Wines

The Dunns Creek Estate vineyard is a delightful oddity among Mornington Peninsula wineries for its grape varieties: of the eight total acres under vine, Dunns Creek has three of pinot grigio, then equal quantities of barbera, arneis and albarino . . .

"Our philosophy from the beginning was to grow alternative varieties, we didn't want to compete with everybody else with pinot noir and chardonnay," according to Roger Stuart-Andrews.

"We initially chose the barbera, then the albarino was really an idea of Sandro Mosele, our winemaker from Kooyong/Port Phillip Estate."

Barbera is not widely planted or known in Australia.

"While a favourite of Lombardy and Piedmont, Barbera is grown all over Italy. Experienced Italian wine growers know that the best grapes are grown on hilly land and on the sunniest slopes, both of which are offered to our vines by our unique enclave in Red Hill," said Roger.

"The first vintage of Barbera was picked on ANZAC day 2004 and spent 10 months in French oak barrels, (eight old and two new) to assess the difference oak makes and guide us as to the handling of future vintages. After bottling we waited six months for the wine to achieve an acceptable balance."

Dunns Creek Estate also offers arneis and tempranillo. Due to a change in direction, the latter vines were removed in 2006. Arneis was first picked in April 2005 and released in September 2005.

Tempranillo (known in Europe as Rioja after its region of origin in north-east Spain), was picked at Dunn's Creek for the first time in April 2005 and matured in French oak barrels.

In 2007 plantings of both albarino (a Spanish/Portuguese white wine) and pinot grigio will complete the dream when their fruit is harvested in 2009.

"By 2010 we hope to be able to release boxed sets of four fascinating and complementary wines to fill the gap between the commonly promoted three or six bottle packs," said Roger.

"The winemaker is Sandro Mosele of Tuerong Winery to whom we owe much for his skill in bringing the raw product to maturity. The man responsible for the product is Hugh Robinson of Peninsula VineCare Ltd who manages the vines on our behalf."