The Mornington Peninsula turned out to be just over an hour’s drive from the house so I set out on a Friday to avoid the weekend crowds. Most of the wineries are open Fri-Sun so that worked out really well. There were very few people around apart from in the vineyard restaurants. The area is beautiful with varied coastal landscape – the ocean side beach was absolutely stunning with some very wild surf breaks. I drove all the way to the end of the peninsula just to see what that was like and then had a coffee in Sorrento. Wow what an upmarket place, full of expensive shops and food places. Still the asparagus was only 70c for a bunch – the cheapest so far.
I had learnt my lesson from the Yarra Glen about food so made sure I got to a place to eat before 3pm. The nearest winery to Sorrento is The Cups Estate and I had a lovely posh lunch and a glass of their 2015 Syrah. Apparently as this is cool climate wine making they are encouraged to call it that rather than the usual Aussie Shiraz – never mind.
I then drove to the 10 Minutes by Tractor winery which had set up a pop up cellar door at a local restaurant as the winery had burnt down in January. I was the only customer but the wines were pretty good and the lady who worked there recommended the next winery – Oceans Eight. I have to say of all of them this was my favourite. Once again I was the only customer and the place itself was stunning. The family live there and it had a more authentic feeling than lots of the others. The wines were fantastic and pretty expensive but then all these wineries are boutiques and the prices are high. I had decided not to buy anything anyway as when I checked online you could buy the wines cheaper at Dan Murphy’s if available and also they were mostly out of my usual Aussie price range of $10-15. The top Oceans Eight wine was the 2013 Aylward Pinot Noir at $80 available online for $60 – that’s quite big difference. It was very good though!
I then added on a 4th vineyard but frankly I might not have bothered. Main Ridge is the oldest winery on the Mornington Peninsula but their wines were mediocre and the only place that actually charged me for the tasting. It’s usually $5 but this place was $10. Mostly as I’m on my own they don’t bother to charge which is a nice bonus.
So all in all a much better experience than the Yarra. If it wasn’t for the dogs I would probably have stayed there overnight.
Anna's Travels 