Discover this new Australian Pinot Noir wine trail

The raw power of the Southern Ocean as it carves its influence through Bass Strait makes the Pinot Coast, made up of three regions – Geelong, the Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland – one of Australia’s most compelling wine trails. The spectacularly rugged coastline gives rise to a diverse landscape where the ocean’s influence is evident – from the complex, elegant pinot noir made along the coast to the pristine plates of seafood and local produce served in award-winning restaurants.

As the name suggests, the Pinot Coast wine trail features cool, maritime pinot noir. The ocean moderates the temperature in the vineyards, and summers are long and mild and last well into April. The pinot noir grapes mature under these cool conditions, ensuring the retention of lots of delicate flavours, as well as acidity. The distinct landscapes mean there’s plenty of diversity in the wines made along the coast, in the trail’s three regions – Geelong, Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland.

You’ll find the first of the Pinot Coast wine trail’s welcoming cellar doors and restaurants just over an hour’s drive south-west of Melbourne, in Geelong. The city, on the western side of Port Phillip Bay, is home to fresh seafood and – of course – outstanding wine.

At Lethbridge Wines’ cellar door in the Bellarine Peninsula, you’ll be welcomed to a large communal table with stories about the estate’s wines and how they are made. Ray Nadeson, the owner and winemaker, established the vineyard alongside Maree Collis and Adrian Thomas in the mid-1990s. Ray and Maree’s backgrounds in science led them to choose this particular site based on factors like soil composition and degree days, but the place exudes a spirit that is hard to quantify with scientific means.

Geelong doesn’t just do rustic and easygoing. On the Bellarine Peninsula, looking out over the mussel farms, Jack Rabbit’s cellar door and restaurant offers one of Victoria’s most spectacular dining experiences and shows off the region’s local, seasonal produce. On any given day, you might taste cuttlefish from Port Phillip Bay, goats’ cheese made in Bellarine, or beef from the surrounding countryside.

They know a lot about prestige just across the bay, on the Mornington Peninsula. This region is world famous for its layered, seductive pinot noirs with complex red fruits and lifted aromatics. But it’s not only the wine that makes the Mornington Peninsula such a gastronomic destination – the region has seven Chef Hat-awarded restaurants (Australia’s equivalent of a Michelin star) and many excellent cafes, breweries and local markets.

Winery Ten Minutes By Tractor is renowned for its award-winning restaurant, which is a pioneer of the peninsula’s culinary scene. “What we were wanting to do was sort of an extension of our cellar door, allowing people who came down and visited us to sit down and enjoy our wines with great food and great local produce, and to do it within our rural setting among the vines,” says Martin Spedding, the estate’s owner.

There are plenty of laid-back cellar door options around Mornington Peninsula. Up the road at Moorooduc Estate, you can grab a glass of wine and some of owner Jill McIntyre’s preserves, and, if you’re lucky, one of their relaxed Sunday lunches.

Gippsland is something else again. It’s a large region, stretching from Phillip Island to Wilsons Promontory and along to the Gippsland Lakes, but winemaking occurs on a tiny scale here.

Happily, it’s easy to weave cellar door experiences into trips to Gippsland, because there is so much to do along the coast. On Phillip Island, where the penguins make their nightly waddle ashore, Purple Hen Winery provides nature lovers with something to do while they wait for sunset. This is one of the most maritime vineyards on the whole of the Pinot Coast wine trail – it’s surrounded on three sides by water and the coast is a mere 500 metres away. You can enjoy views of the water and the vines from the cellar door as you taste the distinct coastal influence in the wines.

Along the Gippsland coast, you’ll find Waratah Hills near the entrance to Wilsons Promontory National Park. This vineyard is a little further inland than some of its counterparts, but the cooling maritime influences are still very much a part of the terroir here.

Neil and Judy Travers bought the vineyard in 2008 and have built a reputation for their seductive pinot noir. The cellar door is housed in an old tractor shed that has been updated into a modern tasting area and cafe in Waratah Hill’s charmingly bucolic setting. The food is as local as the wines – the cheese comes from Gippsland and there is a bountiful vegetable garden on site.

Despite the diversity of these cellar door offerings – and the wines themselves – you’ll find the same consistently high standard of hospitality across the Pinot Coast wine trail, in Geelong, Mornington Peninsula and Gippsland. Creative winemakers and artisans from around the region are keen to show off what they can craft from the exuberant spirit of the southern coast.