Single Vineyard Pinot Noir and a Sunday lunch beneath the olive grove canopy.
Known for Sculpture TrailKitchen GardenOlive GroveOne-Hat RestaurantHalliday Winery of the Year 2022
Photo · Montalto
Why we’d goThe Peninsula's most complete estate experience, sculpture, garden, cellar door, and a one-hat kitchen, done at a scale that still feels human rather than corporate.
Drive in and the estate opens up, lake, sculptures, kitchen garden, olive grove, before you've reached the cellar door. This is the place you bring visitors to prove that Victoria does wine country properly. The sculpture trail is serious, not decorative: major works on permanent loan, set into the landscape so they read differently in every season.
The restaurant earns its hat honestly. Pasta made daily, produce grown on-site or sourced from neighbours within five kilometres, and a wine list anchored by the estate but ranging thoughtfully. The terrace in summer is as good a lunch setting as the Peninsula has.
Arrive early for a cellar door tasting before lunch. Set aside the afternoon. The estate rewards time.
Worth knowing
If you only do one thing
Arrive for the cellar door tasting before noon, walk the sculpture trail, and stay for lunch on the terrace, this is a half-day, not a quick stop.
Works well with
Port Phillip Estate · Red Gum BBQ
Filed under Long LunchCellar DoorGardenSunsetSpringSummerAutumnAll YearCouplesFamiliesGroup
Not sure how to build a day around Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove?
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.
13 April 2026
Short days, cheap rooms, empty dining rooms, a fire in every cellar door with a hearth, and a coast that looks like a different country in a southerly. Winter is the Peninsula's most underrated season and the one that gives the region back to the people who actually live here.
9 April 2026
Cool mornings, warm lunches, empty terraces, and the kind of light that makes every terrace look serious. This is the month the region stops performing and starts meaning something.
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.
Part of an escape
Skip the planning - these itineraries sequence this venue into a proper Peninsula weekend.
Start in Red Hill wine country, finish at the southern tip, and let the weekend widen as it goes.
One public-access course with genuine ranking credibility, a long lunch on the ridge, a hot springs session, and a stay within ten minutes of the first tee. For groups where not everyone plays.
Nearby picks
112 Shoreham Rd, 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.
Build a day around this
Peninsula Insider guides that put this stop into the context of a full day or weekend.
Where to eat