Photo: Peter Foster, courtesy of Visit Victoria
Restaurant Merricks North
Doot Doot Doot
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
A multi-course dining experience at Jackalope Hotel, with a dramatic room and a seasonal menu.
Red Hill & Merricks
Merricks North
Merricks North is a small wine-country locality on the Mornington Peninsula's red-hill plateau, 80 km from Melbourne, home to Elgee Park, Baillieu, Stonier and other established cool-climate cellar doors.
Merricks North is wine country with a quieter accent than Red Hill and a longer pedigree than the Merricks village down the road. The roads here run between vineyards that were planted in the 1970s and 1980s - Elgee Park, Baillieu, Stonier - back when the Peninsula's cool-climate Pinot was an experiment most people did not believe in. The result is a small dense pocket of cellar doors with serious wines and almost no signage, hedged in by polo fields, horse studs, and one of the prettier country halls on the Peninsula. There is no town centre, no general store, and that is part of the point. Drive in for a slow cellar-door morning, lunch held at a vineyard restaurant, and an afternoon detour to the Merricks beach side if the weather allows. Stay nearby in Merricks or Red Hill; come here to drink.
The older, quieter half of the Peninsula's wine country - pioneer vineyards on quiet country lanes.
Is Merricks North the right base?
Who this place rewards - and who should keep driving
It's for
- wine lovers
- couples on a long lunch weekend
It's not for
- first-time Peninsula visitors
- anyone wanting beach proximity
Trying to fit five cellar doors into a day - Merricks North rewards three at a slower pace.
Merricks North in brief
Merricks North in 5 points
- 01 Merricks North is the older, quieter wine pocket above Merricks village - Elgee Park, Baillieu, Stonier and a polo field on a country road.
- 02 Best for: serious wine visitors; people who already know Red Hill and want something quieter.
- 03 Signature experience: three cellar doors and a long lunch over a Sunday, finished with a drive down to Point Leo for sunset.
- 04 Half a day for the wines; an overnight in Merricks or Red Hill rounds it out.
- 05 There is no village centre - choose your day around the cellar doors, not a main street.
A perfect day here
A day in Merricks North
Late-morning cellar door at Elgee Park, lunch at a vineyard restaurant, afternoon flight at Baillieu or Stonier, drive to Point Leo for sundown.
Many Merricks North cellar doors are weekend-only or by appointment - call ahead, especially if you are visiting outside school holidays.
- Editor's note
What's mapped here
Eat & drink
Where to eat and drink in Merricks North
Restaurants, cafés, bakeries, and pubs - each with an editor note, not a star rating.
See the editorial rankings → Best Restaurants on the Peninsula
Stay
Sleep in Merricks North
When a place has a workable bed attached, it stops being a stop and starts becoming a base.
Photo: Peter Foster, courtesy of Visit Victoria
Hotel Merricks North
Jackalope Hotel
166 Balnarring Rd, Merricks North VIC 3926
An art-led vineyard hotel in Merricks North, with Doot Doot Doot dining and room choices from Terrace to Lair.
See the editorial rankings → Best Places to Stay on the Peninsula
Use it in sequence
Escapes that already route through Merricks North
These plans have been written around the landscape here - not bolted on after.
Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove, Red Hill, Mornington Peninsula. Photo: Two Palms Australia, courtesy of Visit Victoria
Plan
Ridge to Sea: A Two-Night Peninsula Escape
Start in Red Hill wine country, finish at the southern tip, and let the weekend widen as it goes.
Plan
The Peninsula Golf Weekend
Two nights at Jackalope, one round at St Andrews Beach, vineyard meals and a short coastal alternative for non-golfers.
Read this place properly
Journal pieces connected to Merricks North
Long-form editorial that builds the picture of a place beyond any single visit.
Service 9 min
First Time on the Peninsula: The Honest Starter Guide
10 April 2026
You have never been to the Mornington Peninsula. You have a free weekend. You want to know what is actually good, what is overrated, and what the people who live here would tell you to do. This is that guide.
Service 8 min
How to Plan a Peninsula Weekend: The Decision Framework
10 April 2026
Stop googling. Start here. A step-by-step planning guide that turns 'we should go to the Peninsula' into an actual weekend, with the decisions in the right order.
Service 7 min
The Peninsula Birthday Weekend: A Two-Night Plan That Actually Feels Celebratory
16 April 2026
A milestone birthday deserves more than a booking at the usual restaurant. Here is the two-night Peninsula plan that lands the celebration properly: one memorable dinner, one surprising morning, and a stay that makes the whole thing feel earned.
Slow Peninsula 8 min
A Two-Night Peninsula Weekend for Two
10 April 2026
One memorable dinner, a long lunch and an afternoon with no agenda. A slower Mornington Peninsula weekend for two.
Planning guides
Service guides for your Merricks North trip
Long-form editorial that helps you build a weekend, not just a list of places.
Keep going
Nearby places worth knowing next
Because a Peninsula trip is always made up of two or three pockets, not one.
Red Hill · village
Main Ridge
Main Ridge is the highest part of the Peninsula wine country, and the most forgiving to pinot noir. A few degrees cooler than Red Hill proper, wetter in winter, and foggy on the right mornings - if you drew the perfect place to grow cool-climate grapes in Victoria, it would look something like this. There is no real village centre, just a crossroads, a hall, and a handful of the most serious cellar doors on the Peninsula scattered through ferny side roads. Main Ridge rewards people who want to understand wine country rather than just photograph it: the single-vineyard bottles from this sub-region are consistently among the region's best, the estates are small and run by the people who own them, and nobody is trying to sell you a wedding venue. Come for a morning tasting at one of the serious producers, then drive ten minutes in any direction for lunch.
Red Hill · village
Merricks
Merricks is where the Peninsula's wine country starts to feel private. There is almost no main street to speak of, just a low-slung hall, winding vineyard roads, and a cluster of estates and restaurants that reward people who know where to turn off. The light is softer here than in Red Hill proper and the bay feels unexpectedly close. It is one of the Peninsula's best places to stay if your idea of a weekend away means vines outside the window, lunch that goes too long, and very little noise.
Red Hill · village
Red Hill
On a misty basalt plateau above the Peninsula's central ridge, Red Hill has arranged some of the strongest food and wine in Victoria into a circuit that rewards the unhurried. A village by strict measure - a general store, a monthly market, vineyard restaurants that don't advertise from the highway - it nonetheless organises the whole upper Peninsula around itself. The winery restaurant cluster here - Ten Minutes by Tractor, Montalto, Paringa Estate, Principia - has no serious peer in the state. Come on Saturday; plan lunch first.
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On the map
Merricks North, by location
Every editorially verified pin in Merricks North on one screen - toggle a category, click any marker for the editor's note.
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