Here’s a top tip. Planning a winter Grampians getaway and thinking of dinner at Dunkeld’s Wickens? Don’t do it. No, don’t skip a meal at Royal Mail Hotel’s signature restaurant – it’s better than ever – but go for Saturday lunch. With Wickens’ extraordinary views, a long lunch is the perfect opportunity to drink in the vista of rugged Australian bush and the craggy faces of Mounts Abrupt and Sturgeon beyond.

It also affords ample excuse to be led by one of the state’s best sommeliers into one of its best cellars and, sure, you can knock yourself out on four-figured Burgundies, but Matthew Lance also has brilliant, exciting drinking at entrylevel prices. A wide-eyed journey of discovery awaits novice and expert drinker alike. Meanwhile, still making the daily-changing most of its famed kitchen garden, the food is less fussy than in the past and all the better for it.

It’s hard to fault, for instance, a plate of estate-farmed lamb, a line of creamy fat crowning perfectly treated meat that’s served simply with sweet carrot as a purée and tiny pickled rounds to offer crunch and contrast.

A tranche of Great Ocean duck is equally expert. The aged breast with genre-defining flavour comes with torched fresh figs, the slow-braised leg meat wrapped in fig leaf an added bonus. It’s a knockout.

It would be easy to fill up on the excellent house-baked breads – fluffy butter whipped with brewer’s yeast makes it nigh on impossible not to order seconds – but dessert at the end is as memorable as beetroot teamed with bone marrow is to begin.

Tasting like a forest smells after rain, the ‘rotten leaf’ ice-cream is an impressive plate fellow to perfect mille-feuille piped with acorn and pear purées. It’s understated, subtle and elegant – just like the entire meal. And the second best thing about a long lunch here? It comes with added afternoon nap. Now, that’s luxury.