Our second day of our Victoria tour took us diametrically opposite to the Macedon Ranges of yesterday as we headed south west of Melbourne to Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula. This is another very small wine production zone comprising a mere 300 hectares under vine.
Our first stop was at Provenance wines – just a few minutes outside of Geelong and situated within an old renovated paper works. Owner and winemaker Scott Ireland hosted a fabulous tasting as he brought to life the different areas that his wines are made from and delivered one of the most concise, informative and engaging commentary on terroir and variable climatic influences that I have ever heard.
We tasted through three different Chardonnays from three different sites – all 2015 vintage. Then we did the same with four Pinot Noirs from 2016. It was a brilliant approach to wine tasting and highly instructive.
Scott then opened a rare bottle of 2005 Sparkling Shiraz with 23g/l of residual sugar which was rather good!
From Geelong it was a 40 minute drive east – deep into the Bellarine Peninsula. This is an up and coming part of the Geelong wine region and our destination was Scotchmans Hill winery – an early pioneer in the region that set up in 1982, with vineyards that almost reach the shores of Port Philip Bay.
We were entertained by Julian – A Parisian with a fascinatingly diverse career – who took us through a stunning range of wines. We tasted first and combined lunch with further tastings including some fabulous old vintages.
As ever, we groaned with the amount of food that was provided but agreed that the quality of the wine production was excellent.
The Mornington Peninsula awaits on Thursday.