Sandro Mosele has established himself as a tour de force on Mornington Peninsula, making better and better, ever more interesting Chardonnay wines, across a spectrum of sites and clone. Avail yourself of the entry level into the House of Kooyong, one of Australia's most artisanal Chardonnay specialists, fashioned to the big dry styles of Burgundy's magnificent Cote du Beaune. Exactingly crafted from an assemblage of fruit, hand picked and meticulously sorted, off the eminent Kooyong and Ballewindi vineyards.

Exclusively estate grown fruit, grown and vinified at the Karina wineworks in Dromana on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. Karina is a small family owned vineyard winery established in the early 1980s. Vines are all closely trimmed to allow direct exposure of berries to the Mornington sun, encouraging full ripeness and optimal development of natural fruit esters. The painstaking management of plantings and intensive regimen of prunings achieves harvests of the finest grapes, hand picked and hand sorted for realization of the most amazing Chardonnay wine.

Tucked away off the beaten track along Godings Road, a rustic barn offers fantastic vistas of the rolling Moorooduc countryside. The misty mornings and generous afternoon sunlight create a mesoclime which encourages the vines to yield small bunches of intensely flavoured Shiraz. The best bunches are identified, gently picked and gingerly sorted, destemmed and open fermented, hand plunged and filled to a mix of French oak barriques for malolactic and ten months élevage, bottled unfined for optimal sauvage appeal.

Jones Road have taken the trip from their digs at Mornington, to sow plantings of vine on the most propitous vistas in Yarra Valley. Grapes are hand picked off an exquisite single block of Sauvignon Blanc at Yarra Glen, sorted for quality and brought to the Sticks wineworks for vinification. A third of the wine is filled to French oak for completion of ferments and a term of repose on yeast lees. The judicious exposure to oak makes a muti dimensional Sauvignon Blanc of added palate richness, bright natural acidity keeps the finish, crisp and fresh.

Picked off a parcel which yields a superior harvest every year, a closely husbanded copse of vine that's been trained to produce a minimal crop of stellar quality Pinot Noir. Treated to a traditional course of indigenous open ferments, filled to a selection of seasoned and new French oak barriques for malolactic and eleven months élevage. Plenty of Pinosity for the enthusiast, character and complexity, spiced forest berries over a handsome layer of fine grained savoury tannins oak. Terrific balance and resolve, a lasting, impressive cherry stone finish.

Picked off a tally of vineyard blocks on the Jones Road property further down Mornington Peninsula, the fruit is treated to extended hang time for a fuller, luscious Pinot Gris. Vinified through the action of wild indigenous yeasts, without any crushing or destemming, a portion in seasoned French oak barriques. Artfully crafted and tastefully assembled, a savoury sauvage style, the palate reveals a delicious core of flower blossom and apple nut flavours, unravelling more spice complexity as it finishes, engaging, amenable and urbane.

Tucked away off the beaten track, an ancient barn at Jones Road offers fantastic vistas of the rolling Moorooduc countryside. But the converted piggery is not just about sightseeing. The neighbouring Grange and Nepean Blocks deliver small but splendid harvests of intense Chardonnay grapes with superb flavour development and bright natural acidity. The team aim to capture all the classic Mornington Peninsula grapefruit, peach and nectarine fruit characters, retaining all the freshness whilst adding complexity and texture throughout the vinification process.

After decades of managing vineyards and making wine, Crittenden have formed strong and enduring relationships with Victoria's best growers. Geppetto is a blend of Pinot Noir clones MV6 and 114, 115 and D2V5, all picked by hand from good vineyards in Sunbury and Geelong, Tuerong and Patterson Lakes. Geppetto is judiciously aged in barrels of seasoned oak, the style is intentionally made for early enjoyment, increased vine age and gentle processing makes a wine that articulates the vitality of Victorian Pinot Noir.

Hand tended vines yielding harvests of hand sorted fruit to be vinified into hand made wines is the Foxey's Hangout way. After two decades of operating award winning Melbourne restaurants, Michael and Tony Lee followed their hearts to a property on Merricks North near the conspicuous Mornington junction at Foxeys Hangout. The brothers planted their first vines in 1997 and later assumed management of the eminent Massoni Vineyard. Red Fox is crafted by the Lee Brothers to be eminently drinkable upon release, in the most profoundly Mornington Pinot Noir way.

Elgee Park is the oldest vineyard on the Mornington Peninsula. The picturesque property is situated at the end of Wallaces Road, amidst the protected gentle hills of Merricks North, one of the warmest sites on the peninsula. Established in 1972 by Baillieu Myer and family, the five hectare property was the first in a new era of distinguished Mornington vineyards. The splendid maritime conditions which surround the vines are so very similar to that of Bordeaux. Limited quantities of exceptional wine are released each year under the Family Reserve label.

As a key figure in the establishment of Mornington viticulture, Garry Crittenden was instrumental in forging for the Peninsula the reputation as a distinguished producer of distinctive, regional wines. From the outset, Crittenden recognized the area's climatic suitability to Pinot Noir, exploiting it through meticulous land management and sophisticated vinification techniques. Fashioned from a mix of Pinot Noir clones, including MV6, 114 and 115, all grapes are hand picked off an auspicious north facing slope at Tuerong.

The Messrs Buckle and Drummond source parcels from a neighbouring vineyard that's planted to warmer climes. Whinstone yields a Pinot of structure, clarity and length, it shares a remarkable kinship with its estate sibling's, brightly lit translucence of fruit.

An essential inclusion into many of Champagne's most prestigious marques, Pinot Meunier is rarely seen as a pure varietal. Mornington has seen over thirty vintages of this bespoke, esoteric wine, redolent of red berries, violets and spice, an experience not to be missed by all adherents of the abstruse, artisanal style. Circe craft a Pinot Meunier of structure, clarity and length, it shares a remarkable kinship with her patent sibling's brightly lit translucence of cherry, sasafras fruit. Match your Meunier with lamb, rare breast of duck, or terrine of offal, walnut dressing and thyme.

Dan Buckle and Aaron Drummond are Mornington born and bred. They work at the illustrious Mt Langi Ghiran but find time to share the husbandry on a precious three acre vineyard on an elevated northeast ridge at Red Hill South. The Messrs Drummond and Buckle take a decidedly Burgundian approach to processing their Pinot Noir, ferments of exclusively whole bunches are foot stomped over the course of a week before filling to small oak casks. Structured and eloquent, pastoral and intense, small batch, superior vineyard Mornington Pinot at its finest.

The chilly early mists, exhilerating maritime breezes and undulating terroirs of Mornington are heaven sent for the realization of Burgundy styled Chardonnay wines. Half the plantings at Hillcrest Road are Chardonnay, one and a half acres of a single clone, originally intended for an elite sparkling Cuvee. Such is the quality of fruit, its remarkable concentration of flavour and flawless acidity, choice parcels are set aside for a pure varietal wine. Structured, seamless and intense, single vineyard block Mornington Chardonnay of the highest order.

Hillcrest Road was established to one and a half hectares I10V clone Chardonnay in 1993, with a view to creating a limited release, flagship Mornington sparkling Cuvée. Over two decades later, the cosseted vines are yielding a harvest of the most exquisitely balanced fruit, intensely tropical in nature, invigorate by the most refined chalky acidity. Treated to the luxury of full Methode traditioneele, an extravagant three years bottle maturation and remuage on yeast lees, brimming with the finest mousse and articulating the opulence of autolysis richness.

Welcome to one of the highest elevation vineyards on Mornington Peninsula, a place of chilly nights and frosty mornings, followed by balmy days of ample sunshine, a confluence of climes which make the site ideal for slowly ripened, fully flavoured Pinot Noir. The finest picks off the best rows of vine are set aside each year for Reserve, redolent of autumnal forest floor, brimming with cherries and ripe red currant, the high altitudes and brisk climes infuse minerality and seamlessness of tannin. Silky and complex, an elegant elocution of a very special place.

After founding Mornington's eminent Moorooduc Estate and contract winemaking for Mornington's leading brands, Richard McIntyre established a small family operated vineyard, with a view to producing limited yields of the most exquisite small batch wines. A single estate parcel of dry grown Pinot Gris at Main Ridge is hand picked and fastidiously sorted before being treated to a minimalist vinification. The inclusion of a dash Gewurztraminer infuses wonderfully delicate perfumes, candied pear and autumnal spice, a mouth filling style of juicy, creamy ripeness.

Bellingham Estate's Main Ridge vineyards are dry grown and planted to mature, low yielding vines, a wonderful accord of auspicious microclimes and exacting viticulture which creates the most intensely flavoured Mornington Pinot Noir. Hand picked grapes are treated to a cold maceration and wild yeast ferments in open fermenters, followed by a term of age in a mix of seasoned and new French oak barrels. A delicate Pinot Noir of ripe red cherry and freshly milled spice, layered with fine savoury fruit characters and supported by a weave of seamless, velvet tannins.

Bellingham's closely coddled block at Main Ridge yields a quality of Chardonnay which articulates the expression of a very special site. Hand picked fruit is whole bunch pressed and barrel fermented in a mix of new and seasoned French oak, followed by a traditional regimen of lees stirring and shrewd course of partial malolactic. The judiciousness of restrained oak encourages delicate white peach and subtle florals to emerge, a light toastyness and vanilla pod characters in support of juicy stone fruits, finish seamlessly on a length of perfectly pitched citrus acid.