Mornington Peninsula Winery Tour - Lunch Included

Great tour, great wine, and great guide

Our tour guide (Ian) was exceptional. Not only did he know the wineries, he knew the history, geography and all the vendors. Great experience.

via Viator

Beautiful area, some nice wines but the tour guide let us down.

We had a lovely day out - there were only us and one other couple. The venues we all visited were good (although the wines weren't some of the best we have had on the Penninsula. But a couple of things let it down. The location for lunch (which we had platters included was very scenic. However to purchase a bottle of wine to drink with lunch you could only order with a QR code and they added a $20 surcharge to bring the bottle to the table! You literally couldn't go up and order one. We thought that was a bit of a mark up. But the most disappointing thing was the driver we had. It wasn't the usual one, I believe he may be a fill in driver. He picked us up and didn't introduce himself at all, nor did he give us any information on the day's plans. About 30 mins into the trip he pulled into a service station - we assumed to get petrol. But instead it was to get himself a coffee. So we all had to wait 10 minutes in the van for him to get his coffee. It was very odd. Then we were absolutely sweltering with too much heating in the van which he couldn't seem to feel and we felt awkward about saying anything - given he had been so silent. I finally spoke up and he adjusted it. We stopped at a lookout and I asked him what we were looking at (out to sea) and he responded with "I don't know" and we had to Google where we were. It was just really disappointing that he didn't tell us anything about any of the vineyards we were going to ahead of our arrival and his only concern was how long we would be somewhere and what time to be back out to him. So we were going into every venue with little information. Finally when I tried to engage him in conversation he said "I don't drink wine". He was really little more than an uber or taxi driver and let the whole day down. We were lucky we had other nice people on the tour and during the breaks they were talking to us about how they felt let down also. I did write directly to the Manager and he was not very apologetic at all and seemed to be in denial that this could have happened. I told him I had read another review online that made similar comments and he asked me to show it to him. After a couple of emails going back and forth I gave up. I didn't want a refund I just had suggested to him very politely that the person driving us required more training. The response was very disappointing and given I'm still thinking about it six months later says it wasn't resolved well by him. I wanted to alert others to this so you can in with your eyes wide open.

Response from the operator: Hi Paula, Thanks for the feedback. We take driver standards seriously, and getting a coffee mid-tour without checking in with guests first was a poor call on his part — we have addressed it with him directly. Just to clarify for other readers: a glass of wine is included with lunch, so there's no need to purchase a bottle separately. Lunch at Green Olive was chosen deliberately, offering a platter as a change from the usual wood-fired pizza — it's a point of difference we're proud of and it's on our website. We're a small, relaxed crew who genuinely want everyone to have a great day out, and we appreciate you flagging the driver issue with us at the time — We have addressed this with our driver. Wishing you all the best on your travels. Kind regards,

via Tripadvisor

Highly enjoyable tour

I'd been to the Yarra Valley before so was pleased to find a tour of the Mornington Peninsula, with a smaller group. After a stop at Arthur's Seat for the view, our entertaining driver and host Ian took us to 4 wineries which were all very good, the last of which having a Chocolaterie on site to finish the day nicely. We never felt rushed and it was a very pleasant and relaxing day. Cheers.

via Tripadvisor

Winery Tour

Was a lovely day out - pick up was hassle-free and well on time with the commuter bus ride to the Peninsula was comfortable. The 4 winery visits were good, all with great ambience and 3 were informative with generous wine tasting opportunities. Our only hiccup was the lunch/wine served at Green Olive Winery. We were shown a tasting platter menu to choose from, along with the choice of either a 'white wine', a 'red wine' or a 'mixed wine' paddle, prior to arriving, to ensure our lunch was ready and waiting for us. The only issue here was that the food menu we were given to select from was not what was served upon arrival. When queried as to why we did not receive what had been ordered, the winery staff member politely advised quite a few of us, 'yeah, the menu has changed - we use to serve that, but not any more'. We passed this info on to our driver and felt for him, as he was not aware that the menu he had been provided to show the tour group to select from by the Winery, hadn't been updated to reflect what was available. The wine paddle served with the lunch came out with a laminated notice giving info on the various wines. No personal interaction, so felt this winery to be a tad lacking, compared to the other 3 visited on our tour. Would recommend the day out, but lunch was disappointing compared to what was expected / anticipated and feel that this winery let the day down.

via Viator

Great day - wonderful wine - lacked a proper tour guide

This was an excellent day at a great location with wonderful wine , food and people to meet . It was all very efficient and an easy day . The only feedback I will give is that I know that other groups had tour guides who lead the day , bringing people together , giving information about the area and the wine and generally entertaining the group. We had a really nice guy but his only role was to drive us from A to B . We could have arranged an Uber driver to do that for a considerably cheaper price . No criticism of the driver who was charming and efficient - I think we just got a bit unlucky compared to other tour groups who benefited from genuinely passionate wine tour guides who bought that magic to the day - overall a great day .

via Tripadvisor