The Mornington Peninsula is one of the key wine regions of Victoria, Australia. And if you’re looking for a spot to visit that’s close enough to Melbourne for a day trip, it’s the perfect choice. Not only does it have incredible wineries to explore, it’s also located right near the coast. So you can enjoy wine, the ocean and beautiful cooler temperatures. This guide to the Mornington Peninsula unpacks what to see and do when you visit this incredible wine region. From which cellar doors to add to your trip to where to stay and where to eat. So let’s jump into everything you need to know about visiting the Mornington Peninsula.
Guide to the Mornington Peninsula: overview of the region
The Mornington Peninsula might not be as well known as other Australian wine regions worldwide, but it is a premier cool climate region nestled in the South of Victoria. It’s only around a one-and-a-half-hour drive from Melbourne, making it a great spot for a day trip, just like its neighbour the Yarra Valley. But in Mornington, there is more to do than drink wine, as there are some beautiful coastal towns across the Peninsula to visit too. So even if you don’t love wine, there is plenty to see and do.
The main area for wineries in the Mornington Peninsula is Red Hill which is located above the coast. The red clay soils in most of the area make for awesome wines, and the maritime influence along with cooler temperatures make it the perfect spot for growing cool climate varieties. It’s known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but you will also find plenty of other varieties, including more traditional wines like Syrah and Pinot Gris as well as alternative varietals.
The great thing about the Mornington Peninsula wineries is that there aren’t many on a commercial scale. A lot of the wineries are family-owned, which provides a more intimate experience at the cellar door. This also shines through in the quality of the wines they produce.
How to get to the Mornington Peninsula
Mornington is located quite close to Melbourne itself, so you have a few options for visiting.
As it is a day trip out of Melbourne, you can easily do a day tour out of Melbourne (which I have done previously), with a tour company or private driver. You won’t see everything in one day, but a lot of the wineries are close to one another so you can still cover a bit of ground.
Alternatively, the best way to see Mornington is to have a car. This way you can drive between the sights, and also get there and back easily. We hired a car for the four days we were there and it was the perfect way to see what we wanted to see.
Where to stay
The Mornington Peninsula has plenty of options when it comes to accommodation, and I highly recommend staying a night or two to get the best experience out of your trip. There are so many cozy cottages and nice BnBs to enjoy.
In the past, we’ve stayed at AirBnBs and had a great time. They are often centrally located and have great amenities such as fireplaces and breakfast hampers. This is also a great option if you’re visiting in a group.
However, if you want to up the ante on your stay, I highly recommend staying at one of the luxury hotels available. On this trip, we splurged and stayed at the Jackalope Hotel which was an experience in itself. With 2 restaurants, a cellar door, a cocktail bar, a pool and a spa, there is so much to enjoy at the hotel itself. It isn’t cheap, but you get a lot of inclusions like cellar door tastings, breakfast, mini bar and unlimited popcorn and ice cream delivered to your room! I highly recommend staying here if you have a special occasion or want something more luxurious. But if you don’t want to spend that much, there are plenty of affordable options.
Guide to the Mornington Peninsula: Where to eat
It wouldn’t be a guide to the Mornington Peninsula without looking at where to eat. So here are some of my favourites from our trip.
Doot Doot Doot
Doot Doot Doot is the hatted restaurant at Jackalope Hotel and worth a visit if you’re after a special occasion restaurant. It is a set menu with plenty of extras in between, and a delicious experience. You get to choose your entree, main and dessert from their seasonal menu and everything is so tasty. Even my husband who isn’t usually a fan of fine dining loved this restaurant, so if it can turn him around then it’s sure to be a hit with you!
Another awesome thing about this restaurant is the fit-out. Above the dining area, 10,000 lightbulbs have been designed to look like champagne, with intermittent light shining through. It’s so mesmerising and adds a little to the experience.
Rare Hare
Rare Hare is also located at Jackalope, but it is more casual. It’s connected to their winery and offers a range of shared plates to enjoy. Each dish was delicious with everything from a salumi selection to beautiful Asian-inspired duck legs. The food is pretty well-priced and quite filling, so it’s a great option for lunch or dinner. It’s also a great option for groups as you can share the dishes and try a few different things. During the day it has a lovely view over the vineyard.
Stillwater at Crittenden Estate
Stillwater offers a 2 or 3-course menu where you select what you want to eat alongside a great wine list of wines from the local area as well as internationally. The food was tasty and the view was stunning out over the lake. It’s also more reasonably priced than some of the other set menus in the area, so a great choice if you don’t want to spend too much on a nice lunch.
Montalto
Montalto has two options for dining, and we chose to eat at the Piazza. Although they do have a restaurant with more formal dining, the Piazza is a la carte and has a good selection of snacks, meals and pizzas. It’s a great option if you’re looking for something more casual. It’s got a lovely view of the garden and the vineyard along with their sculpture park. Then you can head up to the tasting room after lunch.
Guide to the Mornington Peninsula: Cellar doors
There are so many cellar doors to visit in Mornington, and we hardly scratched the surface in the few days we were there. But I wanted to highlight some of our favourite cellar doors that we visited in no particular order to help you plan your trip.
Stonier
Stonier was the first winery we visited on our trip and we loved it. Stonier has been around for many years and was sold to a larger commercial company a few years ago, but recently it was bought back by local families who want to make it even better than before.
We were lucky enough to be shown around by winemaker Julian who told us about his ambition to make high-quality wines with “deliciousness” in mind – because that’s what has us going back for another glass! His passion for his wines and the winery shone through, and it’s amazing to see what they’ve achieved in such a short time trying to shift the winery back to smaller, high-quality production.
The cellar door for Stonier is beautiful with plenty of indoor and outdoor seating, and lots of choices of wines to try. I loved exploring the different Chardonnay’s and Pinot’s they had available. You could taste the difference across the range whether it was from different sites or different winemaking. I highly recommend visiting to experience these beautiful wines for yourself.
Ocean Eight
We visited Ocean Eight when we first visited Mornington in 2016, and so it was great to go back this year. And I have to say it had gotten even better (starting from a high base of our first visit). We loved every single wine we tried, and it was so hard to pick what we wanted that we ended up getting some shipped home.
Ocean Eight is a smaller cellar door and boutique winery focused on high-quality wines. Their selection focuses on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris, and every wine is exceptional. The cellar door is also beautiful, located in a repurposed barn that serves to welcome you when you first drive in. This is a must-visit in Mornington!
Quealy Wines
I’d never visited Quealy Wines before and we had a great time at the cellar door. Any cellar door that treats you to freshly baked focaccia is right in my books, and I have to say it went perfectly with the wines.
They have a great range of wines with something for everyone, from some skin contact experimental drops to classic Chardonnay and plenty of Pinot Noir. One of the most surprising wines we tried was a Pinot, Sangiovese and Shiraz blend which really knocked our socks off! It was so complex and delicious.
The customer service was some of the best of the trip and a highlight. We learnt so much about the winery and the different wines at our tasting, and it was a great experience all around.
Avani
Avani was another winery I hadn’t visited before, and I was so glad it was recommended to me to visit this time around. We were taken through the wines by Shashi Singh the winemaker whose passion for wine shone through. You can tell she loves what she does, and is proud of the wines. And rightly so, because they are delicious wines! One of the highlights for us was the Syrah which is grown on the property. It was the best we tried on our trip. But I also loved trying the different Pinot Gris they have (if you love orange wine one of them will be your jam for sure), and the Chardonnay which blew my mind.
I loved visiting this family-run winery and meeting Shashi. It was so special to be taken through her wines and have a chat about her journey. I highly recommend visiting to try her awesome and delicious wines!
10 minutes by Tractor
Although 10 Minutes by Tractor has been around for many years, we had never visited their cellar door before as the last time we were in the area they’d had a fire on the property which forced them to shut down. So it was great to revisit the refurbished cellar door and try the wines.
This cellar door is one of the fancier ones in Mornington and has a beautiful design inside and out. They have a couple of tasting options, and we opted for the estate tasting which gave you a good feel for their range of wines. I loved trying their different Chardonnay’s and Pinot’s side by side.
If you want more than a tasting, this cellar door also has a restaurant which is meant to be fantastic, as well as a recently opened wine bar.
Crittenden Estate
We’ve visited Crittenden Estate before, and it was great to visit again. Their main tasting offers 6 wines, and although they recommend 6, you can usually choose from their entire list in case you’d like to try something else. What I loved about this tasting was how interactive it was. We spoke about how much we loved Chardonnay, and then we got to try all of their chardonnays to see the difference between them. We tried more than 6 wines which was great, especially as they have so many wines to choose from.
What I love about Crittenden is that they have traditional varieties but also have a lot of Spanish and Italian wines to try. So there are plenty of wines to discover that you might not find elsewhere.
Polperro
Polperro is famous for its restaurant, but it also has a very moody cellar door at the back of the restaurant which is worth visiting. We had one of the winemakers take us through the great range. He was willing to have a good chat about the wines and share his knowledge with us throughout the tasting. Unfortunately, the tasting is not refundable on purchase, but I feel like it’s worthwhile as you do learn so much about the wines that you are tasting.
Polperro has two ranges: Polperro and Even Keel, and it’s great to experience the difference between them. They have traditional varieties but then some different wines to try such as a Fume Blanc and Tumbarumba Chardonnay.
The only disappointing thing is that the cellar door doesn’t look out over the beautiful garden and vineyard. But you can easily pop over there once you do your tasting.
Montalto
I mentioned Montalto is great for lunch, but it also is a great spot to do a wine tasting. They have a lovely tasting room that overlooks the vines and an extensive tasting that they seem to customise based on your preferences. We got to try some great Chardonnay’s and Pinot Noir’s from their different ranges, as well as some of the other more alternative varieties. My favourite was their Pinot Gris which had oak influence giving it structure and texture.
Guide to the Mornington Peninsula: Things to do
Point Leo Estate Sculpture Park
Point Leo Estate is a bit of a destination with two restaurants, a wine bar, and a cellar door on site. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to fit in for a tasting as they were too busy, but we were able to head to their other attraction: the sculpture park. For $15 you can walk around their curated sculpture park which has artwork from global artists dotted around it along with a stunning view of the ocean. Whether you like art or not it’s a nice way to get out and about for a lovely walk.
And the best part? You can grab a glass of wine from the cellar door to walk around with. Nothing beats having a walk in the sunshine with a glass of fantastic Chardonnay in hand!
Mornington Peninsula Hot Springs
There are two thermal hot springs to visit in Mornington, both located near one another and around a 30-minute drive from the main Red Hill winery area. We opted to go to the Peninsula Hot Springs because we’d been before, and were pleasantly surprised that it had expanded since we visited.
The Peninsula Hot Springs is sort of like a theme park of hot springs. You wander around in between beautifully sculpted pools, each with different temperatures and health properties. I loved exploring all the different pools and rooms, one of the weirdest being the sauna and ice room combination. I can’t say I’ve ever been in an ice room before, but it was quite the experience going from a sauna into freezing temperatures!
Your entry fee isn’t timed so you can stay for as long as you want, and there’s also a spa if you’d like to get a massage to up the relaxation. But the hot springs are the perfect way to enjoy some downtime.
In summary: Guide to the Mornington Peninsula
Whether you’re planning a day trip or a few days away, I hope this guide to the Mornington Peninsula helps you plan the perfect trip. There’s something for everyone whether you love food, wine, relaxation or a bit of everything. So make sure you put this Victorian wine region on your list for the perfect wine weekend away!