“Beautiful spot for wine tasting - and lovely wines. We had an excellent time with Ben who taught us a lot about their wines and made the experience fun. Great value getting the premium wine tasting selection.”
ANISHA, May 2022
3 October 2023 | Zoe Crittenden
WIN a Year's Worth of Pinocchio Wine
For the month of October, you have a chance to WIN a year's worth of Pinocchio wine with participating retailers across the Mornington Peninsula.
All you need to do is buy one or more bottles of Pinocchio from a participating retailer, enter your details here & hold on to your receipt for proof of purchase.
The winner will win a mixed case of Pinocchio wine to your door every month for a year!
The competition is open to any resident of Victoria over the age of 18. You can find all terms and conditions for the competition here.
Here's where you can purchase your Pinocchio for your chance to win:
Create your story with Pinocchio this October!
03/10/2023 at 2:58 PM
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20 September 2023 | Zoe Crittenden
October is Pinocchio Month!
Create your own story with Pinocchio wines.
This October is Pinocchio month at Crittenden where you can take time in the sunshine to sit back with an antipasto platter, a glass of Pinocchio or an Aperol Spritz featuring Pinocchio Prosecco.
Pinocchio Aperitivo is available every Friday afternoon at the Crittenden Wine Centre throughout October from 3.30pm to 7pm, to celebrate extended daylight hours and our love of Italian wine varieties.
There is also a chance to win a year’s worth of Pinocchio wines with any purchase of Pinocchio from selected retailers in South East Victoria.
Our fresh new-look Pinocchio wines were crafted by seasoned winemaker, Rollo Crittenden and are inspired by a colourful Italian way of life.
Best enjoyed with friends, family, good storytellling and a taste of Italian cuisine - we invite you to think about enjoying a glass on a sunny afternoon with antipasti, fresh seafood and simple yet flavourful appetisers.
Pinocchio is a much loved wine brand on the Mornington Peninsula because of their fresh and effortless style.
Our five Pinocchio wines are perfect for an outdoor lifestyle and those treasured moments Australians enjoy entertaining with easy food and summer flavours.
First created by the Geppetto of our family, Garry Crittenden nearly 20 years ago, siblings Rollo and Zoe Crittenden have breathed new life into this much-loved range of wines with new-look labels exploring elements of the Pinocchio story across each wine.
The Moscato features the whale where Pinocchio and Geppetto reunite, the Blue Fairy brings a little magic to the Prosecco and the Pinot Grigio invites us to think of the sea.
The Rosato tells the story of the cunning encounter of Pinocchio with the fox and the cat, while the Sangiovese reminds us of Pinocchio’s journey to the Land of Toys and his unfortunate transformation.
The new labels created by local Mornington Peninsula designer, Bek Thompson of Luui Design, bring a sense of fun and artistry to the Pinocchio range.
If you would like to join us for Pinocchio Aperitivo at Crittenden any Friday this October, be sure to book here.
We hope you also get to share these wines with a touch of sunshine, great people and your favourite Italian food flavours. Happy drinking!
20/09/2023 at 2:25 PM
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20 September 2023 | Zoe Crittenden
Easy Entertaining with Pinocchio
Crack open a Pinocchio Pinot Grigio next time you have friends over for dinner & serve up this tasty Caprese Salad.
Course: Appetizer, Salad
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: Caprese Salad, Caprese Salad Recipe, Insalata Caprese
Servings: 4 servings
Author: Lisa Bryan
Ingredients
3 large tomatoes sliced
8 ounces mozzarella sliced
handful of fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic reduction
flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Methodology
1. Prep the tomato and cheese. Add a slice of tomato to a plate, then add a slice of mozzarella on top. Keep alternating slices of tomato and mozzarella until you've used up all of the ingredients.
2. Add the basil. Place fresh basil leaves in between the layers. I prefer smaller basil leaves to keep them whole, but if you have large basil leaves you can cut them up.
3. Finishing touches. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic reduction on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then serve immediately.
20/09/2023 at 2:14 PM
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29 August 2023 | Zoe Crittenden
Crittenden Wins the Dr Alan Antcliff Award
In only its second iteration, Crittenden won Mornington Peninsula Wine's Dr Allan Antcliff Award due to our work to recover the soil health and vitality of our grapevines with a rigorous program of composting, undervine plantings and mulching and our vision to be a sustainably thriving wine business into the future.
The judging panel included three highly esteemed viticulturists, Dr Samantha Scarratt, Mark Walpole and John Whiting, who assessed all applications, visited each vineyard and narrowed the extensive list of applicants down to three finalists: Crittenden, Quealy Winemakers and Portsea Estate.
Rollo said going through the submission process was highly beneficial.
"It gave us the opportunity to pause and reflect on every aspect of our viticultural process. The interaction with the three judges, given their wealth of collective experience, has brought great value to our business, and resulted in further consideration and evolution of our processes,” Rollo said.
“To be recognised through the Dr Allan Antcliff award was unexpected but very much appreciated and we look forward to sharing our learnings to the greater benefit of all Mornington Peninsula grape growers."
As part of the award, Crittenden receives a travel bursary to extend the knowledge and expertise of sustainable winegrowing with the intent to share the findings with the region's grapegrowing community.
Dr Scaratt, who led the judging process said the panel was impressed by Crittenden's approach to soil ecology through extensive compost research and development and to provide the balance and biodiversity necessary for a thriving ecosystem.
“What set Crittenden apart in a very close competition, was its extensive research into, and application of, different practices in the vineyard. It is something the team there have been doing for quite a while now with excellent results,” she said.
We have been doing this work since the early 2000s, and over time we have learned to focus on the bacteria and fungi present in compost to support the health in the soil and root systems putting nutrients back into soil that is depleted during the growing and ripening phase.
The Dr Allan Antcliff Viticulture Award is an initiative of Mornington Peninsula Wine and the Myer family, who led by the late Bails Myer, have expressed a long-term commitment to grape growing and winemaking on the Mornington Peninsula since the 1970s.
The Crittenden family is extremely grateful to the judges, Mornington Peninsula Wine and the Myer family for this esteemed industry award.
29/08/2023 at 8:55 AM
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22 August 2023 | Zoe Crittenden
Courage to Create Cri de Coeur
"One fossicks through the drudgery to get to the beauty and when it appears... it demands a yelp of thanks. So it is, when this triumvirate arrives from Crittenden Wines."
Ned goes on to say online:
"Very few producers had the courage and flight of fancy to think long term and outside of the box.
Rollo Crittenden, the winemaker at Crittenden Estate in Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, was an exception.
His assistant winemaker, Matt Campbell, had experienced Vin Jaune on a trip to the Jura years before. In 2011, he decided to take a barrel of his misbegotten savagnin and leave it untopped and unsulfured.
Intuitively, the flor surface yeast, or “voile” (veil) as it is known in the Jura, began to cover the wine.
This facilitated a biological aging process under the aegis of the yeast, prompting kaleidoscopic complexities of cheese cloth, curry powder, salted nuts, camomile and aldehydes, not dissimilar to Japanese radish, that the Crittrenden Cri de Coeur Savagnin has become known for.
Crittenden calls the genesis of the Cri de Coeur “one of the greatest mistakes that has ever happened to us.” Tasting the 2018, I couldn’t agree more. The wine is invariably brilliant, although the 2018 feels weightier and more viscous, perhaps, than years past. It should age very well over the course of a decade to 15 years.
Crittenden also crafts a Macvin, currently the forth iteration, or #4 as it is labeled.
This is a gently fortified style that also draws on the heritage of the Jura. The wine is crafted with savagnin that is aged for four years under flor before being sweetened with savagnin juice and fortified to 17 percent. It boasts a similar flavor profile to the Cri de Coeur with an additional hint of brulee.
You can read more about what Ned has to say here www.jamessuckling.com/wine-tasting-reports
22/08/2023 at 9:59 AM
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