Winery Merricks
Baillieu Vineyard
51 Stanleys Rd, Merricks VIC 3916 · $$
A thoughtfully managed Merricks estate making elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that rewards the drive to find it.
Merricks Estate
A small, long-standing Merricks estate making one of the Peninsula's rare serious Shiraz programs alongside Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Known for Serious Peninsula ShirazPlanted 1977 by George KeffordFamily-Run EstateCool-Climate Rhône Style
Photo · Peninsula Insider
Why we’d goMerricks Estate is one of the Peninsula cellar doors that has resisted all temptation to grow, small, family-run, and home to a Shiraz program that predates the Peninsula's current reputation.
Merricks Estate is one of those Peninsula cellar doors that has resisted all temptation to grow. George and Jacky Kefford planted the estate in 1977 on a windswept block close to Western Port, one of the coolest, most exposed positions in the region, and the estate is still small, still family-run, and still committed to the same short line-up of wines: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and, unusually for the Peninsula, a serious Shiraz.
The Shiraz is the conversation piece. Only a handful of Peninsula producers take the variety seriously; Merricks Estate has done so for four decades and the bottlings are distinctive, peppery, cool-climate, closer in spirit to the northern Rhône than to the Barossa. The tasting room is quiet and unvarnished, the pour is generous, and the whole visit feels like stepping slightly off the main cellar-door circuit.
Go on a weekday for the quietest experience. Buy a bottle of the Shiraz. Drink it with winter lamb.
Worth knowing
- Best for
- Cellar door visits · Wine lovers · Couples
If you only do one thing
Ask about the Shiraz, buy a bottle and drink it with winter lamb.
Works well with
Merricks General Wine Store · Kerri Greens
Filed under Cellar DoorSlowAutumnWinterCouplesSolo
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