Crittenden Estate winery, Mornington Peninsula: The new style of wine tourism

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This was published 8 years ago

Crittenden Estate winery, Mornington Peninsula: The new style of wine tourism

By Belinda Jackson
Wine tasting at Crittenden Wine estate.

Wine tasting at Crittenden Wine estate.

Six gleaming wine glasses are sitting in front of me. Empty. Expectant. Waiting.

Instinctively, I roll up my sleeves, though it's still only Tuesday. You'd think we'd be the only ones in here tasting wine at 11am, but there are three well-dressed ladies at the next table and a younger couple at another.

Sitting opposite me is the man who does this for a living. Second-generation winemaker Rollo Crittenden has stepped out of the shed and into Crittenden Estate's new, high-tech wine centre to explain the chic tables, the smooth patter and the flight of glasses in front of us.

Crittenden Wine estate offers alfresco opportunities alongside its inside comforts.

Crittenden Wine estate offers alfresco opportunities alongside its inside comforts.

For 15 years, Crittenden had a cellar door in the old barrel style – you'd stand at the bar, chat with the server, quaff a few tastes and grab a bottle for the road. If it was busy, there would be a bit of jostling for pole position.

"We've refined the idea of the cellar door," says Rollo, who believes Crittenden's wine centre is the new model for wine tourism in Australia. It's about education and experimentation, and slows down the pace so you can learn about the skill of transforming a bunch of grapes into the Pinocchio (Italian, obviously) and Los Hermanos (Spanish) labels or the premium Cri de Coeur ("Cry of the Heart").

"It's not intimidating," says the wine centre's manager, Clayton, of the new style, which was modelled by South African wineries. And yes, there is a spittoon available, though nobody seems to be using it.

Rollo and Garry Crittenden.

Rollo and Garry Crittenden.

Clayton smoothly arrays those expectant glasses and detects my predilection for anything white, except sauvignon blanc, and lighter reds. Crittenden put down roots – literally – 26 years ago, one of the first on the Mornington Peninsula to do so. As we're chatting, the gardener pops in and says, "G'day". He's an extremely modest gardener: Garry Crittenden planted his experimental Italian varietals here in 1982, and planted Australia's first arneis​ grape in 1996. Today he'd have you believe his sole focus is the lush hanging flower gardens, but he also fits in running the winemaking operations with son Rollo. Crittenden is a family affair.

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"This used to be my old bedroom, and here was mine and Zoe's rumpus room," says Rollo with a laugh and a wave at the glassed in, private tasting room and the smart bar that displays the estate's Spanish-style labels, modelled on old sardine tins. Sister Zoe does Crittenden's marketing and wife Linda runs the estate's three little Lakeside Villas. "And we grow the grapes, we make the wine, we sell it ourselves," he says.

But back to the task in hand: there are 26 wines up for tasting, from the bubbly moscato to a brawny nebbiolo. The estate yields about 20 per cent of the wine. The rest is sourced from around the peninsula or from sub-regions like Heathcote, and all the juice is brought and made here.

The wine selection on offer at Crittenden Wine estate.

The wine selection on offer at Crittenden Wine estate.

The new catchphrase of this style of wine tourism is "personalised, tutored wine tasting", and I'm a willing student. I reckon I know my way around a bottle, but I have to pull Rollo back to explain the Homeaje, the Verdejo and the Oggi, which means "today" in Italian, the label they use for their own experimental blends each year.

Traditionally, the joke goes, winemaking on the peninsula was a tax dodge for Toorak's doctors, but the last decade has seen a dramatic transition. "The increase in quality has been monumental," says Rollo, who loves the challenge of creating pinot noir, the peninsula's fickle, signature grape. "You need to softly, softly coax it into the bottle," he says.

The natural order of Crittenden Estate is this: taste and learn in the wine centre. Make an educated choice to accompany lunch in Stillwater Restaurant, 20 steps away. Eat till rotund then amble round the lake's edge to the Lakeside Villas, 50 steps away. Retire to the balcony for a pick-me-up, watched by an army of porcine ducks patrolling the lake, which shimmers in the late afternoon sunshine.

Lunch is ridiculously decadent (remember, it's still just Tuesday). We kick off with Australian prawns and Portuguese Ortiz anchovies before getting serious with duck, heirloom tomatoes and goat's cheese. There's sheep's yoghurt fool with figs and a hardcore chocolate nemesis that should come with a diabetic warning. There's no driving, so why not call for another glass of the estate's Pinocchio pinot grigio?

The small girl in the party is feted with a colouring-in and sticker bag, penne bolognaise and bags of bread to feed beady-eyed ducks, which are now most likely too fat to swim. Perhaps implement a foie gras program?

The totter to the Lakeside Villas takes two minutes, nowhere near enough to justify that lunch, so I give up trying. Each villa has one king bedroom hanging over the lake, a wall of glass affording a serene wake-up call. Decorated in soft greys with pops of yellow, it looks out to the vineyards, cloaked in fine, white netting draped like a bride's veil over the precious pinot grapes.

Are you surprised to learn that the kitchen has a full compendium of wine glasses? There's a barbecue on the balcony and a wood fire that doesn't need lighting this late summer's eve. We could have a hit on the tennis court, we could drive 10km to Ten Minutes by Tractor, the peninsula's only two-hatted restaurant, for dinner. But we've already raided Red Hill Epicurean for some local cheese and a bottle of Crittenden's sparkling slips away with the sun.

FIVE OTHER WINE AND FOOD FEASTS

1. Merricks General Store has been feeding the locals since 1924. Take a seat beneath the vines on the deck for a sophisticated lunch and finish up with a tasting of Elgee Park, Baillieu and Quealy wines – the store doubles as a cellar door for the three labels. Make time to shop the local produce; see mgwinestore.com.au.

2. Cafe crawl along Dromana's foreshore: stock up on cannoli in Paino Bakery, Middle Eastern eats at Dee's Kitchen or pull up a pew at eclectic The Alley Espresso for a coffee and slice. Two Buoys is prime for people-watching, tapas and adventurous wines.

3. Grab a takeaway brew from the happy kids in the brightly painted Cafe del Sol caravan at Safety Beach and walk the seaside track 1km to Provincia for gelati.

4. Get formal in Terminus, the dining room at the slick Flinders Hotel, or chill on the kid-friendly Deck – both menus are from the hand of Algerian chef Pierre Khodja; see flindershotel.com.au. Afterwards, pop across the road to shop Flinders Sourdough.

5. If you've ever picked strawberries at Sunny Ridge at Main Ridge, see the next generation next door at Rebello making feted ciders and Strawbellini (a blend of strawberry wine and moscato); rebellowines.com.au.

TRIP NOTES

GETTING THERE

Dromana is an hour's drive from Melbourne CBD on the new Peninsula link motorway.

STAYING THERE

Crittenden Estate, Harrisons Rd, Dromana, (03) 5981 8322, www.crittendenwines.com.au.

EATING THERE

Stillwater Restaurant serves lunch daily, and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, (03) 5981 9555, www.stillwateratcrittenden.com.au.

DRINKING THERE

A flight of five tastings (one standard drink) costs between $8-$12, refundable on a purchase of three wines.

The writer was a guest of Crittenden Estate.

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