The Mornington Peninsula has a cool maritime climate because it is surrounded by water on three sides. There are around 60 wineries, mostly family owned. The area specializes in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Although there were vines in the 1800s, the current wine industry started in 1972. Because of the humidity there is not a lot of biodynamic or organic viticulture.

The first winery we visited was Moorooduc, which means swampy ground in the local indigenous language. This winery was established by Dr McIntyre and was planted in 1983. Despite his age of 77 he is still active in the winery, but his daughter Kate has taken over the reigns.

There is no phylloxera in the peninsula (yet), but most vines are grated anyway because of nematodes and the acidity of the soil. When we went for a stroll in the vineyards at Moorooduc, we had to disinfect our shoes with bleach anyway, to reduce the risk of introducing phylloxera.

Moorooduc applies biodynamic farming, including cover crops to improve the soil.

As insurance policy against climate change they have recently planted some Nebbiolo, after having made 2 bottles of Nebbiolo for a few vintages to prove that it can be made here.

All white wine is barrel fermented with wild yeast. The grapes are chilled before vinification and malolactic is performed. These are the wines we tasted:

• Estate Chardonnay 2022: citrus, subtle oak, young.
• The Moorooduc McIntyre Chardonnay 2021: oak, creamy, elegant, young.
• The Moorooduc McIntyre Chardonnay 2005: complex, stone fruit, creamy, beautiful, does not show its advanced age.
• Robinson Chardonnay 2012: complex, integrated oak, creamy, elegant, balance.
• Pinot Gris 2019 (no new oak): stone fruit, creamy, savory, balance.
• Pinot Gris 2014: golden, developed, savory, nice acidity.
• Pinot Gris On Skins 2022 (orange wine, 19 days on skins): rosé color, tannins, food wine.
• Pinot Noir 2020: light color, delicate, high acidity.
• Robinson Pinot Noir 2021 (destemmed, 15 months in French oak of which 20% new): red fruit, spicy, fresh.
• Robinson Pinot Noir 2015: I thought the acidity was too high, but others in our group liked this very much.
• The Moorooduc McIntyre Pinot Noir 2021 (most popular wine of the winery): restrained nose, still young, high acidity.
• Garden Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021 (whole bunch fermentation): herbaceous
• McIntyre Shiraz 2019: beautiful blackberry aroma, high acidity

The next winery we visited was Yabby Lake. The vineyard was planted in 1998, but the new winery was constructed in 2015. The winemaking here follows a different philosophy; malo is not performed but instead the wine is fermented with high solids to obtain a creamy texture, while preserving the natural acidity. Yabby Lake has 65% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. Whole bunch fermentation is applied to all the wines, for between 20% and 100%. Wines are aged for 12 months in French oak, of which 10-20% new.

At Yabby Lake we did vertical tastings of three wines:

• Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2022: oak, citrus, crisp
• 2018: mineral, developed, crisp
• 2014: mineral, developed, crisp
• Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022: candy, young, nice tannin
• 2018: herbaceous
• 2016: mineral, tannins more prominent
• Pinot Noir Block 2 2022: young, fruity, structure
• Block 1 2018: herbaceous, developed
• Block 5 2018: cherries, tannin, balance

Blocks are part of the same vineyard and are very close to each other, so it was interesting to taste the clear difference between Blocks 1 and 5 of the same vintage. Block 1 has a more sandy soil, whereas Block 5 has more clay.

The final winery we visited in the Mornington Peninsula was “Ten Minutes By Tractor”, where we first had lunch at Alli’s Wine Bar. We had the entry level Chardonnay (fresh and crisp) and Pinot Noir (soft and spicy) of Ten Minutes By Tractor to accompany the food:

• Tractor garden green salad with herb dressing
• Gruyere Gougères with truffle cream filling
• White and green asparagus with whipped potato, 62C/144F sous vide egg yolk, potato cream
• Crab crumpet
• Crispy potato, smoked crème fraìche, pickled onions
• Mushroom cream with puffed rice and pickled mushrooms
• Pork and duck terrine
• Chicken ravioli with mushrooms and tarragon

The “Ten Minutes By Tractor” winery was founded as a small co-operative by three families in 1997 that lived close by each other, 10 minutes by tractor. The first vintage was 2000. The winery was acquired by the current owner in 2004, who still releases single vineyard wines with the founding families’ names. More vineyards were added. They have 50% Pinot Noir and 35% Chardonnay. The Chardonnay receive only partial malolactic to retain natural acidity. No whole bunch fermentation. Here we tasted the following wines:

• Estate Chardonnay 2022: fresh, oak, high acidity
• McCutcheon Chardonnay 2022: stone fruit, high acidity
• Judd Chardonnay 2022: stone fruit, oak, high acidity
• Trahere Chardonnay 2021 (first release of the high-density vineyard planted in 2016 with 12,000 vines per hectare compared to the more usual 2,500 in Australia): stone fruit/peach, concentration, racy acidity.
• Estate Up the Hill Pinot Noir 2022: red fruit, elegant, high acidity
• Estate Down the Hill Pinot Noir 2022: restrained aroma, earthy, herbaceous, high acidity, more structure than Up the Hill
• Judd Pinot Noir 2022: red fruit, high acidity, soft tannins
• McCutcheon Pinot Noir 2022: savory, less acidic, more body, more tannins

This horizontal tasting of Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from the same vintage was very interesting. It was remarkable to notice the difference between McCutcheon and Judd, or between Uphill and Downhill, as these vineyards are less than a kilometer apart. The harvest Down the Hill is three weeks before Up the Hill. 

Our tour isn’t finished yet, but it seems to me that winemakers in Australia may have become too obsessed with acidity. Australian wines have the reputation to be too low on acidity, but so far I haven’t tasted a single wine with acidity that was too low. Quite the contrary: for my taste some of these wines are too acidic and would benefit from lowering the acidity (e.g. by malolactic fermentation). This is of course in some part due to the fact that our tour focuses on cool climate wine regions in Australia. And it is my personal opinion — not everyone in our group agrees with me.

We had some simple Greek food for dinner. It goes without saying there was Australian wine:

• Tim Adams Clare Valley Pinot Gris 2023
• Tim Adams Clare Valley Cabernet-Malbec 2018
• Helen’s Hill Yarra Beachley Block Chardonnay 2022
• Brini McLaren Vale Blewitt Springs Single Vineyard Shiraz 2018