The Peninsula's pioneering estate, four decades of Crittenden family winemaking, Pinot, Chardonnay, and the Spanish-Italian Los Hermanos range from a new lakeside wine centre.
Known for Founded 1982 by Garry CrittendenLos Hermanos Italian-Spanish RangeLakeside Wine CentreSecond-Generation Winemaker Rollo
Photo · Peninsula Insider
Why we’d goOne of the founding estates of the Peninsula, now surprising visitors with Italian and Spanish varieties nobody else on the Peninsula grows.
Crittenden is one of the founding estates of the Peninsula wine region, Garry Crittenden planted the first vines in 1982 and the property has stayed in the family for four decades, now under second-generation winemaker Rollo. That history matters, but it is not why you drive here. You drive here because the Crittenden line-up is one of the few on the Peninsula that genuinely surprises people: alongside textbook Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Rollo has built out the Los Hermanos range, Savagnin, Arneis, Nebbiolo, working with Spanish and Italian varieties that barely exist anywhere else in the region.
The new Wine Centre, completed recently, sits beside the lake at the heart of the estate and is designed for proper seated tastings rather than elbow-to-elbow counter pours. Pair a flight with the lakeside Crittenden Restaurant next door for one of the most complete half-days in Dromana. Open daily for tastings; book for the restaurant.
Ask the team to walk you through the skin-contact and amphora-aged experiments, it is where the second generation is clearly stretching out.
Part of Crittenden Estate
Worth knowing
If you only do one thing
Ask the team to walk you through the skin-contact and amphora-aged experiments, it is where the second generation is clearly stretching out.
Works well with
Crittenden Restaurant · Small Stone Pantry
Filed under Cellar DoorWaterfrontSlowAll YearCouplesGroupFirst Timers
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Ask The InsiderIn the journal
These pieces give you the context a listing page never does — the when, the why, and the who-it’s-for.
10 April 2026
The drive to make on your first visit, or the one to send a friend on when you are out of time to explain why you keep coming back. Coffee, ridge, hinterland, ocean, village, bay - in that order, in four hours.
16 April 2026
The vines coming back into leaf, the back beaches at their cleanest, the cellar doors quiet enough to actually talk to the winemakers, and the first warm afternoons of the year. The case for coming down in spring, before everyone else remembers to.
Nearby picks
25 Harrisons Rd, Dromana VIC 3936 · $$
Lakeside dining under a vine-strung pergola at one of the Peninsula's founding wineries, now Crittenden Restaurant under Head Chef Brunno Melo.
121 Point Nepean Rd, Dromana VIC 3936 · $$
Sprawling beachfront pub with an enormous deck and bay views, the straightforward bayside pub day done correctly.
220 Mornington-Flinders Rd, Red Hill VIC 3937 · $$
A quieter Dromana-side estate making honest, characterful wines, Viognier, Sangiovese, and Pinot alongside the Peninsula classics.
Build a day around this
Peninsula Insider guides that put this stop into the context of a full day or weekend.
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