Try our award winning wines with a cheese or gourmet platter at the Longboard cellar door-cafe.Open 11am to 5pm on weekends and public holidays throughout the year and 7 days a week from 27th December to last Sunday in January.
Longboard Wines - The Wine Making Story
Impatient to start making wine, before we had our own first crop, in 2001 the Longboard label was started with the release of 1999 Shiraz, 2000 Pinot Noir and 2000 Chardonnay from fruit sourced from the King and Yarra Valleys.
Keen to use Geelong fruit, from vintage 2001 releases included a Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blends, both from Geelong fruit while the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay was again from Yarra Valley fruit.
2003 saw the first vintage that included Shiraz and Pinot Noir from our own Bellbrae Estate vineyards and was combined was with Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon from selected Geelong vineyards for the first release of an all Geelong Longboard range of wines.
Easter 2004 saw the opening of the Longboard cellar door- café and micro-winery in which was made the first of hopefully many vintages of small batch wine including the 2004 Longboard Rosé and “Wally’s” Shiraz Rousanne blend.
While the 2004 vintage Shiraz and Pinot Noir were in barrel, it was felt that a number of particular barrels had something special about them. The fruit intensity, palate weight and superb expression of “terrior” in these selected barrels led them to be kept separate and so remained in barrel for up to 6 months longer. From these it was decided to produce a limited release “Bellbrae Estate” wine, as a premium style, to compliment the established Longboard range.
The Bellbrae Estate range has now evolved to include, soon to be released, Bellbrae Estate 2005 “Addiscott” Pinot Noir, “Ironbark” Shiraz and “Winki Pop” sparkling Shiraz Pinot Noir.
The Philosophy
To quote from the back label “Longboard” wine is a direct reflection of the coastal lifestyle from which it is born. It’s a contemporary wine made from selected cool climate fruit and styled to complement fine food”. Our aim is to create wine from our own and selected local fruit that fullfills this mission while maintaining an accessible price point and relative high quality to suit today’s café lifestyle.
As the vineyard ages and our skills as a winemaker grows it is hoped that in the Bellbrae Estate range will be seen the pure expression of the Bellbrae “terrior” and so to reflect this, their label names have been taken from local landmarks that reflect the regional and wine character.
The Labels
The Longboard labels themselves illustrate an historical connection to the surfing pioneers of the region who, as friends and mentors, have epitomized and inspired the coastal lifestyle.
The Sauvignon Blanc Semillon features 3 time Olympian, founding member of the Victorian Surf Life Saver movement and surfing legend Dick Garrard, tandem surfing with his lovely wife Joan at Torquay Point in 1947.
On the Chardonnay label is Bell’s Beach pioneer surfer Joe Sweeney winning the Victorian Senior Men’s State Title, at Bell’s in 12ft surf, 1972.
The Pinot Noir label features local pioneer longboard surfer Rex “China” Gilbert at Torquay Point during the summer of 1947.
On the Shiraz label are pioneer Bell’s Beach surfers Brian “Kanga” Lowdon (left) and renowned big wave rider Alan Reid sharing a wave together at Bell’s in 1965.
Cellar Door and Cafe
Come and visit us at our cellar door/cafe. We are open weekends and public holidays 11am to 5pm and 7 days boxing day through to the end of January.