Phillip Island Winery

If you're headed to Phillip Island Winery, you're going to want to leave your afternoon open-ended. That's because there are a lot of ways to spend your time here. You could go for a wine tasting in the cosy chalet-like cellar door, or if it's a warm day, consider having a picnic out on the lush lawns.

Lunch is all about big share-style Italian dishes. Start with an antipasto platter featuring regional cheese and house olives with sourdough made on site at the micro-bakery. Mains are all about classic pizzas with traditional toppings – prosciutto, fior di latte, chilli prawn with nduja, buffalo mozzarella.

The wine list has all of the big name grapes (sparkling, reds and whites all represented) but the pinot noir outsells all the others. It's made using grapes exclusively grown on the island: it's a little bit acidic, and a little bit oaky. And goes down very easily.

The winery doesn't produce fruit, so many grapes are sourced from Gippsland and King Valley. For this reason, each wine sports its own look and personality, rather than all bottles falling under the “Phillip Island Winery” label.

The winery’s owners are a group of old friends who took over the business in 2018. While their backgrounds combine decades of experience in floristry, coffee and running successful pubs, taking on wine is a more recent undertaking. It makes Phillip Island Winery feel young, approachable and unafraid to take risks.