Best winery restaurants in Victoria, where the food is as good as the wine
Victoria’s wine country is home to plenty of delicious drops — but you can also find myriad restaurants where the food on the plate is as good as the wine in the glass. And the views aren’t too shabby either.
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OAKRIDGE
With a glorious vista across the vines that create its multi-award-winning wines, Oakridge has firmly established itself as one of the Yarra Valley’s favourite spots to lunch – and lunch long.
Just as the kitchen garden that supplies Jo Barrett and Matt Stone’s zero-waste kitchen has grown, so, too, have the pleasures coming out if it.
The duo’s celebration of the Yarra Valley’s produce and producers grows keener and more focused with every vintage, transformed into generous plates with a distinctly Asian lilt.
PT LEO
Spend any time at Pt Leo Estate and you’ll soon be checking the local real estate pages.
Any excuse to hasten a return visit to this Mornington Peninsula show pony.
It’s that kind of place – all the wow that a $50 million build brings, but so very accessible and fun, too.
The vast arc of the building spans fine-diner Laura at one end, the no-bookings wine terrace at the other and the 110-seatPt Leo Restaurant in between, all with killer views of the winery’s sculpture park, Western Port Bay and a distant Phillip Island.
The deep cellar is there to splash the cash, but happily make the estate wines your default.
This is destination dining at its best, big on budget but also big on welcome.
TARRAWARRA
Tarrawarra has long been famed for its pinot and chardonnay and modern art museum but, thanks to chef Mark Ebbells, this Yarra Valley stalwart is now also worth visiting for some of the most creative and downright delicious food you’ll find in a winery setting.
Ebbells is making the most of the quarter-acre kitchen garden at his disposal, putting it to use in combinations you probably haven’t seen before, but will want to eat again.
A long-time favourite with renewed energy that’s palpable and supremely enjoyable, Tarrawarra 2019 is a terrific surprise.
SEVILLE ESTATE
Picture this: a cellar door in the Yarra Valley where you sip and savour some of Victoria’s best wines while drinking in a view that takes in vineyards, paddocks and misted mountaintops.
That’s what you get at Seville Estate … and that’s before you even sit down to a meal.
Tucked down a dirt road, on a landscaped ridge, Seville Estate was named 2019 Winery of the Year by wine doyen James Halliday.
The best way to enjoy its premium pinot and chardonnay, and ever-evolving dishes, is to order the ‘Feed Me’ menu with matching wines.
DOOT DOOT DOOT
Jackalope is the Mornington Peninsula’s lap of ultra-modern luxury, a vineyard hotel where guests stay in elegant lairs – not rooms – and rebellious” sculpture adorns public spaces.
But don’t rush to judgment, expecting its fine-dining restaurant – Doot Doot Doot – to be arty with a capital A. It’s not.
Executive chef Guy Stanaway is informed by Jackalope’s high design instincts but his good value five-course menus, changing every eight or so weeks, shrewdly balance cool composition with warm, flavour-forward cooking.
PORT PHILIIP ESTATE
On a clear day, you can see Phillip Island from Port Phillip Estate.
But the best views at this stark ’n’ stylish winery are sometimes right in front of you.
Chef Stuart Deller’s cooking is more approachable and exciting than ever.
Executed with aplomb, Deller’s seasonally attuned fare teams well with Port Phillip’s elegant cool-climate wines.
Nattily attired staffers are the full bottle on the terroir of each vineyard and guide you with gentle professionalism.
FULL PORT PHILLIP ESTATE REVIEW
MUSE AT MITCHELTON
Under the shadow of the iconic Robin Boyd-designed tower, Muse, Mitchelton Winery’s signature restaurant, nails its modern farmhouse brief within a Scandi-handsome dining room that boasts roaring open fire for winter and expansive vine-covered terrace come summer.
Executive chef Dan Hawkins walks the local producer talk, cooking up the best of the surrounding Goulburn Valley,
Familiar foods elevated and executed with class teamed with on-point service and value-forward estate wines, Muse is country style that’s all class.
FULL MUSE AT MITCHELLTON REVIEW
MONTALTO
Some come for the sculpture. Others don’t get past the cellar door and pizza oven. That’s a shame because Montalto’s restaurant is the hero of this renowned Red Hill estate.
Seventeen years young, the big, rustic dining room – with bucolic vineyard views – is humming with creative energy and managed by a cracking front-of-house crew.
Tasting menus are good value here and best paired with top drops from Montalto winemaker Simon Black.
Abundant seasonal produce, grown on the property, shines in so many dishes.
POLPERRO
The winding path that leads to Polperro Winery’s restaurant is fringed with spotted gums but the herb and vegetable garden, near the front door, sends the strongest signal that to eat here is to eat locally. Washed with light, Polperro’s dining room feels like a smart beach house.
PARINGA ESTATE
Lindsay McCall’s Mornington Peninsula winery, Paringa, is one of the area’s loveliest little rooms and enjoys one of best vineyard views across three-decade-old pinot and chardonnay vines.
Simply set tables allow a blank canvas for the set courses that come from chef Simon Tarlington, starting with a selection of super tasty snacks.
While most will be happy to plunder the cellar filled with back vintages of the excellent estate wine, the list is bolstered by a Euro-leaning selection with an impressive 30-plus offered by the glass.
HOGGET KITCHEN
Gippsland may be Victoria’s food bowl, but given it stretches from Melbourne’s eastern fringe to the NSW border, it’s an impossible task to nail down a single restaurant that captures the vast region on a plate — but Hogget has the paddocks covered.
Chef Trevor Perkins wears his nose-to-tail philosophy on his chef’s sleeve, with a fridge of ageing beef on show in the dining room and an ever-changing charcuterie selection that is cured in-house (the pork capocollo is a knockout).
Team with a forward-looking wine from Patrick Sullivan or Bill Downie, and this winery restaurant has long, lazy Sunday lunch written all over it.
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