Port Phillip Estate Mornington Peninsula: Views, Wine, Lunch on the Hop It Orange Route

Port Phillip Estate Mornington Peninsula: part wine stop, part architecture landmark. Most wineries lead with the wine and mention the view as a bonus but this one can genuinely lead with either.

The building, designed by Wood Marsh and completed in 2009, spirals out of the hillside in a 100-metre limestone rammed-earth wall that picked up the National Award for Commercial Architecture in 2010. From a distance it looks like driftwood the size of a building. Up close, it's one of the more striking cellar doors you'll hop off at all day.

And the wine

The light-filled dining room and cellar door open onto a deck looking over vineyards, Westernport Bay and Bass Strait which is doing a lot of the heavy lifting for the "worth the stop" argument before you've even tasted anything. The wine list holds its own regardless, with the estate's cool-climate whites and pinots getting regular recognition on the Peninsula.

Port Phillip Estate Mornington Peninsula: Practical Bits

Booking is required, particularly if lunch is part of the plan as the dining room fills up on weekends. A quick tasting can be done in well under an hour; add a sit-down lunch and you'll want to block out considerably more time. You may also want to consider a smaller lunch in their cellar door.

Why it's on our high-priority list

It's the kind of stop that photographs itself, which makes it a natural fit for anyone documenting their Hop It day for the socials.

Book your Orange Route ticket and build your Mornington day around the view.