Delicious. insider

On the eve of the annual Portsea Polo, Belgian brewer Stella Artois played host at the Mornington Peninsula’s Jackalope Hotel, welcoming an eclectic mix of Australia’s most creative people.

It’s a pre-polo party at Portsea.

THERE’S NOTHING LIKE the annual Portsea Polo to kick off the year, with its alluring mix of sport, sun, style and food. This year, Stella Artois took the festivities one step further, taking over the award-winning 46-room Jackalope Hotel nestled in vineyards on the Mornington Peninsula, for a night of frivolity and fun on the eve of the big day. Friday night saw the inaugural Stella Artois Sensorium come to town, starring a five-course feast by chef Guy Stanaway in Doot Doot Doot, the hotel’s restaurant that placed 19 on Victoria’s delicious. 100 list.

Stanaway’s ‘Joie de Biere’ collaboration was inspired by the flavours of Stella Artois, including a first course of house ricotta with hop-smoked beetroot, carrot mousse, toasted hazelnut and vincotto, followed by pork belly braised in the beer and teamed with peaches from the Jackalope kitchen garden. Dessert was crema Catalan with saffron marmalade, and wines were supplied from the vineyard’s own Rare Hare label. Famed Venetian illustrator Nina Fuga sketched the night away nearby, drawing guests and table settings in live time, as well as custom menus, as the incredible ceiling light installation bathed diners in a golden glow, via 10,000 bubble-like bulbs that changed intensity to mimic the vineyard’s fermentation process. Guests included a creative mix of models, style mavens and food gurus, as well as the News Prestige team: delicious. editor-in-chief Kerrie McCallum, GQ editor-inchief Nick Smith and Vogue editor-in-chief Edwina McCann.

Revellers gravitated to the hotel’s eclectic cocktail bar, Flaggerdoot, to finish, for both its vast range of spirits and the distilling instruments on display, happily reflecting on the evening and venue’s perfect fusion of art meets design meets food.