Jewel in the Gibbston Valley’s crown

Olivia Caldwell enjoys sharing plates under a vine- covered ceiling at Kinross Cottage.

It is like they saw me coming, because the huge ramekin of butter to go with the delicious focaccia bread had me in heaven right away! It wasn’t any simple butter, it was some sort of cream cheese and butter mix, so a double dairy hit and that was splendid.

I am talking about the beautiful venue that is Kinross Cottage nestled in the middle of the Gibbston Valley, wine country of course. This vineyard has it all, good food, good wine and often live music on its tiny little stage out front. They host some of New Zealand’s comedy stars such as Tom Sainsbury, Guy Williams and several others — it is a hot spot.

On this occasion however it was a chilly Summer’s day, which we have been getting here and there over January. So Kinross cranked out the heaters outdoors and it was a gorgeous setting under their vine-covered ceiling. Even on a Sunday the tables were full, so it was easy to see the place is sought after.

The menu has beautiful hot-fired pizzas, but on this occasion, we went for sharing plates to get a taste of everything.

Starting with that mentioned focaccia we then moved to charred broccolini which came with a beautiful blackcurrant salsa, kale crisps, pea pesto and parmesan.

The heirloom tomato medley was my favourite dish of the day. Marinated in vanilla and chardonnay dressing and with a polenta crisp — the flavour was beautiful. Basil leaves thrown in the mix too and served with stracciatella, basil oil. I have not had tastier tomatoes, ever.

I couldn’t go past Nadia Lim’s Royalburn Lamb shank. This is served with marinated courgette, tomatoes, smoked ricotta, toasted almonds and a mint salsa verde. It all went so well together and was cooked well.

We also tried the herb-crusted fish. Served with a watermelon salsa, romesco and chorizo vinaigrette, trust me on this one it was lovely.

The wines were also something to visit for. I tried the illuminois rose, and I would highly recommend if you are into the dry roses, like myself.

For dessert we shared the dark chocolate delice and it was marvellous. Very rich, I recommend two spoons!