It was a gorgeous blue-sky day for the launch of www.visitvineyards.com at Montalto on the Mornington Peninsula. We were wined, dined and stayed at the most gorgeous B&B, Easton Grey, which felt like staying at an English estate on 40 beautiful acres. Easton Grey is run by the a lovely English lady Jo and her daughter CC.
Ella was on her best behaviour at the launch, plus she was minded by a babysitter, Norma, from Peninsula Sitters on Friday night while we went to dinner at Long Table. It was loads of fun and we enjoyed getting to know Robin and Charlie who are behind the visitvineyards.com website.
It was great fun exploring the peninsula. We visited Stoniers Winery and had a personalised tasting with the wine maker. After this we had a well earned latte and breakfast at Merricks General Store with new owner Kathleen, another wine maker and a character to boot. After this we had lunch at Lindenderry. At first we were sitting inside the rather formal dining room, but opted instead for the sunny courtyard. It was a stunning day and a couple were getting married amongst the vines. It was a perfect day for it.
I had a very quick squiz around the fantastic Red Hill Markets before we headed back to Easton Grey for an afternoon nap. Tom took care of Ella while I drove back to Red Hill for a run along the new boardwalk which runs from the local school. It was great running in the fresh country air.
That night we had a fireside seat at Vines of Red Hill. We both had the warm salad of early spring white asparagus with a truffled free range egg that the chef James Redfern sourced from the markets that morning. I followed this with a fantastic roasted free range chicken breast with mushroom and leg with brioche, creamy polenta and golden jus. This was a particularly memorable dish. Tom and I then shared the persimmon, ginger and currant pudding with citrus syrup, honey and yoghurt icecream, which again was delicious.
The next day was Father's Day so Ella and I gave Tom a brief sleep in before giving him his presents - a smart shirt from Scarff in St Kilda, two Gordon Ramsay Kitchen Nightmare DVDs and a Top Gear DVD. He deserves it. He's such a great dad to Ella.
