Geelong – Click to enlarge
Geelong – Click to enlarge
The Geelong wine region forms part of Victoria’s Port Philip wine zone. The zone horseshoes around the state’s capital Melbourne and is shared with Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley, Macedon Ranges, and Sunbury. Only an hour’s drive southwest from the heart of Melbourne, it is highly accessible for a long weekend for interstate visitors.
Centred around the town of Geelong, the region celebrates that all of its wineries are family owned and operated, with no corporate presence. This makes for a more personal visit, with a high chance the people you meet are the owners or winemakers at the vineyard. The majority of Geelong wines are estate grown and hand-crafted.
In the mid-nineteenth century, Geelong was the most important wine region in Victoria, perhaps even Australia. The regions first commercial vintage was produced by Swiss immigrant vignerons in 1845. In 1861 there were 225 acres of vine, and by the end of that decade, 400 acres, with wines being exported to Europe. Vines continued to expand until 1875 when the vine pest phylloxera was discovered in Fyansford. The issue became political, and with public pressure mounting, the Victorian Government ordered the removal of all vines. All vines were eradicated, which led to a winemaking hiatus of nearly 100 years.
This was until wine enthusiasts Daryl and Nini Sefton realised the opportunity to re-establish Geelong as a premium wine-growing region. They planted Idyll Vineyard in 1966, closely followed by Tom Maltby at Mount Anakie. This led to the 1996 renaissance, and the region now boasts more than 150 vineyards.
Geelong is further divided into three sub-regions; The Bellarine, with its maritime climate; the Moorabool Valley, offering a rich and warm continental style; and the Surf Coast & Otways, with its rugged exposed coastline leading to strong ocean breezes. Each sub-region displays its own unique characteristics.
