Chef Mark Mason takes a stubby knife. He grabs a container from the kitchen bench and steps out into clear morning light of the King Valley. Mason is a local chef who heads up the new team at the Dal Zotto Trattoria. This is the Whitfield vineyard and winery owned by the Italian immigrant Dal Zotto family, famous for their prosecco and their fun. The family trattoria overlooks the vineyard on the King River flats.

Mason heads to the kitchen garden, the frost crunching underfoot in the shadows. ‘I love the philosophy of Italian food,’ he says. ‘It’s beautiful, simple food made with great ingredients that are treated with respect.’  Even in the depths of winter the garden is still bountiful: radicchio grows in great purple tongues, the cavallo nero stands like proud bunches of green plumes. Mark cuts a few chillies hanging from a bush, gathers an armful of rhubarb and heads back into the warmth of the kitchen.

Polpetti made with Londrigan beef, duck ravioli with peperonata, house made beetroot gnocchi with buffalo mozzarella, polenta chips and aioli, prosciutto

He gives the pot on the stove a stir. In it is lamb ragu made with dorper lamb grown on the property. ‘I love the fact we have this great kitchen garden that I can rely upon,’ says Mark. ‘What Elena doesn’t grow here’ – he refers to Elena Dal Zotto, the family matriarch – ‘friends of the family bring in for us or we buy from them.’ He rolls out some pizza dough and gives it a final twirl in the air before carefully laying it onto a tray.

The pizza menu at the trattoria offers a dozen different pizzas, from margherita with its simple layering of tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil leaves to the zucca, a pizza with garlic and rosemary oil, caramelised onion, pieces of pumpkin and slices of taleggio cheese finished with a covering of fresh wild rocket.

Working front of house with Mark is Erik Nap. Originally from the Netherlands he has thrown himself into life in the North East, managing the trattoria and cellar door and exploring the High Country on his days off. A keen bushwalker and fisher he describes the area’s fishing spots and 4WD tracks in the hills and mountains like a long-term local.

‘I absolutely love it here,’ he says. ‘It is such a beautiful part of the world and the quality of the product in the region is world class.’ With years of training in hospitality in Europe he brings to Dal Zotto the crisp professional attention to detail he honed working in Switzerland, combined with his natural laidback affability.

Erik and Mark go through the menu, discussing what is on the ever-changing antipasti plate. ‘We have a few favourites but like to keep the offer new and exciting,’ explains Erik. ‘But we can’t take the white polenta chips and aioli off,’ says Mark. ‘I tried but our regulars wouldn’t let me.’ The antipasti plate is a shared dish of delicious tastes. It might include a ramekin of pork meatballs with pickled fennel and zucchini, some chilli fried chicken wings, some Roman gnocchi with a beef ragu and a pan-fried sandwich filled with cooked leek and taleggio cheese.

‘Our food and our wine are an integrated experience,’ says Erik. ‘In the true style of the Italian trattoria you can’t have one without the other.’

He takes us through to the adjacent cellar door. This is a bright and sunny room overlooking the vineyard through the river red gums. While the trattoria next door has the classic tobacco kiln architecture of the King Valley, the cellar door is slightly more institutional. ‘This is the old Whitfield police station,’ he explains. ‘Instead of demolishing it, the Dal Zottos had it transported here.’

At the cellar door, tastings are free and start with prosecco. The family patriarch, Otto Dal Zotto, grew up in Valdobbiadene in north-eastern Italy, migrating to Australia in 1967. He became a tobacco farmer but started to plant grapes when the tobacco industry began its decline in the mid-1980s. In 1999 he discovered that backyard gardener in Adelaide had imported the grape variety prosecco, native to Valdobbiadene, into Australia. He promptly acquired cuttings to graft his first prosecco vines and in 2004 he made his first vintage of prosecco. This is a sparkling white wine that in Italy is an everyday drink and served before meals as an aperitif but also served at the meal or even in the afternoon as a pick-me-up.

Erik pours a splash of the 2014 L’Immigrante Prosecco into the tasting glass. It has a wonderful aroma of pears and early spring flowers and spreads in the mouth with creamy soft foam. It has a clean lineal backbone of bright acid and wonderful length. Made in the 10th anniversary year celebrating Dal Zotto’s first prosecco it is testament to how Italian wine varieties evolve in Australian soil.

‘The L’Immigrante range is about the best expression of grape and winemaking and is quite an exclusive range,’ Erik says. ‘But it is one we stock here at the cellar door.’ He goes on to pour tastings of more prosecco showing the difference that nuances in winemaking can do to a wine. ‘We always have three proseccos open for tasting and we encourage visitors to taste them all.

‘We like to make people feel at home when they come here. We like to know what people like and what they have to say about our wines. We love that they make a connection with the region, with our vineyard and our family and that they are a part of that.’

Erik loves sharing his love of the region and has been known to put together ad hoc itineraries for visitors new to the North East.

Back in the trattoria, a rustic room with corrugated iron walls and dark wood-topped tables, groups of young hipsters are sharing pizza and enjoying plates of risotto. There are some larger mains going out such as the pepper crusted eye fillet peperonata with parsnips chips, beetroot and broccoli. A bottle of sangiovese is poured for a group of men from a touring car club. They’ve gone for the twice-cooked pork belly with apple relish and warm coleslaw.

Erik beams from ear to ear as he places a plate of pumpkin ravioli in front of one of the diners. He is in his element. Charming, affable and efficient, he seems even happier when he is looking after other people. Outside the sun breaks through the cloud and floods the vineyard with golden winter light. The hipsters take advantage of the sunshine and head to the gravel court by the gum trees for a quick game of bocce.

4861 Wangaratta-Whitfield Road,
Whitfield,Victoria
Tel 03 5729 8321
www.dalzotto.com.au

La Dolce Vita Nov, 2016
Dal Zotto takes part in this annual festival where local wineries put on special events and offer tastings of wines not usually on show. For accommodation we recommend you book early.

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