Golf among the grapes

By ANDREW MARSHALL

Red Hill Estate's resident winemaker, Michael Kyberd, strides purposefully down a row of wine barrels behind the cellar door.

"I've got something I really want you to try," says Kyberd. With evident delight he draws some wine from a barrel and pours the golden liquid into a glass.

"Ripe, multi-layered, complex, focused without being broad," he enthuses, warming to his topic as he holds the glass up to the light. "But the wine speaks more articulately than I do."

Red Hill Estate typifies a large number of enthusiastic wine growers clustered on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, one hour's drive from Melbourne.

Dozens of vineyards such as Willow Creek, Dromana and Paringa Estate are set against a backdrop of stunning rural landscapes and rugged coastlines. From classic grape varieties such as pinot noir, chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon to merlot and shiraz, it's an area where some of Australia's finest cool-climate wines are produced.

But it's not just the grape that reigns supreme here. The combination of rich, red volcanic soil surrounded by rolling sand- dune country makes the Mornington Peninsula an ideal destination for the connoisseur of both golf and fine wines.

From Red Hill Estate's elevated restaurant patio, hectares of merlot and pinot noir form abstract patterns of green vines that march down the hillside towards stands of eucalypts backed by the sparkling blue waters of Western Port Bay.

"It's one of the best views of any vineyard in the world," says Red Hill Estate's owner, Sir Peter Derham, as he shakes my hand in that firm country manner.

Indeed, it might still have been one of the prettiest cattle stations in Victoria if not for the vision of Sir Peter and his wife, Lady Derham. They intended retiring here when they bought the property in 1979, but Sir Peter saw the potential for wine and planted the first vines in 1989.

A battered Akubra hat sits on top of his animated face, which sports a beaming smile. His dusty work clothes reveal him as a man who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty in the rich red soil. Over a bottle of merlot and a platter of Peninsula cheeses, we discuss the attributes of the area and, in particular, the fine wines produced here.

Red Hill Estate won gold at the 1999 Royal Melbourne Wine Show, and it's 1998 pinot noir is fast becoming a cellar door sell-out, with stocks exhausted before the next vintage is released .

The topic of conversation turns from grapes to golf. "If the vineyard hadn't worked out, I was thinking of turning the area into a golf course," he says.

Next morning, I'm taking up the challenge of the National Golf Club. As a stiff south-westerly whips across the tee, I line up my ball and take one last look at the green. About 120m away, across a deep gully of dense melaleuca scrub, it sits like an emerald island high above a no-man's land of ball-hungry woodlands. Hit it left, hit it short or hit it too long and it's a lost ball. There is little room for error.

This is the par 3 second, the club's signature hole. With topography that bucks and plunges like a raging river, the golfer needs more than the stunning coastal views over Bass Strait to calm the nerves.

This classic Robert Trent Jones jun-designed course is in rugged sand-dune country high above the Cape Schanck Coastal and Pt Nepean national parks, and offers ocean views from 16 of it's 18 holes.

On coastal land next to the National are two other courses, one of them designed by Greg Norman.

"The Moonah and Ocean courses have recently opened, making it the only 54-hole golfing facility of its kind in Australia," says Henry Cussell, director of golf at the National.

After my encounter with the National's deep bunkering, multi-tiered greens and howling winds, my golf ego is well and truly broken. It's just as well that I am basing myself next door at the Shearwater Cape Schanck Resort, complete with it's own golf course. Slipping into the spa is just reward for a demoralised golfer.

From my window-side table at the bistro, the first fairway rolls and dips and draws my eye along it's wide ribbon of grass before it crests a final hill, leaving me with only the tantalising promise of a green.

The view is enough to whet my appetite for a game tomorrow, and vies for my attention with the masterpiece of an entree placed before me; long slivers of lamb fillets marinated in a Thai honey and ginger glaze climb into a complicated spire over a bed of Asian cress.

Outside the wind is whipping the trees into a frenzy and it's hardly the weather for golf. But that's Cape Schanck for you - as tempestuous and unpredictable as the devil.

The resort is proving to be an excellent base for my golf forays in grape country. Close by is the Dunes, which is getting rave reviews as a classic links course of championship quality. From an initial ranking of 82 among Australia's top courses four years ago, it has risen to 24 this year and is also No 1 public access course in the Victoria Golf Course Guide 2000.

Other quality courses in the region include Portsea, Sorrento, Flinders and Eagle Ridge.

Over the next few days, I knock on cellar doors and sample some fine drops while playing some of the most challenging and affordable golf courses to be found anywhere.

Casenotes:


The Shearwater Cape Schanck Resort & Golf course, ph (00613) 5950 8000, or send an email.


The National Golf Club, ph (00613) 5988 6666, send an email or visit the website.

Portsea Golf Club, ph (00613) 5984 3521, emailPortsea.


The Dunes Golf Club, ph (00613) 5985 1334.

Red Hill Estate, ph (00613) 5989 2838, email Red Hill Estate


More information: Mornington Peninsula Tourist Information, (00613) 59873078.