Paul Scorpo's tightly focused family estate, one of the Peninsula's most acclaimed Pinot Gris alongside elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Known for Paul Scorpo Landscape Architect FounderBenchmark Pinot GrisBestia ChardonnayAppointment Cellar Door
Photo · Peninsula Insider
Why we’d goScorpo is the vineyard other Peninsula winemakers drink at home, the Pinot Gris alone warrants the appointment.
Scorpo is a landscape architect's vineyard, and it shows. Paul Scorpo planted the estate in 1997 on a gently sloping block between Merricks and Dromana, designed the layout himself, and has spent the years since building one of the most tightly focused family wine operations on the Peninsula. The range is deliberately small, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Rosé, and each of those bottles is taken unusually seriously.
The Pinot Gris is widely regarded as one of the best in the country: textural, phenolic, aged on lees long enough to carry real depth. The Bestia Chardonnay and the Estate Pinot Noir are the two bottles other Peninsula winemakers name when asked what they drink at home, which is the clearest possible indication of standing in a small, quality-conscious region.
Cellar door visits are by appointment. This is not a drop-in experience; it is a tasting room at a working estate for people who already know what they like and want to go deeper. Book ahead.
Worth knowing
If you only do one thing
Book the appointment tasting and ask to try the Pinot Gris alongside the Bestia Chardonnay, two of the Peninsula's most cited bottles in one sitting.
Works well with
Rare Hare at Willow Creek · Merricks Estate
Filed under Cellar DoorSlowSoloAll YearCouplesSolo
Not sure how to build a day around Scorpo Wines?
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.
6 April 2026
Not the biggest estates, not the flashiest rooms. The five Peninsula cellar doors where the wines - and the people pouring them - actually change how you think about the region.
9 April 2026
Everyone sells the Mornington Peninsula as a pinot noir region. They are half right. The quiet argument of the last three vintages is that the chardonnay is now the more interesting bottle on the table, and the one worth cellaring.
Nearby picks
51 Stanleys Rd, Merricks VIC 3916 · $$
A thoughtfully managed Merricks estate making elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that rewards the drive to find it.
89 Junction Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926 · $$
The Baillieu family's 1972 vineyard, the planting that started the modern Peninsula wine region, still in family hands, still making restrained Chardonnay and Viognier.
235 Stanleys Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937 · $$
Tom McCarthy and Lucas Blanck's new-school Peninsula label, lighter-style Pinot, approachable Chardonnay, and a cellar door that feels like a bar.
Build a day around this
Peninsula Insider guides that put this stop into the context of a full day or weekend.
Where to eat