I had the great pleasure recently of spending time in two of Australia’s most wonderful wine regions – Margaret River and the Mornington Peninsula. Wonderful for a number of reasons, but the combination of fantastic food and wine scenes, magical scenery and awesome Aussie beaches and surf is hard to beat.

Wine making appears to work like fly fishing, in that it happens in very beautiful places. Almost two weeks of my Christmas holidays were spent on the Mornington Peninsula and although many other activities besides going to wineries were on the schedule, I did manage to squeeze a few in with the most impressive being the newly opened Port Phillip Estate (www.portphillip.net). And I do mean new – on our first visit (yes we went back a couple of times I am not sorry to say) they were still clearing away construction detritus and planting the last bits and bobs of the extensive landscaping. The building actually had, like a new car, a new building smell.

The building itself is worth a visit and you may have recently seen or read an article about the 3-year construction of Port Phillip Estate, it’s been a labour of love for owner Giorgio Gjergja.

Mr Gjergja did quite well for himself in the business world and, at the rip old age of 60 or so, decided he needed something else to do so he decided to pursue his passion for wine. He first purchased Port Phillip Estate and followed that up with Kooyong Vineyard – two of the best on the Mornington Peninsula. Mr. Gjergja’s next brilliant move was to hire wine maker Sandro Mosele (who I consider to be one of the best vino makers in the country) and their current lineup of wines confirms, in spades, my belief.

Port Phillip, like many wineries, has several levels of wine offerings stratified across different price points. The entry-level range is called Quartier and the quality for money level here is excellent. I tasted all the wines in this range but was most impressed with the two Italian varietals Arneis (2007) and Barbera (2005). They were both perfect and fun (as in easy to drink) examples of these Italian grapes made here in Australia. From the Quartier wines you head up to the seriously delicious wines of the mother ship Port Phillip Estate and Kooyong Vineyard, where I think it safe to say there is nothing to disappoint. Below are two additional wines to seek out that are varietal paradigms.

Port Phillip Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2008 $23

I would be the first to admit that in general I am not a big Savvy fan – seems one glass and I have had enough. In fact, on my first visit to Port Phillip Estate I opted to skip their Savvy altogether – boy was I wrong on that one! On my return visit I was encouraged to give it a go by the cellar door hand (who also happened to be one of the wine makers) and it is easily one of the best Australian made Sauvignon Blancs I have tasted in quite some time. What really struck me about this wine was its tremendous depth of flavour and beautiful palate weight rather than the typical Savvy acid bath. Mr. Halliday thought it a decent drop giving it a score of 94.

Port Phillip Estate Chardonnay 2007 $27

Chardonnay has been a grape variety that has been in serious decline in terms of people actually buying and drinking it. There are a myriad of reasons for this but when you taste a Chardonnay like this one you have to wonder why. Chardonnay made well (and this is exceptionally well made by any yardstick) is a wine worth its weight in gold. This wine embodies those seemingly paradoxical characteristics of power and elegance with an ever-evolving taste palate of stone and citrus fruit. And again, Mr. Halliday thought it merited a score of 95.

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