Grant and Susie Montgomery were out chef team today for the final mixed lunch of the year. The numbers attending were hearty given the expectation of excellent food and wine.

Canapé

Two canapés from our duo starting with a pea soup topped with creme fraiche. There was intense sweetness from the peas which again underscores what a wonderful and underrated vegetable it is. This was followed by pastry boats filled with confit tomatoes and olives topped with an onion, anchovy and butter sauce.

Main Course

The first thought that came to mind when the plate was placed in front of me was how enticing was this meal. The presentation was superb. The centrepiece of the dish was the lobster tail with a prawn standing guard either side. This centrepiece was topped with grilled fish skin. This was accompanied by beautifully crispy potatoes, sugar snaps and some interesting baked rice noodles. The latter had been slightly browned and added an interesting and intriguing crunchy characteristic to the meal. Sauce was also provided which was made from fish and vegetable stock, garlic, bush tomatoes, cream and butter. A fantastic meal. The lobster tail, or at least the one I enjoyed, was not overdone nor underdone, it lifted perfectly from the shell to enjoy its sweet meat.

For information, the lobster was Caribbean spiny, and the prawns were Australian green king.

Cheese

James Healey was again reigning over the cheese selection and presentation. Today, few of us were familiar with the Mimolette Vielle from maker, Isigny. This cow’s milk cheese comes in an amazing bowling ball shape. It had a few of us wanting to practice our bowling skills across the dining room. The cheese historically comes from the French city of Lille and is a most unusual cheese, not least of which because of its bright orange interior. The cheese is very nutty in flavour, but some found it a little an uninteresting despite the striking orange colour which comes from a natural additive used in production.

Coffee

Spencer Ferrier announced the end of his worldwide coffee tour for 2019. Today, Spencer sourced a single-origin Australian coffee from Harris Farm, which was medium-bodied with a lingering sweetness on the palate. A good Australian coffee. For tea drinkers, Spencer served a Darjeeling which he described as a summer tea.

The coffee project for 2020 is to define a ‘Society coffee’.

Wines

Whilst munching on canapes we had the Salinger 2010 (which Chilly Hargrave had more than a passing hand in its production) and the Ca’ dei Zago Processo 2017. The former was showing its age in the form of its golden colour but it had retained good acidity and some bread yeast characteristics. The latter had been a controversial wine when served in the past because of its very low sugar profile and some had taken advantage of the Campari on the table to add some flavour to it.

With the main, we enjoyed a Yabby Lake 2015 Chardonnay from Mornington Peninsula and a Curly Flat 2012 Chardonnay from the Macedon area. The Yabby Lake was flinty with excellent purity of flavour and appropriate acid balance. It was a marvellous example of a great Australian Chardonnay. The Curly Flat in comparison had more obvious oak and whilst it had bright acidity, the generous fruit may have been little over the top for some. Most commentators preferred the Yabby Lake.

The cheese had us move on to Northern Rhône wines with the Laurent Combier "Cuvée L’ Crozes-Hermitage 2012 and the Maxime Graillot Domaine des Lises 'Equis' Cornas. Easy to say in retrospect but both peppery Rhone Syrah.

The Crozes-Hermitage was showing its seven years of age with some leather characteristics in its medium-bodied style. It had a good degree of complexity but seemed a little hot surprisingly, given that there was no oak and the wine was matured in the more trendy egg-shaped concrete vats.

The Cornas, whilst the more solid wine, had relatively lighter tannins with a distinct, peppery overtone that is associated with northern Rhônes.

A delightful lunch today from Grant and Susi and reminiscent of the quality from the late-year lunch they provided in 2018.