Sunday lunch: Whistler Cafe, Heathcote

BLUE wrens flit among tables under trees and market umbrellas while butterflies float above vineyards in the bucolic setting that is the Whistler Cafe at the Shelmerdine Merindoc Vineyard — one of the first vineyards in the granite boulder region of Heathcote.

What was once the tractor shed is now the Shelmerdine Cellar Door and Whistler Cafe for this prestigious winery. There are up to 11 wines on offer from the Shelmerdine vineyards — Merindoc, Willoughby Bridge north of the township of Heathcote and the Yarra Valley. We sample some white wines including a top local riesling and viognier before sitting down to lunch in the native garden with an appealing chardonnay ($10 a glass, $32 a bottle) and a lovely dry rosé ($8 a glass, $24 a bottle). All dishes come with suggested wine pairings but of course you can make your own wine choice.

Our bread is served with some delicious olive oil from neighbouring McIvor Estate and moreish house-made hazelnut dukkah. I choose a stack of crisply baked zucchini-and-herb fritters ($18.50) topped with local Holy Goat's cheese and fresh garden salad of baby spinach, cherry tomatoes and broad beans that come from the organic kitchen garden a few metres away. A sucker for a good pie, my husband chooses the chicken and leek pie ($22.50) where the chicken has been poached in estate chardonnay and tarragon, then topped with a golden puff pastry lid and served with a garden salad.

To finish, we share a tangy, tasty summer pudding (pictured) with poached home-grown plums ($11.50) and return to the cellar door to sample some estate shiraz, for which the region is famed. The Heathcote shiraz is drinking beautifully now and the acclaimed Merindoc shiraz has the potential to cellar for six to seven years, according to knowledgeable cellar door master Oliver Budack. Get him talking about the importance to the wine of the 500-year-old local Cambrian soil and the granite rocks.

Reviewed by Tricia Welsh, who was hosted by Goldfields Tourism.

Whistler Cafe, Lancefield Road, Tooborac, 5433 5188. Cafe and cellar door open Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm; Sat-Sun, 10am-5pm. See shelmerdine.com.au. To stay: nearby options include Merindoc Cottage (merindoc.com.au), Hut on the Hill (hutonthehill.com.au), Mimosa Glen Cottage (mimosaglen.com.au).