Sorrento Sunset 7:27 PM Case 02 is open · Play
Spring Insider · October 2026 Spring 2026
A local point of view.
A Peninsula worth knowing.
PlayWhere in the Peninsula is PI?
She’s out again.
Case 02: Took the long way to dinner. Ask the locals, read the land, find her before sunset. Find her and go in the draw for $250 to dine at Doot Doot Doot, Jackalope.
Free to play, no account.
Single-vineyard pinot noir and chardonnay from one of the Peninsula's most decorated estates.
Known for Halliday Top Winery AustraliaNamed Single-Block Vineyard ProgramHaven, Meres, Ferrous, Faultline Blocks98-Point Winery Rating
Kooyong · Main Ridge Why we’d goThe single-block tasting is a practical education in why micro-terroir matters, side-by-side pinot noirs from adjacent slopes that actually taste different from each other.
Kooyong is the Peninsula's most consistently serious producer of single-vineyard wine, and the cellar door reflects it. The estate sits on the Main Ridge plateau with forty-odd hectares under vine, split into named single blocks, Haven, Meres, Ferrous, Faultline, that have given the Peninsula some of its most collectible bottles of the past fifteen years.
The tasting room is smaller and more contemplative than the trophy estates, and the flight through the range is a proper education: side-by-side pinot noirs from adjacent slopes show what micro-terroir actually looks like in Victoria's cool-climate heartland. The chardonnay program runs just as precise.
Book the single-vineyard tasting. Go midweek if possible. This is where you come to understand what the Peninsula tastes like at the top of its form.
Worth knowing
If you only do one thing
Book the single-vineyard tasting flight and take notes, these are the kinds of differences that only make sense when the glasses are in front of you together.
Works well with
La Baracca at T'Gallant · Johnny Ripe
Filed under Cellar DoorSlowAll YearCouplesSolo
Editor's verdict
Kooyong is the Gjergja family's Pinot and Chardonnay project, produced from a Tuerong estate planted in 1996 with a philosophy that doesn't deviate: estate-grown, low intervention, spontaneous fermentation, gravity flow. Tim Perrin's single-block releases represent some of the Peninsula's best arguments for site-specific viticulture. The cellar door is shared with Port Phillip Estate, making for an efficient double-tasting.
Walk-ins available; bookings essential for structured tastings. Standard tasting charged per person (non-refundable); Single Block & Single Vineyard and Wine & Cheese tiers also run. Shared cellar door with Port Phillip Estate.
Key varieties: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris.
Worth seeking out: Ferrous Pinot Noir.
1 Good Food Guide hat.
Shared dining room with Port Phillip Estate; 1 Chef Hat, Age Good Food Guide 2025.
Cuisine: Modern Australian / European.
Walk-ins are accepted at the shared cellar door (263 Red Hill Road, Red Hill South). Bookings are essential for structured tastings including the Single Block flight.
The shared cellar door site includes the Port Phillip Estate Dining Room (1 Hat, Age Good Food Guide 2025), which serves both estates.
No explicit dog policy confirmed in official sources - check before visiting.
Not sure how to build a day around Kooyong?
Search Peninsula 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 four 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.
10 April 2026
One memorable dinner, a long lunch and an afternoon with no agenda. A slower Mornington Peninsula weekend for two.
More to explore
98 Stanleys Road, Red Hill South VIC 3937
Shashi and Rohit Singh's biodynamic family estate, one of the Peninsula's only serious Syrah programs alongside the Amrit single-vineyard range.
51 Stanleys Rd, Merricks VIC 3916
A thoughtfully managed Merricks estate making elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that rewards the drive to find it.
3007 Frankston-Flinders Rd, Moorooduc VIC 3933
A rustic, intimate cellar door running a five-wine, five-canape pairing from a hatted-standard kitchen, the most structured tasting format on the Peninsula.
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