out in the patchwork of vineyards and bushland below.
The briefest of menus – three entrees, five mains, two desserts – ensures you won’t be distracted from the view for too long. A little freebie to start – cubes of smoked eel in a tart case of dehydrated beetroot – shows they aren’t mucking around. Butter is churned in-house as well, though the sourdough it is spread upon, while excellent, is from a bakery in Uraidla.
Worst things first. A salad of mussels, soaked in a citrus and passionfruit escabeche-style marinade, is plated beautifully but the flavours are plain weird to me. The little morsels of seafood, removed from their shells, should be at their winter best, but while they look like mussels and have the soft, plump texture of mussels, they taste like a watered-down tropical cordial. All the decoration with radish, matchsticks of carrot and fennel tops can’t save the day.
Salt baked celeriac, on the other hand, is an unabashed celebration of its key ingredient. The ugly veg is presented as a white ring filled with a mixture including celeriac purée, truffle and hazelnut, the earthy tones in lovely harmony. Soft-boiled quail eggs and roasted nuts are arranged on top.
The duck comes from Nature’s Chicken producer Carey Schultz and is presented in two ways. The breast has been aged on hay for two weeks to further intensify its natural gamy funk and help the fat render. Served on the daring side of rare, it is indecently good and will stir the inner beast. The leg, meanwhile, has been cooked confit-style, shredded and wrapped in brik pastry to form a posh spring roll. With “Lyonnaise” accompaniments – Larousse speak for onion in various forms – it is a triumph.
A plate of Hahndorf venison (a large elk, in fact) delivers a similar one-two punch, the shank braised until dark and sticky, then loaded into a small pie, while the aged rump is presented in slices on a bed of barley. Swede purée, pickled pine mushrooms and kale all contribute to this earthy, verdant composition. Monarch of the Glen, anyone? The only disappointment is a leaf salad, made soggy by a deluge of dressing.
To finish, apples from the same property as the duck feature in a wacky-looking stack of cheesecake, caramel-poached balls of the fruit and a mound of chestnut cream squiggles that could be Play-doh spaghetti. More chestnut is shaved on top but I’d have preferred something tasting more of the apple.
Overall, it is a meal on which it is hard to draw a bead. The best stuff is the simplest, showing faith in the natural beauty of its ingredients to carry the day. In a setting such as this, it makes perfect sense.
Mount Lofty Ranges Vineyard
166 Harris Rd, Lenswood, 8389 8339, mtloftyrangesvineyard.com.au
OWNERS Garry Sweeney and Sharon Pearson
CHEF Adam Bowden
FOOD Contemporary
TWO COURSES $65
THREE COURSES $80
FIVE COURSE TASTING MENU $95
DRINKS Wine list limited to the estate-grown range of MLRV, particularly pinot noir
OPEN LUNCH Daily (Mon-Wed light lunch)
