Exploring Mornington Peninsula wineries and produce

09 Jul Exploring Mornington Peninsula wineries and produce

We opened our eyes to a morning in Rosebud yesterday. We had come down to celebrate a friend’s birthday at the Peninsula Hot Springs and thought we would make a weekend of it, at a friend of a friend’s holiday home in Rosebud. After breakfast, we made plans to visit some farmer’s markets and then hop around some Mornington Peninsula wineries and perhaps visit a dairy and strawberry farm.
Unfortunately, for us, both the farmer’s markets we visited were not on! Perhaps they are a monthly thing. We visited the Boneo market and the Rye foreshore market, but no dice!

Then, we abandoned this plan and started to search for wineries. There were six of us in two cars, so there was a bit of chaos (and a few Race Around the World jokes) until we decided to visit Ten Minutes by Tractor, about 20 minutes away.
They were able to fit us in for a wine tasting and we sipped on Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, two Chardonnay varieties and two Pinot Noir varieties. They were really lovely. Highly recommended. I think my favourite was the Estate Pinot Noir, and the Pinot Gris was tasty too, but as my friends were saying, it really depends on your individual palate.

The ambience of this cellar door was very cosy, with an intensely beautiful architecturally designed skylight, surrounded by lovely wood panelling, a roaring log fire and a beautiful view of the vineyards.
The name Ten Minutes by Tractor came from the founding vigneron whose vineyards were close by. They decided to join forces and named the company after the time between the individual vineyards – It takes them then minutes by tractor between each vineyard.

Inside the space were watercolour sketches showing maps of each of the four collaborative vineyards and the grapes grown in each space. The Sauvignon Blanc was actually a last release as they had ripped up the grape vines and replaced them with a Chardonnay varietal. If I had bought one bottle, it might have been the Sauvignon Blanc!

Searching for lunch without a booking on the Mornington Peninsular winery trail!

Our next stop was T-Gallant who could not accommodate us for lunch (apparently their wood-fired pizza is amazing), so we went to the Rocky Creek Strawberry Farm for a spot of lunch.

After this, we went to the Main Ridge Dairy. It was a lovely farm with goats roaming around at the entrance and native wildflowers at the entrance of their shop/ restaurant. We had the tasting plate, which was very yummy, but made me exceptionally sick a few hours later. (If you have a lactose intolerance- be warned)!

Then our group split in two and the others went to the Mock Hill Cider cellar door, which sounded amazing.

I left my friends at Rosebud, contemplating an evening of games, wood-fired pizza, wine, more cheese and chocolate. I feel like the Mornington Peninsula is a wonderful place to visit. Especially to celebrate a special birthday. And I can’t wait to go back! There are so many Mornington Peninsula wineries that would be fun to explore. And next time, I plan to book! It was a bit of a different experience to the Bass Coast wineries – with more need to plan ahead, but nice in a different way. Enjoy!