Mornington Peninsula

The following morning, it was time to head back through Melbourne and venture to the other side of Port Phillip to visit the Mornington Peninsula! It was only a 3 hour drive back inland via the main highway, rather than the 6 and a half hours all together we drove along the Great Ocean Road, so we were able to make it back with plenty of time to spare before we had to catch a ferry across (instead of driving all the way back through Melbourne and down the coast again--no thank you!) We tried to stop at the cellar door of a small winery called Scotchman's Hill located on the Bellarine Peninsula. We had tried some of their other wines before and they were very good, unfortunately they were closed that day as I suppose it was winter hours and didn't want to bother opening for 2 customers. A bit of a bummer, but we made our way to the small port side town of Queenscliff where we grabbed some delicious crepes for lunch before heading to board our ferry. It's a very short ferry ride, but you can take a car and it was rather cheap. Plus we got a free newspaper and espresso coffee each before getting on board! Quite nice treatment I must say. 

It was a nice ferry ride and we arrived just as the sun was starting to get low in the sky, making our way to the town of Dromana where we would be staying for the evening. It was the nicest holiday park we had stayed in thus far--they had a proper indoor kitchen with tables and stuff where we could set up our laptops (and wouldn't have to cook outdoors since it was quite chilly) and they also had a heated indoor pool! We arrived early enough to take advantage of it and it was a nice way to end three days of constant driving. 

The following day was the first day of absolutely clear weather--sunny and beautiful outside--a perfect day to go wine tasting! Though we started off the morning by heading up to a lookout point called Arthur's Seat--the highest point on the Mornington Peninsula--to get a nice look at the views. There was an actual seat located up top, Arthur's Seat to be precise, and it made a nice throne:

After that, it was time to get our day drinking on! Our first stop was a nice little winery called Ten Minutes by Tractor. A rather unusual name, but the winery is owned by a family who had three separate vineyards that are--you guessed it--ten minutes apart by tractor. But don't let the name throw you off. They had some great wines and a beautiful, small fine dining restaurant overlooking the valley below. The woman at the cellar door was very nice and was telling us a lot about the wines--as we were the only customers we got to spend a bit more time tasting. In the end we walked away with a lovely Pinot Gris--which we don't normally go for, but this one was made in a more old world style, being put through malolactic fermentation thus it wasn't as acidic as Pinot Gris usually are. Happy with our purchase it was time to head on to the next place called Tuck's Ridge. 

Once again we were the only people in the cellar door and the guy working there was really nice. We ended up staying there for over an hour! At first we were talking about the wine, of which I think we tried 10 different ones, talking in depth about most of them, but the conversation slowly turned to working in the hospitality industry, in which he had a lot of experience, and eventually the conversation wound it's way to home redecorating and turning houses--which John and I did a fair bit of in New Hampshire. We had a great time! After about an hour a half another customer trickled in and that was a good stopping point for our tasting and we walked away with a nice Chardonnay---different than the ones we usually went for in New Zealand. 

After that, it was time for some lunch! We found a small bakery associated with one of the bigger wineries that specialized in gourmet pies and salad, so we got some food in our belies to soak up some of the alcohol and headed on!

The next stop was a cellar door that both John and I were familiar with--Paringa Estate--as both of the restaurants we had worked in had sold their wines. They were quite a well known winery and had won some awards, which unfortunately means their cellar door doesn't really care about a pair of travelers that come through. The cellar door was located at the edge of their restaurant where a few older couples were dining, and when I went to taste the woman handed me the tasting notes and I just selected the ones I wanted to try. And that was the end of that interaction. It's always good to be weary of the bigger wineries that think they are too big for their britches--I paid my tasting fee and was probably in and out within 5 to 10 minutes. Not memorable at all, nor do we intend to buy any Paringa Estate wine. 

Our last stop of the day was Port Phillip Estate. Apparently there is some wine guru in Australia who publishes this book every year of his top wines by varietal and top cellar doors, both Australia-wide and by region. This year Port Phillip was "Cellar Door of the Year" in Mornington Peninsula and the architecture of the building is also apparently something special. As we approached it looked like a giant white concrete building. There were these huge wooden doors with no knob and we weren't sure how to get in. Well as we approached, the doors opened on their own--fancy! The inside was also quite large--very industrial--but a nice view over their vines as well. There was just one girl in there working the cellar door, which was fine since we were once again the only customers in. She was nice and gave us the tasting options, though I was worried that this would be like the last place and she would want to get through as quickly as possible. Well, right after the first wine two young french guys walk in and they were both viticulturists visiting Australia. Their English wasn't spectacular so John helped to translate a bit and when the girl learned that they were viticulturists and John and I knew a lot more about wine than she thought--she really brought out the bottles! We ended up going through the tasting together with the other guys and since it was the end of the day the girl even had some with us. Apparently there had been some asian journalists in during the day and the winemaker had opened some bottles for them that were't usually for tastings and even had one opened that hadn't been released yet--and we got to taste them all! We spent a good 45 min to 1 hour at this place probably tasting 10-12 wines all together--and they were some VERY good wines. We walked away very happy with a fantastic Pinot Noir. 

All in all we had a great day and drove away with some very good wines, and great weather. Next up it was time to head a but further south to Phillip Island!