It doesn’t seem so long ago that the first wines from the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria first began to appear, yet there are now 118 vineyards scattered over this most curious of Australian wine regions. Curious because there are only a handful of wineries, intriguing because of the vast differences in soil, climate and aspect throughout the region, and fascinating because it is potentially one of the greatest wine districts on earth. It has taken so little a time for wine to become integral to the Peninsula’s image and lifestyle. Where even the lifeguards have Toorak accents, the slabs of Carlton Draught have been replaced by tasting packs from Dromana, Moorooduc and Red Hill. It’s difficult to find someone in the medical, legal or business communities in Melbourne who doesn’t at least know a Mornington Peninsula vigneron, given that they’re not related to one. Two acres of pinot noir or chardonnay seem to count for much more these days than the fifty-foot stinkboat off Sorrento. The single major Victorian wine region not to have a winemaking history last century, the Mornington Peninsula has mushroomed overnight. About eight hectares of vines were planted before 1900 near Hastings, but little remains of them or their fate. In the late ‘forties and ‘fifties Douglas Seabrook made several vintages from a vineyard planted at the base of Arthur’s Seat, but when interest waned, perhaps with the inherent viticultural difficulties of a cool, windy wine region, the vineyard was phased out. The real wine developments began in the early 1970s when Baillieu Myer was persuaded by David Wynn to convert part of his family’s Santa Gertrudis and quarter horse stud to a hobby vineyard, originally to meet the bibulous requirements of family and friends. Today Elgee Park is one of the principal, if one of the more enigmatic vineyards of the Mornington Peninsula. Credit for the Peninsula’s first winery goes to Nat and Rosalie White, who began planting Main Ridge Estate the same year they bought it, 1975. Main Ridge remains one of the smaller, but most sought-after of the Peninsula’s labels. Work commenced on the winery in 1980, just in time for the vineyard’s first vintage. Most of the best Mornington Peninsula wines have to date been made from chardonnay. Of all Australia’s cool-climate regions, the Peninsula’s chardonnay seems most to capture the ‘fatness’ of great white Burgundies, more so by far than the Yarra Valley. Mornington chardonnay can be elegant and sophisticated, with pristine peach/nectarine fruit and the scents of cashews and other roasted nuts. Its better makers usually give it a significant amount of new oak inside which it finishes its fermentation and is matured afterwards. Benchmark Peninsula chardonnays are those of Stonier’s Reserve, Dromana Estate and Massoni, while those of Main Ridge Estate and Moorooduc Estate present sophisticated integration of chardonnay fruit with traditional French influences of malolatic fermentation and lees contact after primary fermentation. It is certainly no accident that chardonnay is the region’s most widely planted variety. At its best, Peninsula pinot reveals delightful flavours of cherries and plums and a distinctive cinnamon-like spiciness, although many of the lesser examples show the excessive herbaceousness that suggests that their vineyard management is yet to come to grips with the local climate. Mornington Peninsula pinot noir still shows more promise than results in the bottle. That’s fair enough – it’s much harder to learn to make than chardonnay. Given that quality pinot noir is still a recent phenomenon in Australia and that our impressions of where it performs best are still a vintage-by-vintage proposition, Mornington Peninsula pinot noir is still a new kid in town. Its progress is measurable as its vines mature and as its growers and makers come to grips with its idiosyncrasies. The best things do take time. It’s my bet, however, that the Bellarine Peninsula (the Geelong side of Port Philip Bay) and the Yarra Valley will ultimately make better, fleshier pinot noir more regularly than the Peninsula. Nevertheless, as the score presently stands on the board, Peninsula pinots gather in two extremes – those that are lighter, simpler and clearly more fruit-driven and those which err excessively towards the tough and beefy, pumped up like a bodybuilder with tannins and phenolics in lieu of steroids. The best wines that take a middle course – such as Stonier’s Merricks, Dromana Estate, Massoni, Main Ridge, Moorooduc Estate and King’s Creek. Cabernet sauvignon will never be rated the Peninsula’s best grape. Growers are already grafting cabernet vines to other more suited varieties such as chardonnay and merlot. Certain heat trap-like sites apart, the area is simply too cool to enable cabernet sauvignon to ripen sufficiently to make the firm, astringent dry reds expected of it the world over. Peninsula cabernets, especially those from Red Hill and other cooler sub-districts, tend towards the lean and greenish and are frequently dominated by obvious greenish under-ripe flavours. The best – and rarest – avoid these qualities, as exemplified by a superlative Craig Avon Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve from 1990, easily the best Peninsula red wine I have tried. The most consistent cabernet maker is Stonier’s Merricks. The earlier-ripening merlot could easily surpass cabernet’s importance on the Peninsula. Shiraz is only rarely planted on the Peninsula, where it makes sweet, elegant reds at Merricks Estate and more muscular, peppery styles at Paringa Estate. It will not become an important Peninsula grape. Neither will riesling or sauvignon blanc, which tend to be thin and hard. Given the predominance of chardonnay and pinot noir in the region, sparkling wines could prove to be another jewel in the Mornington crown, although it is still too early to identify a regional style.
