Montalto Vineyard & Olive Grove

Exceptional and well worth it. Food is special. Wine sensational. Atmosphere is perfect.

Great food, great views, HORRIBLE service. We would have stayed for dessert and wine tasting but we seemed to be invisible to the staff. Dissapointing…

Went there on a Melbourne friend’s recommendation. Meal was excellent as was the atmosphere and view. Only had a main course but my wife described the food as ‘memorable’.
Cost on a par with other establishments.
Tried out the wine beforehand at the cellar door to choose one for lunch. Impressed and ordered some to be sent home.
Would certainly recommend and if and when in the area again would certainly come back.

Amazing location, views and atmosphere. The restaurant overlooks the vineyards with large glass windows, it is just beautiful.
The caffe next door is also more casual, nice and inviting. They have a few outdoor sittings as well.
You can
1. wander around the domain, take a look at the rose garden and the numerous sculptures amongst the vines
2. Do olive oil and wine tasting (for free)
3. Have a nice lunch (in the café or at the restaurant)
We did all 3 and had a great day !
Food was good (not great) — you have a choice of 2 courses (75 $) or 3 courses (88 $). I say not great for 2 reasons:
— you have to pay an extra 10 $ to have a side dish… it is hard to understand for such a restaurant… and a bit frustrating
— one of the dishes was overcooked and dry (snapper)
The special main of the day (overnight cooked pork) was great and dessert quite original and well executed — a caramel and yoghurt parfait with meringue and banana jam ! Sweet but delicious !
The service was super slow — another reason why I am taking a second star off. And lacked attentiveness.
It is a great half day to spend on the peninsula and I would recommend it !

The Montalto is very lovely. It has a café, a cellar door open for wine tasting (free) and a nice restaurant. There is also a rose garden and they all smell amazing!
Don’t forget to book if you want to go to the restaurant.
— Cellar door: the wine was good but not amazing. The staff was friendly but I feel like the tasting was very rushed. Maybe it was because we told the employee that we had 20 minutes before our restaurant booking but it was over in 10 minutes. The wines were poured into our glasses as soon as we finished the previous one.
You can also try olive oil. Their basilic infused one is amazing and I bought a bottle ($ 23).
— the restaurant: the view of the vineyard is great /​there are large windows and you can have a view from pretty much anywhere in the restaurant. The staff was friendly.
The food was presented very well /​super lovely lay outs.
They have original suggestions (watermelon and prawns aims a starter for example — it was great!)
I had the snapper for the main and it was a bit dry. Unfortunately.
My husband and other friends had the special (a slow cooked pork piece) and they absolutely loved it!
We all had the salted caramel parfait for dessert and it was amazing.
The coffees were good too.
Overall it was a great afternoon out with the only 2 setbacks being the dry fish and the slow service (in the restaurant). I loved the fact that you can walk around in the garden, see the vines, visit the rose garden, look at the sculptures in the garden, try the wine and then have a meal.

One star for the landscape and one for the quality of ingredients.
Everything else quite disappointing …
Quantity of food per serve was at starvation level for both starters and mains (unless you like to swallow pure fat off your meat).
Service was messy (all our plates came so far apart in time I’m not even sure all our table managed to eat; there were not even napkins enough for everybody on the table) and patchy.
We were a group with 6 kids but they still put us in a corner at the far end opposite to all open spaces…

«Go to Montalto» they all said. «They» being a couple of friends who chimed in when I asked a group where we should visit on our first trip to Mornington. «There is art… and wine» they said. «You’ll love it» they said.
I admit I hadn’t heard of Montalto prior to this trip, but I put it on the list because surely my good friends knew just the place to send me, right? When we arrived I honestly thought I might have to disown them all. The place was packed. It was teeming with cars and people. Kids were running riot all over the café and grounds. «Dear God, the wine had better be bloody good…» I thought.
I always assumed that exceptional wines comes from quiet and sophisticated places, filled only with a certain ilk of wine loving snob. The kids and diversity of the Montalto crowd really thew me (and, yes, demonstrated what a snob I am).
Well it turns out that Montalto has something for everyone. There’s lawns of grass for the kids, a casual eatery for families and those wanting something less fancy-​pants, a hatted restaurant, a sculpture walk (highly recommended if you need to walk off cheese and/​or wine), easy-​to-​drink «approachable» wines like Rose and Moscato, olive oils for sampling and then what I was most surprised with, amazingly good single estate Chardonnay and Pinot.
I like their tasting set up. With two tasting areas and enough staff to cover the crowds, this was one of our most enjoyable tastings over the weekend. We were served by Justin and he loved nerding out with us about Chardonnay, even opening bottles that weren’t listed for tasting. Good job he did because we walked away with several bottles and a very timely reminder that first impressions don’t always count.

Amazing wine and vineyard! Wish the diner was open later on Sunday for Sunday fun day with my bestie!

My favourite winery. Not just because of the food and the service but vineyard is amazing.
My favourite thing about this winery is the picnics you can book. Anywhere from 2 people up to 8 people. You get to do a wine tasting before you head down through the vineyards to your secluded location where you get to chill out for 4 hours. During the wine tasting you can buy wine and they will deliver it to your picnic spot along with your lunch. After your lovely picnic, you head back up to the restaurant and enjoy coffee/​tea.

I’m no wine connoisseur, but the wines here were just delightful.
In fact the whole vineyard was delightful. There are two choices of where you can eat, the more formal restaurant or the outdoors casual café. We went for the café and enjoyed the sunshine, wine and pizzas. The backdrop simply is stunning and after you complete your meal, you must go out into the vineyards and see all the different sculptures.
Perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon!

The Mornington Pensinsula is one of the great regional areas surrounding Melbourne where day trippers can consume cheese, wine, olives and poke around cutesy over priced tourist shops. Hello adult playground!
Montalto Vineyard is just over an hours drive from Melbourne and is located outside Balnarring. It is one of the regions larger wineries and consistently busy tourist attractions. The winery consists of a beautiful indoor/​outdoor restaurant and wine tasting/​buying space. Sure, get your free mouthfuls of wine, this is only half of Montalto’s appeal. it was kinda busy when we went so we only had the patience for one sample. The real attraction is the SCULPTURE GARDEN!
The winery backs onto a rolling hill of vineyards and is dotted with cute and bizarre sculptures. There is a walking trail crossing a small creek over to the next undulating hill. Its a beautiful green space where one can frolic and lie peacefully after a few glasses of wine. Just make sure some one else is driving.