Mornington Peninsula - The Wandering Palate

Tod Dexter knows as much as anyone about this Peninsula and his 2011 releases were a triumph given the difficult vintage conditions that year. In 2012 the weather Gods were much kinder, indeed this looks to have been a very good vintage indeed. Read More >

Buying Wine, Profiled Wineries | Related to: Australia, Chardonnay, Dexter, Mornington Peninsula, Pinot Noir |

Our Wandering Palate Melbourne correspondent, Matthew Wilson, goes mushroom hunting down on the Mornington Peninsula armed with a bucket load of local pinot noir. Read More >

New World Pinot Noir, On the Wine Route, Produce | Related to: Australia, Mornington Peninsula, Mushrooms, Pinot Noir, Winery Visits |

In the middle of autumn there is nothing better than venturing down to the Mornington Peninsula for the weekend. Read More >

Restaurants | Related to: Autumn, Flinders, Gastro Pub, Mornington Peninsula | 1 comment

From a lost play by Eubulos, (c.405 BC - c.335 BC)
‘For sensible men I prepare only three kraters (large vase used to mix wine): one for health (which they drink first), the second for love and pleasure, and the third for sleep. After the third one is drained, wise men go home.

The fourth krater is not mine any more - it belongs to bad behaviour; the fifth is for shouting; the sixth is for rudeness and insults; the seventh is for fights; the eighth is for breaking the furniture; the ninth is for depression; the tenth is for madness and unconsciousness.’

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.

But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defence of the new.”

As uttered by the vitriolic restaurant critic Anton Ego, in the film “Ratatouille”, after his epiphany.