An evening at Grange Restaurant with a few nice bottles | Friday, December 15th, 2006

Grange Restaurant is inside the Hilton Hotel Adelaide – this means a trip through the foyer on Saturday evening is always a moderate adventure. Tonight, a wedding was in full swing, along with the usual patrons seeking toilets, lifts or the restaurants. However, once at Grange and seated the hotel chaos nearby seems far away and not at all intrusive.

In reward for fighting through the foyer it was time to celebrate with a cooling glass of 1996 Gosset. A little time in glass and an opportunity to warm really allowed its full spectrum of aromas to release. The 1996 Gosset is drinking wonderfully at present, fine gentle mousse, secondary nutty pastry aromas all backed up with great acidity. The complimentary olives where eschewed - something so Mediterranean does not compliment fine wines of the north.

The first course was a variation of Cheong’s famous ‘Four Dances of the Sea’. This was entitled ‘The Sea Dance’ and consisted of delicate seaweed marinated Kingfish belly, calamari, a saffron mussel with real spicy kick, and the superb green peppercorn kingfish. This was an evolution of the ‘Four Dances of the Sea’ - both the classic and this version are excellent but for me tonight, the current incarnation had the edge.

Highlight of the food tonight was either the incredible roasted suckling pig (served at room temperature), chicken liver terrine and red capsicum anchovy bruschetta or the latter grilled hogget. The stuffing in the pig was a most fragrant contrast to the rich, oily pork. The balance of the bruschetta brought the dish to another level after some initial fishy hesitation.

Halfway through the pig it was time to move onto one of my favourite young white Burgundies at the moment the 2002 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet ‘Boudriotte’. A very youthful, focussed wine with outstanding balance, structure and harmony. It’s not the most complex but has great length of flavour and a real food-friendly level of acidity than is typical for lots of young white burgs.

The third course of steamed Snapper, oyster, in duck mushroom broth was refreshing and lightweight - I’d call it a ‘modern palate cleanser’ if it wasn’t for the sublime textures.

Marron is usually a real treat, and the Mamak style marron, with coconut fish peppers and fried spaetzle was very good but not in the same league as the earlier courses. If you’re looking for the best marron in Adelaide I’d lean in direction of Bridgewater Mill in the Adelaide Hills.

Now it was time to move onto the 1990 Château Pavie Decesse. It’s a hard act to follow the beautiful Ramonet but the Pavie did an admirable job. It offered up a lovely nose of plums, a hint of charcuterie and a whole bouquet of other hard to pin down aromas. Surprisingly forward fruit flavours, supple well-integrated tannins and mature.

First ‘red course’ of the evening: duck breast, woodfungus, cherry vinegar sauce, duck leg sausage in turnip, almond saffron duck liver in pastry was wonderful. It is bold to serve such unadorned duck liver without the but this really worked (if not for the sub-par pastry). Breast was wonderfully pink with just a touch of blood. Such harmony with the mid-weight Pavie.

Equal top-billing went to grilled saltbush Hogget (mature lamb) with fava bean puree, cumquat witlof salad with muscatel sauce. The hogget was rich, gamey and rather pungent. Having a cumquat tree at home I approach anything with cumquats in it with great trepidation. It’s a great fruit but can often be exceptionally sour (more than lemons at times) unless they are picked complete ripe. Here the sour balanced the (already quite bitter) witlof perfectly. It complimented rather than masked the real ‘sheepy’ hogget flavours. A complete triumph!

A great selection of cheese (only rivalled in Adelaide by Magill Estate cheese trolley) consisted of fromage d’affinois, Epoisses, Roy de Valley and Roquefort Carles. The soft cheeses demanded something sweet and it was time for the 2002 Kracher Chardonnay/Welschriesling TBA #7 Nouvelle Vague Grande Cuvée. The Kracher is sublime now and I have no idea how it would age. It seems to have the stuffing to go the distance but if its so great now, why wait?

So far a near perfect night on all scores – but then the dreaded warm chocolate tart with pineapple and vanilla iced gateaux arrived. A single nibble was enough to realise that it was wisest to stick with the Kracher #7 and round off the evening with a (very good) peppermint tea.

This had been a night of amazing food, excellent wine and great service. The Grange team managed the night well and handled the bottles professionally - whites not over chilled - and with satisfactory (if not ideal) glassware.