Wednesday 28 April

A similar day to yesterday, with two wineries – one good, the other ordinary. Gundog was first up with six wines, most of which we liked and well presented by the attractive and knowledgeable woman running the cellar door. Photos were taken with the gundog statues before we had to leave for Audrey Wilkinson winery. 

A very modern cellar door with great views. Wines were OK and well priced. In fact, the cheapest in the Hunter so far. Lady P took umbridge at the pierced ear, designer stubbled, 30 something that was leading the tasting. His imitation of Tom Cruise in the movie Cocktail, did not go down well at all. She was silently (and sometimes not so silently) hoping he would drop the wine bottle he was flipping and tossing around while walking to the tables.

Lunch was at the Matilda Bay Brewery, which provided opportunity for more simple fare like pizzas and some craft beers. 

Home reasonably early in preparation for dinner at Muse Restaurant tonight. The restaurant is at Hungerford Hill winery and is very upmarket in its design. There are plenty of floor staff and a large open kitchen. 

The night however, did not start well. Fairly abrupt, even bordering on rude service from the waitstaff and a big rush to push out the five course degustation. If Flashy heard ‘have you chosen your wine yet?’ one more time, he would have strangled her. 

Generally speaking, the food was very good, with proper small portions and beautiful plating you would expect from a long held 3-hat restaurant. Apart from a bland and under seasoned chicken, and a Fiano that did not make the cut, the Margan aged Semillon and their Mataro were excellent. 

Looking at the dessert menu, Flashy asked the surly waitress, ‘what’s the Muse coconut?’ ‘It’s our signature dish,’ is all he got in return. Oh well, give it a crack he thinks. So, this actually saved the night from being a disappointment. The ‘coconut’ was a replica of a halved coconut with the outside made from dark and milk chocolate. A coconut mouse was formed inside to look like the hollow inside of a coconut and this was topped with coconut water. Surrounding this was a ‘coconut cloud’ consisting of three different coconut products, shaved, roasted and candied. It was spectacular. We returned home to a few nightcaps.