Lon Retreat and Pt Leo’s Estate promise an indulgent package
When restrictions lift, indulge on opposite shores of these two popular peninsula playgrounds.
By transforming an old family home on a pastoral property on the Bellarine Peninsula south of Geelong into a spa sanctuary, Lon Retreat has achieved a level of sophisticated calm where the delight is in the detail. Likewise, on Victoria’s other great destination peninsula, the Mornington, Pt Leo Estate has grown from a private retreat on a seaside property into an international-class wine, dining and cultural experience.
Think what wonderful things they could do together. Well, imagine no more, because they have joined hands across the water to create 48 hours of heightened hedonism. Two cosseting nights at the Lon bookend a day at Pt Leo, via private transfers and ferry, to be immersed in its impressive sculpture park before a daring degustation and drinks in its lauded restaurant Laura.
Lon Retreat doesn’t come into view until you leave behind Point Lonsdale’s holiday homes snuggled into the coastal scrub and pass a sign inside its gate advising: “Time to slow down.” The air is salty, and beef cattle stroll around the paddocks. Lon’s driving force, Claire Gemes, and her builder husband Rob wanted to create something special on the 100ha property that’s been in her family for seven generations. Keeping two rooms — to preserve their soaring timber ceilings — of the house she’d grown up in, the couples-only Lon Retreat is what Claire calls a “home hotel”.
As well as adding a day spa, they created seven bespoke suites, named for types of clouds, because this place has a pace designed to match their languid drift. SBS Chill is pushing out soothing tones as we enter our Cumulus suite, a generous ground-floor space so enveloped by the landscape, the viewing arc runs to about 270 degrees. Even the substantial bathroom with its walk-in rain shower and twin vanities has a picture window (well-shielded by greenery) above a bath, fed directly from the Lon’s 40C spring. But while you can see the outside, you won’t hear it. In the silence, we could be the only people here, which we’re not; like regional destinations statewide, the Lon has been busy since the end of Victoria’s lockdown 2.0. Doors are designed to close almost noiselessly, and you certainly don’t hear the bathroom fan, such is the sophistication of the ventilation system.
Within its spa, Lon has three treatment rooms, a vichy steam shower and a large mineral pool. My 60-minute Marma massage features an oil from a unique Australian range called Subtle Energies. It has a rare aroma that’s hard to place but I eventually twig it’s clove. More ephemeral is the hydrosol that therapist Petrina mists across my face, later revealed as a pure rose fragrance of petals plucked from the foothills of the Himalayas.
With no on-site restaurant, Lon has several solutions. You can walk into town, even via the beach if the tide is right, but we want to hang on to that rosy Himalayan glow and so dine in our robes on a pre-ordered three-course meal from local providore Annie’s Kitchen. Each suite has a well-stocked and equipped kitchenette, and we assemble a feast of sugar-cured ocean trout, roast chicken with preserved lemon, and saffron panna cotta. The in-room cellar runs to a good mix of local reds, whites, sparkling, ciders, beers and a pair of Bellarine gins.
The lunch adventure next day starts early, with Rob Gemes dropping us in Queenscliff for the 10am ferry. We’re foot passengers on the 50-minute crossing to Sorrento, where we’re met by the Pt Leo Estate van. Our driver is Patrick, a young performing arts graduate now working at the cellar door. He’s a local and knows all the scenic back roads past vineyards, strawberry farms and cherry orchards.
If Lon Retreat’s opening line is about staying chilled, Pt Leo Estate’s reveal dials up the visuals. Passing vineyards coiffed “just so”, we approach Grand Arch by Inge King, the first of 60-odd sculptures within the estate’s grounds. The scale of the collection is apparent once inside the curved cellar door/restaurant building, meticulously placed on lawns that crown a slope leading down to Western Port. Front and centre is an unmistakeable KAWS, called Share 2020 and said to have been a recent surprise birthday gift for PLE’s owner, Melbourne property magnate and philanthropist John Gandel. With only 15 minutes until lunch, there’s little time to absorb the artwork up close. Instead we enjoy it vicariously from our corner table, watching those outside, some with wine glasses in hand, stroll among the statuary.
The high art of Laura is demonstrated with an eight-course degustation meal, using as much local produce as possible, from the team under new culinary director Josep Espuga. The first item is an oyster with parmesan crisp, cauliflower sabayon and beluga caviar, each roe being an explosion of briny flavour. For the only time today, we’re having Pt Leo wine, a delicate 2018 methode champenoise. That, and every other drink, is presented with a discourse from sommelier Andrew Murch, who has the challenge of complementing the flavours on the plates. Tomato, for instance, is “very difficult”, but Andrew’s answer to mussels under a cap of frozen tomato consomme —– “treat it like a creme brulee” suggests the waiter — is an Austrian gruner veltliner.
And then things get tangential. For trumpet mushrooms carved like spaghetti, we have sake. It takes two Portuguese madeiras, one of them a 1989 vintage Pereira D’Oliveiras, to handle smoked barramundi with albufera sauce. The wagyu beef, served with mashed potato so unctuous I’d happily eat it as a dessert, melts away alongside a fine-boned Yarra Valley pinot from Mac Forbes. The first dessert course of figs gets another left-field delight, an effervescent red moscato from Piedmont. And we finish with gravitas: rum baba and Chambers Muscadelle from Victoria’s bastion of world-class fortifieds, Rutherglen. All the while, we’ve been enjoying the show outside. The sunny noon precedes a monochrome afternoon over an icy blue bay, then more sun before Phillip Island across the way disappears into a mist. The afternoon’s second rainbow closes it off, and with a ferry to catch, the sculpture park is rain-checked.
Back at Point Lonsdale our package includes a tasting platter for dinner. Cheeses, charcuterie, dried fruits, grapes, nuts … we barely do it justice. The balance does service next morning, along with remnants from yesterday’s breakfast tray, the stars of which are fruits and honey nurtured by Claire’s mother Sue Hanley in her “food forest” down near the spring.
We also venture to the ocean beach, remaining alert to advice to take particular note of the turns and “keep left” on the way back. After all, being stranded in scrub within cooee of such a haven doesn’t bear contemplating.
In the know
The two-night packages include Lon to Laura, from $2767 a couple, for Lon’s premium Alto or Cumulus suites (the two with private spring-fed baths) and the degustation experience at Laura. A Lon to Leo package, in one of five other suites and matched with lunch at Pt Leo Estate’s a la carte restaurant alternative, is from $1583 a couple. Both packages include one breakfast and an antipasto platter. Optional dinner packs and spa treatments must be pre-ordered. Book through Lon or
Pt Leo Estate.
Jeremy Bourke was a guest of Lon Retreat and Pt Leo Estate.
