GOOD MORNINGTON

When Garry and Margaret Crittenden first started talking about pinot noir in  the early 1980s, a pattern of confusion quickly emerged. ‘Pinot what?’ was the typical response among local friends and acquaintances. Likewise, many were baffled by the Crittendens’ decision to plant vines – of any kind – in the Mornington Peninsula, a region with little wine cred at the time.....

Click here to read this recent article found in MINDFOOD Magazine, written by Kate Symons.

03/02/2021 at 1:26 PM Permalink

Viable Viticulture

Jancis Robinson, the London based wine commentator, is without question the globe's most highly regarded practitioner in this field at the moment. When she called for entries in her now traditional annual writing competition, this year on the subject of “sustainability” in the world of wine production, Ed Verrill, a two-time vintage worker with us here at Crittenden Estate, quickly put up his hand as an independent observer to write the story of our sustainability journey.

First mentioned on the website last year with links to the Jancis website, Ed's article has now been published in local magazine "Peninsula Essence". To see this, click here.

02/02/2021 at 9:49 AM Permalink

Best provenance, best white and top 50 vineyards.

Ending the year on a good note…

2020 is a year we’re all going to be happy to draw a line through, but as the year draws to a close, we’ve been humbled to receive some welcome good news with a swag of different accolades. The recognition is always a lovely reward for our sustainable viticultural endeavours and hard work in the winery. 

2020 Mornington Peninsula Wine Show 

This annual event sees Mornington Peninsula wine makers invited to submit samples for judging under national show conditions by an expert panel. Amongst some gold and silver medals, we were honoured to receive two Show trophies: 

Chardonnay Provenance Award - The Zumma Chardonnay 

Judged across three separate vintages from a single vineyard, awarded for quality and consistency spanning all three wines. We submitted the 2014, 2017 & 2018 of The Zumma (named after Zoe’s childhood nickname) grown from our Estate grown fruit from vines in excess of 30 years of age.

Best White Varietal – Cri de Coeur Savagnin

This variety – a signature of Rollo’s winemaking toil and innovation - continues to receive critical acclaim with our just released 2016 vintage awarded the overall Best White Varietal at the show.

Plus, we’ve just been named in the Top 50 Finalists in the inaugural Vineyard of the Year.

A national initiative by the Young Gun of Wine, this new award program aims to shine a light on Australia’s best vineyards – the places where wine comes from, practices of sustainable grape growing and the pursuit of fruit and wine quality. With over 6,000 grape growers around the country to consider and hundreds of entries, being recognised amongst the finest fifty vineyards is an honour. It also reflects our family’s passion and connection to the land and our philosophy that good wine always starts with the soil.  Read more about the Vineyard of the Year here and our entry, that details our vineyard and sustainable grape growing approach, can be read here.

21/12/2020 at 3:22 PM Permalink

Crittenden Wine Centre will be reopening from October 30

The Crittenden Wine Centre is delighted to be welcoming guests for tastings from Friday 30th October 2020. 

Join us in our new outdoor seated terrace area to experience our tastings alfresco style. We will be offering a selection of six wines that give a broad representation of the Crittenden portfolio. Tastings will be $10 per person. 

Although not essential we would recommend that you book prior to arrival. Please phone 5987 3800 or email winecentre@crittendenwines.com.au

Share in the bounty

Finally, we've had quite a harvest of broad beans thanks to the inter-row cropping program in our vineyard and we wanted to share the bounty. Be sure to ask about our sustainable winemaking practices and enjoy a take home bag of fresh, organic broad beans with any wine purchase made (while stocks last).

We look forward to welcoming you here soon. 

30/10/2020 at 9:59 AM Permalink

Food and Wine with Roberta

Friend of the Crittenden Family Roberta Muir has been sharing her favourite things to cook (and what to drink with the dishes) — and we wanted to share her recipes here from her popular Food Wine Travel website.

Roberta Muir is a food, wine and travel writer based in Sydney. She has managed Sydney Seafood School, Australia’s largest recreational cooking school, since 1997. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Gastronomy from the University of Adelaide and is a qualified sherry educator and cheese judge. Her passion for food, wine and foreign cultures has led her on adventures in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, North America, Scandinavia and South East and Central Asia. Her food blog is well worth subscribing to and recently she mentioned a lovely recipe to pair with our Crittenden Estate Peninsula Rose. See the link to it here - a perfect spring dish! 

20/10/2020 at 11:10 AM Permalink