Mornington Peninsula wine tours take you to the cellar doors in the hills behind the bay and put the tastings in the fare, with lunch on most of them. Someone else drives, which is the point: each cellar door pours, and nobody in your group has to stay sober. The one exception is the hop-on bus, where you pay each venue yourself.
Six guests at most in a minivan, collected from your city hotel at 10:00. Two cellar-door tastings, a third where you eat, and lunch with a glass of wine, then the ridge lookout on the way home. You must be 18 to drink.
From $192 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Collected from a central Melbourne pickup point for eight and a half hours: a tasting and a sculpture park by the sea, a winery lunch in the hills, a third cellar door and a beer paddle at a brewery. Not for anyone under 18.
From $139 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The shorter six-seat day, seven hours from your city hotel at 10:00: a sculpture walk above the water, a barrel-room tasting, and two hours over a two-course lunch with a glass of wine at a country general store.
From $185 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A hop-on bus that starts on the peninsula, not in the city, with the first run at 9:45. Choose up to four venues on its route over seven hours, and book and pay for every tasting yourself. Riders must be 18 or over.
From $66 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Collected from your city hotel at 10:00 for two tastings, a third where you eat, and lunch with a glass of wine. Six guests at most, so the guide can choose the pours to suit you.
See this dayIt is a day built around cellar doors rather than views. The peninsula's vineyards sit in the hills behind the ridge of Arthurs Seat, around Red Hill and Merricks, and they grow cool-climate Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. A wine tour drives you between two or three cellar doors, pours a tasting at each, and sits you down for lunch at one.
The venues change with the operator. The six-seat days stop at Quealy and Pt. Leo Estate and eat at the Merricks General Store. The food and wine day from the city starts at the sculpture park by the sea, lunches at Montalto, and adds T'Gallant and a beer paddle at a brewery. Guides can change the order on the day, so treat any list as the plan.
The drive is part of the price. From the city it takes roughly an hour and a half each way, so a wine day from Melbourne runs seven to eight and a half hours door to door. The cellar doors are the cellar doors, one by one, with their own opening hours.
Because each cellar door pours, and a car full of tasters needs a driver who is not tasting. Four things set these days apart from the rest of the peninsula's tours.
The guide drives, so everyone can taste at every stop. If you hire a car instead, one of you spends the day on water. The hop-on bus solves the same problem more loosely: it carries you between venues, and you pour at your own pace.
On the guided days you do not open your wallet at the cellar door. The six-seat days include cellar-door tastings and lunch with a glass of wine. The food and wine day from the city includes a winery lunch, the tastings and the beer paddle. The hop-on bus is the exception: you book and pay for every tasting yourself.
The six-seat minivan days take six guests at most, which is small enough for the guide to steer the pours towards what your table likes. The day with the brewery states no group limit, so expect a fuller vehicle and a fixed order of stops.
The six-seat days collect you out the front of a city hotel at 10:00, and the longer one can also collect you from selected addresses on the peninsula. The brewery day uses central pickup points in the city. You do not have to find a theatre door at 8 in the morning.
You can hire a car and do this on your own. Here is what changes, using what each tour's own listing includes.
| A wine tour | Your own car | |
|---|---|---|
| Who drives | The guide | One of you, who does not taste |
| Tastings | In the fare on the guided days | Paid at each cellar door |
| Lunch | In the fare, usually with a glass of wine | Booked and paid by you |
| Start | Your hotel at 10:00, or a central pickup point | Whenever you like |
| Group | Six on the smallest; no stated limit on the largest | Your own |
| Length | Seven to eight and a half hours from the city | As long as you like |
| Fare | $139 to $192 a person | Car hire, fuel, tastings and lunch |
See the six-seat wine day from $192
Driving yourself makes sense if one of you does not drink anyway, or if you are staying on the peninsula and want to linger. T'Gallant's cellar door opens every day from 10 am to 5 pm and takes walk-ins. Green Olive at Red Hill opens every day from 9 am to 5 pm, with lunch sittings at 11:45 am and 2 pm. If everyone in your car wants to taste, a tour is the simplest way to do it.
You get transport, a guide who drives, the tastings the fare lists and, on most days, lunch. The small print differs from day to day.
A central pickup in Melbourne for eight and a half hours: a tasting and a sculpture park by the sea, a winery lunch in the hills, a third cellar door and a beer paddle, then the ridge and the bathing boxes.
Check availabilityGuided wine days cost $139 to $192 a person, with the tastings and lunch in the fare. The hop-on bus costs $66 a person before you pay for any tastings. The six-seat days last seven or eight hours from a 10:00 pickup, and the brewery day lasts eight and a half.
Book early for the six-seat days. The eight-hour one is booked 49 days ahead on average, and the seven-hour one much earlier still. Every wine day here refunds you in full up to 24 hours before the start, so booking early costs you nothing if your plans change.
Take a layer whatever the month, and check the Mornington Peninsula weather by month for the rain and wind to expect. If you are choosing between a wine day and something else, the guide to picking the right day sets them side by side.
A wine day is for tasting. It is the wrong booking if any of these is you.
Every day that starts in the city, wine or not, is on the Mornington Peninsula day tours from Melbourne page.
Set the wine days beside the springs, the coast and the cruises on Mornington Tours.