By admin When I first started planning my New Zealand and Australia trip with Lindsay and Katz for December 2019-January 2020, I decided to tack on an extra ten days to explore Australia on my own after they left. I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do, but I figured Australia was a large country with a lot to offer and I’d come up with a plan.
First stop on my list? A couple nights at Jackalope Hotel, a luxury property located approximately an hour from Melbourne, in the Mornington Peninsula. Jackalope regularly pops up on global lists of top hotels and is located in one of Australia’s premier wine regions. Needless to say, it was a no-brainer for me to make a stop there after starting the year off in Melbourne. Then, Lindsay decided to tack on a work trip to Manila after Australia, which gave her an extra day to spend with me in wine country. Yay!
The Property
First, getting to/from Melbourne and Jackalope was a very simple hour-long Uber trip each way. I looked into renting a car, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it. Since we weren’t going to be driving around the Mornington Peninsula (we hired a driver so we could enjoy a carefree wine tour), it was easier to just book Ubers to get to/from the property.
There is also enough to do at Jackalope that one could spend an entire day on the property, at least (their website outlines a seven day itinerary, but I think that would be a bit much). The hotel is located on the Willow Creek Vineyard and features a cellar door where both hotel guests and visitors can enjoy tastings. We of course took advantage of our complimentary tasting immediately upon arrival.
Jackalope also offers several dining and drinking options: Doot Doot Doot, their high-end, tasting menu restaurant (where breakfast is also served), Rare Hare, their more casual, communal dining concept, and Flaggerdoot, their stylish cocktail bar. While we did not eat dinner at Doot Doot Doot, breakfast was mind-blowing both mornings. We enjoyed lunch at Rare Hare after our wine tastings, and I was particularly delighted when we unexpectedly ran into the retired Dutch couple I had met on Waiheke Island, in New Zealand, a couple weeks prior. Serendipitous travel experiences never cease to amaze me.
We also enjoyed the peaceful infinity pool overlooking the vineyards. While the weather was iffy and the ongoing wildfire smoke threatened to overtake the blue skies that struggled to peek through the clouds, we still managed to get some sun.
While we did not have time to treat ourselves to treatments at Jackalope’s spa, we did take advantage of their complimentary Sunday morning yoga class to detox before re-toxing with our wine tour. The one complaint I have about Jackalope: no gym! We lucked out having coincidentally timed our visit over a Sunday (they only offer yoga once a week, and only in the summer months).
Things to Do in the Mornington Peninsula
Go wine tasting. Duh. As I mentioned, we didn’t want to worry about drinking and driving, so we booked a small group tour through Wine Compass. The “Insider’s Choice” tour included a pick-up and drop-off at Jackalope, a guide, tastings at four wineries and lunch. We had a small group of just four (a polite Asian couple, Lindsay and me), and all of the wineries that we visited felt intimate and personal. Despite the gloomy weather and on and off rain, our Mornington Peninsula tour far exceeded our experience in the Yarra Valley. I would highly recommend Wine Compass over Dancing Kangaroo Tours if you’re booking a wine tour around Melbourne!
The wineries that we visited: Quealy, Mantons Creek Estate (where we also had lunch), Ocean Eight and Mooroduc Estate.
Our favorite winery was also the final visit: Mooroduc Estate. I liked all of their wines: Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Pinot Gris, even Chardonnay. They also had a particularly interesting Pinot Gris on Skins that looked like a rosé, but tasted a bit funkier than your standard rosé. I’ll defer to the tasting notes to describe the wine much more aptly than I can: “Watermelon pink in colour with pink rose petals, violets, fennel and hints of pickled ginger, rhubarb and red plums. Tangy red berries and Moroccan spice on the palate. Fresh and crunchy with just the right amount of tannin to clean the palate.” Lindsay and I decided to split the cost of shipping a case of wine home to New York (the only wine that I shipped from Australia throughout the trip).
If I had more time to spend in the Mornington Peninsula, I would’ve loved to have walked the Bushrangers Bay track (a 5.4 km coastal and bush route that was a location for the film Where the Wild Things Are. And of course I would want to visit more wineries! My first choice would be Pt Leo Estate, with its modern sculpture park.
Alas, my short but sweet visit had to end. Fortunately, I still had another week to spend in Australia (bush fires or not), and was headed next to Hobart, Tasmania.
