Tom Carson's single-block Chardonnay and Pinot Noir program, poured from a relaxed cellar door with one of the Peninsula's loveliest lunch decks.
Known for Block 1 Pinot NoirJimmy Watson Memorial Trophy WinnerTom Carson Single-Block ProgramJames Halliday 5-Red-Star Winery
Photo · Peninsula Insider
Why we’d goThe Block 1 Pinot was the first Pinot to ever win the Jimmy Watson Trophy, the cellar door is the right place to understand why, and the deck is reason enough to stay.
Yabby Lake sits slightly east of the main wine-country road, and that off-axis position has worked in its favour. The Kirby family planted the vineyard in 1998 and hired Tom Carson to run the winemaking, and what the team has built in the years since is one of the most serious single-block programs in the country. The flagship Block 1 Pinot Noir became the first Pinot ever to win the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy in 2014. The Block 1 Chardonnay is, quietly, one of the best Chardonnays in Australia.
The cellar door is open daily and is deliberately more relaxed than the winemaking philosophy suggests. Seated tastings on the deck, a short early-lunch menu, and room to work through a full flight at your own pace. This is the cellar door we recommend when someone wants to understand why Peninsula Chardonnay is currently among the most interesting in the country.
Order the Block 1 flight. Stay for lunch. Buy the single-vineyard Chardonnay on the way out, it rewards five years in the cellar.
Worth knowing
If you only do one thing
Order the Block 1 tasting flight, stay for lunch on the deck, and buy the single-vineyard Chardonnay on the way out, it rewards five years in the cellar.
Works well with
Onannon · Barmah Park Farm Kitchen
Filed under Cellar DoorLong LunchViewAll YearCouplesGroupFirst Timers
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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.
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
The drive to make on your first visit, or the one to send a friend on when you are out of time to explain why you keep coming back. Coffee, ridge, hinterland, ocean, village, bay - in that order, in four hours.
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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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