Le Bouchon's lobster is a love letter to classic French cooking

The most exciting frontier in Victorian dining right now – in Australia, indeed – is not in our inner suburbs or flash casinos. It is down country roads in rural towns where the produce is sometimes grown within arm's reach of the kitchen door and the surrounding land can serve as breathtaking decor and ultimate inspiration.

I am often desperate to find worthy places to review in Melbourne, but my list of restaurants elsewhere to check out is lengthy and constantly growing. I could spend months on the road without pause and not run out of things to write about in regional Victoria.

This is, in part, thanks to the incredible things happening in our regions; where good wine happens, good food will often follow. This is certainly the story behind Le Bouchon, a small operation that popped up at Attwoods Wines in Glenlyon just outside Daylesford over the winter.

The restaurant is a collaboration between winemaker and ex-sommelier Troy Walsh and chef Sean Marshall. Walsh spent 15 years working in the London fine-dining scene before returning to Australia to pursue winemaking, while Marshall worked in kitchens in France and New York City before coming back to Melbourne where he had head-chef stints at Deja Vue and Hell of the North.

At Le Bouchon, Marshall is delivering a multi-course, set-lunch menu three days a week. The setting is the small dining room and outdoor patio, both of which look out over the rolling hills surrounding us, including the vineyard that produces the winery's pinot noir. The room is light-filled and simple, more like an elegant country home than a restaurant.

The menu options are $110 for four courses or $140 for five, with bargain wine pairing ($35 or $45, depending on how much food you've chosen). Menus change as often as monthly, but the inspiration – which is decidedly French, with only small nods to modernity, mainly in the form of Japanese ingredients and techniques – is constant.

In spring, the amuse-gueule was a small bowl of chilled soup, strikingly green, made of broad beans and wild garlic. A dollop of ricotta gave the dish cream and tang, while the addition of shiso lent intrigue with its sharp, contrasting flavour.

Next came asparagus wrapped in serrano ham, with hollandaise and an onsen egg. The egg somewhat detracted from the subtlety of the hollandaise – it felt redundant, perhaps – but it's very hard to quibble with such a classic combination.

The best argument for the more expensive five-course feast is the lobster course, which you only can get with the lengthier menu (and which carries over from month to month, at least for the time being). Lightly poached with black truffle and served with a rich crustacean sauce, it is a love letter to classic French cooking, with all the delicacy and decadence that entails.

For the final savoury course, we were served a rosy spring lamb rump roasted with koji and served with green peas and anchovy jus. Perfectly cooked, it straddled the line between elegance and comfort beautifully.

A piping-hot bowl of rhubarb clafoutis reminded me what a fantastic dessert this can be when done right, a cross between a custard and a cake and a lovely showcase for seasonal fruit.

With the five-course menu, lunch will finish with a cup of batch-brewed coffee and petit fours made from Attwoods wines.

Service here is friendly and quiet – a little too quiet, perhaps. When we asked if any of the produce was grown on site, we were told "some of it", with no further conversation possible because our server had already departed. The tone of service here is professional, but given the setting it could be slightly more personal.

Le Bouchon isn't reinventing any wheels, nor is it trying to do so. Instead, it's leaning into the idea of a leisurely afternoon in the country where you might indulge in the simple things that make life so pleasurable: good food, prepared with skill; good wine, made with love; and the stunning natural beauty of Victoria.

Vibe: Airy, country chic

Go-to dish: Truffle-poached lobster (part of the $140, five-course menu)

Drinks: Attwoods wines served by the glass or bottle, or as a pairing for lunch

Cost: $110 (four courses) or $140 (five courses)

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine