The House at Mount Prior (3)

Another beautiful morning greeted us as we woke and the sultry air promised a very hot day. Part of our routine at The House at Mount Prior has been to get an early morning cup of tea from the dining room. The kitchen which is next door is alive and throbbing with energy very early as the team prepares for guests to wake and stagger from their rooms seeking sustenance.
This morning Jocelyn had cereal, fruit and yoghurt, a poached egg on toast and a pot of coffee. Being a creature of habit, I had exactly the same as yesterday except the eggs were scrambled. We then lazed in the courtyard outside our room reading books and emails until about 11am when we decided to do some more exploring.

First stop was the Black Dog Bakery, where we bumped into a delightful young lady who recognised us from some years ago as her first ever waitressing customers at another Rutherglen venue when she was learning the trade. She has grown in confidence and has been working wherever she can around town so that she can go overseas at the end of the year before commencing University in 2009. She served our coffees with aplomb demonstrating a skill which she can now use to get work anywhere in the world.

Then we spent some time at the Keg Factory which had shifted to the Main Street of Rutherglen, ordering a huge platter for our daughter Robyn as well as a sign for the door to my cellar. I mentioned to Jocelyn that I was looking for a Port or Tokay barrel and her response was that can be your birthday present, GOAL!!

From there we went on to the Pickled Sisters Cafe which is situated on the site of Cofield's Winery in Distillery Road Wahgunyah, for a delicious antipasto platter and a glass of Cofield's 2oo4 Cabernet Sauvignon.

This place has an atmosphere akin to the hustle and bustle of a Mediterranean seaside cafe, waitresses smiling at, and talking to their customers, writing, and discussing requirements with the chefs and the barista. This, against a constant background noise of people arriving, greeting, relaxing, talking and laughing as they found seating on the deck and even spilling out onto the lawn where there are now two huge umbrellas to provide shade from the summer sun. People left following their meal to be quickly replaced by others, anticipating a great luncheon experience. And as I watched, I marvelled at the ability of the chefs to make magical dishes in front of my eyes in a space no bigger than our spare bedroom.

After we paid the bill I thought we would pop down to the Cofield's cellar door and buy a couple of bottles of vintage port and increase my supply of the 2003 Quartz Vein Shiraz.

We had the privilege of bumping into legend Max Cofield, now retired. Max had been recruited to the cellar door to cover for other family members who were supporting the AFL grand finalists. We had a long chat with Max and ran past him the idea of getting him involved with our blog and your ongoing interest. Watch this space for future developments.

We returned to the House at Mount Prior in the mid afternoon and spent an hour or so once again soaking up the atmosphere of the courtyard. At 4pm we ordered a 2004 Merlot from Lilliput Wines, this is a winery that uses no animal products in it's wine production and can therefore be enjoyed by vegans, vegetarians and the rest of us.

We were joined later by our new friends from Wagga Wagga and spent some time chatting about the wine sale that occurs on the Sunday morning after the conclusion of the show which is commonly known as 'Smash and Grab'. When wine is to be judged the exhibitor sends four bottles of the competing wine and an entry fee to the society. At the end of the judging and the various tastings all the wine remaining is sold to raise funds for the Wine show society. We all agreed that we would go with our friends and help them get the best out of the experience and Rose said if we could persuade her other guests to go, they would all go along as well. Something we bore in mind as we went to the dining room for dinner that evening.

For dinner Jocelyn ordered duck and I ordered steak which we preceded with another antipasto platter. I think that comprised about 25% or less of the choices offered on an extensive menu. When the platter was served, we looked at each other and thought, how are we going to get through this and a main meal. I have never seen such an extensive array of anti pasto and was even more impressed to learn that the majority of what was presented had been produced by either Paula or Rose. Everything on that platter from the pate to spiced eggplant and red peppers and various other gourmet delights had been the product of Rose and Paula's creativity. Now I know why that kitchen always has someone present in it. To accompany our meal we ordered a bottle of Stanton and Killeen Park View Dry Red which complimented our mains to perfection. When my steak was presented accompanied with relishes and mustards it was just another example of the manner in which this business understands what suberb customer service is about

During the meal we talked with the other guests, two couples from Gippsland and they were very keen to join us to following morning to the 'Smash and Grab' which meant that we were going to be a contingent of twelve on the mornings adventure.

We all met at 7 am the next morning and drove in convoy down to the wine show building and waited in line until the doors opened at 7:30 am. Our group then dispersed to areas of interest to each individual couple. At about 7:55 Malcolm Campbell gave us our instructions regarding:
1. Payment: at $9 per bottle we were not going to strike too many bottles that were not value for money;
2. Behaviour; respect each other and the wine-makers who have produced the best they know how.

At 8:00 am the bell to commence was sounded. Five minutes later from several tousand bottles of wines on the tables there was no wine remaining. All vanished into boxes. Jocelyn and I managed 4 dozen bottles of Red and Rose wines.
Back at the House at Mount Prior as we ate our farewell breakfast we discovered that each of the groups had purchased roughly the same amounts of wine and declared the foray a unqualified success.

Footnote: of our 4 dozen wines we found that we had scored 26 medal winners. We gave a friend 3 of these in the six we had purchased on her behalf leaving us 23 medal winners for the cellar. The remaining wines are being drunk as we speak and to date we have enjoyed each one very much. You may hear about the others if you continue to follow our journey with wine.