Monday, February 21, 2011

Giant Steps & Innocent Bystander


We're not big wine lovers, and narrowed the tastings to pinot noir and chardonnay. Our first stop at Yarra Valley was a relatively young winery- Giant Steps and Innocent Bystander. We settled on a bottle of rather robust Tarraford Vineyard 2008 Pinot Noir to go with lunch.

Imho, the food is outstanding, along with its FABULOUS flat white, breads, cakes and desserts. Upon stepping in, I stood there like a little girl in fairyland, inhaling all the smells, listening to the sounds and bustle.

Hurrah for free and fast wifi at the winery! The man was totally in love with his chicken liver pate. He relished every last bit of it. There, there was the wonderfully done pumpkin pizza with barrel-aged feta, walnuts on top of a garlic base and finished with sage. There was pumpkin and red lentil dhaal, duck and mushroom pie with carrot mash. Ahhhhhh. We lingered over food, wine and coffee. That coffee. Wow. I had 2 cups of flat white.

I looked up and giggled- these signs are really cool. By the end of lunch, I was definitely in a food coma of sorts. Not on the wine because I controlled that strictly. The man was driving, so he was very disciplined and had just a glass of wine there. We took the bottle back to continue drinking in the suite. I had no breakfast, so the stomach was stuffed to the brim at lunch. It was probably a caffeine-induced coma.

6 comments:

Jo said...

Such a decadent lunch.. wish you could send me a little bit of everything!

lilsnooze said...

I rem we liked this place very much when we stopped over for dinner.

And bought back a whole crate of ...the moscato! :)

imp said...

jomel: it's an awesome place.

lilsnooze: it's kinda because of you that i remembered to check out this place!

Anonymous said...

woot woot.. totally random but with you on the free wifi! ;)

looks like you are having an amazing time...

Corsage@A Dollop Of Me said...

I don't know why but wine places like these always have fabulous food! The produce is usually excellent! Living vicariously through your posts again my dear. Nom nom nom.

imp said...

joanne: it's been lovely so far!

corsage: it's the fresh local produce and pride they take in creating the food, i suppose.