Marnong Estate: the new kid on the block
Huon Hooke in Winery Spotlights Become a member to view this article
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Aerial view of the Marnong Estate in Sunbury. Marnong Estate Wines
Alex Beckett has landed a dream job: working for a wealthy boss who has a grand ambition and the money to make it come true.
Formerly winemaker Briar Ridge in the Hunter Valley, Alex’s new job is with Marnong Estate, in the Sunbury region, close to Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport.
Strano has spent AUD $22 million on a winery that will be processing grapes from 34 ha of vines—although there will are a few more hectares still to be planted.The owner is Dino Strano, a Sicilian migrant who made his money in the construction industry. Strano has spent AUD $22 million on a winery that will be processing grapes from 34 ha of vines—although there will are a few more hectares still to be planted. The winery will have the capacity for 250 tonnes of grapes. Few small wineries have an optical grape sorter, an expensive piece of kit, but Marnong Estate does.
As Alex says, Dino has made a lot of money and genuinely wants to leave something behind, to build something of quality.
“He loves wine and wants to make Australia’s best wine,” says Alex.
Marnong Estate is cool and elevated, at 310 metres altitude. The Sunbury region is a large area, “a classic but not well-known region”, which is home to two historic wineries, Craiglee and Goona Warra. Craiglee is famous for its shiraz, but its mesoclimate is much warmer than Marnong, which Alex describes as being located in a wind tunnel, and much colder than Craiglee. It’s too cold to grow shiraz or nebbiolo. The main focus is on pinot noir and chardonnay but with some Italian grape varieties as well. 85% of the present plantings are pinot noir.
“We are colder than Mornington Peninsula,” says Alex. “Our mean growing season temperature is 14.2 degrees. Mornington’s is 15 (at Main Ridge).”
The first vines were planted in 2017, and Marnong Estate already has accommodation in the form of 10 architect designed cabins, a café and two restaurants as well as the vineyard and winery. Construction of an 80-room hotel is soon to begin. The 600-ha property, once owned by the Angliss family, is a working farm and home to a wide assortment of animals, which city children come out to Marnong Estate to see. Clearly, the Stranos are people who don’t let the grass grow under their feet.
Marnong Estate Winemaker Alex Beckett. Linkedin
“The growth has been very rapid since 2022. COVID got in the way but we’re making up for lost time. We’re still only half-way through the build,” says Alex.
Alex Beckett has been at Marnong since 2023, his first vintage being 2024. The 2024 wines are a re-launch of the brand with new labelling and four 2024 wines—two pinot noirs, a sangiovese and a montepulciano—are on sale now. There’s also a 2023 shiraz that was made in the Yarra Valley from grapes grown in a warmer vineyard a little further north from Marnong, but still Sunbury origin. Mark O’Callaghan of winemaking consultants WineNet has been involved for the initial vintages.
There are another 10ha of vines to go in—high-density pinot noir and chardonnay, and some Sicilian varieties. Marnong Estate already has fiano, dolcetto, pinot bianco, nebbiolo and prosecco planted.
Just 15 minutes from the airport and 35 minutes from Melbourne CBD, Marnong Estate is well placed to capture the interest of tourists. Time will tell if it’s also going to make the kind of splash on the wine scene that its owners covet. One thing is for sure, they’re going to give it a red-hot go.