A country escape without leaving Melbourne’s city limits

The place

Marnong Estate, Mickleham, Victoria

Check-in

Driving into Melbourne’s deep north on a Friday afternoon is not for the faint-hearted. Following the traffic up Old Sydney Road to the city limits, one side is new estates, the other is a flashback to years past – farmlands and the vineyards of the Sunbury wine region, first planted in the 1850s. Reached via a grand gateway and up the vine-lined driveway, there are only 24 rooms, so check-in at the small, portable office is swift.

The space

At 485 hectares, Marnong is the tiny region’s largest winery. The main hub comprises the original homestead, three restaurants and cafes, event spaces and a cellar door. To one side of this little village are a string of cabins. The property is 300 metres above sea level, so it’s much fresher than the fuggy city I’ve left behind; pack accordingly.

The room

Aside from the four beautiful period rooms in the 1840s bluestone homestead, each of the 10 contemporary cabins contains a studio and a one-bedroom suite. My suite includes a bedroom, lounge, bathroom and a small kitchenette stocked with nuts, cheeses and pretzels; like the Ink & Water toiletries, all are Melbourne-made.

Decorated in layers of restful grey, a smart navy wall adding ping to my bedroom. One wall is all glass, framing a view of immaculate rows of cool-climate vines that flow down the ridge’s flanks and out to the Macedon Ranges beyond, for a bucolic morning wake-up or a night spent stargazing.

Food + drink

Marnong’s food is its calling card; under chef Marc-Andre Vadeboncoeur, its eateries range from the little Vista takeaway cafe for picnickers on the lawns to Cucina 3064. Haunted by a showy peacock, Cucina churns out really good pizza and such Italian classics as burrata with caponata salad and Mooloolaba prawn ravioli. The fine-dining hero, La Vetta, was hatted in late 2025; come for the Chef’s Journey menu, which starts with tinned Sicilian anchovies and cornetti of Ora King salmon with yuzu gel, but it’s the steaks, deftly grilled over coal or seasoned wood, that win the table over.

The Italianate theme is matched by its cool-climate wines, with fiano, montepulciano and sangiovese in its brace of food wines. While Marnong is best known for its single-estate chardonnay, its frothy prosecco rosé is the perfect starter. There’s also a farm shop-cum-cellar door onsite stocking breads, cheeses, relishes and its wines, great value from just $25.

Out + about

For the deep north – think Craigieburn, Mickleham, Greenvale – Marnong Estate is the place to get out and about, fulfilling the property’s aims of creating a community hub. Locals drop in to picnic and drink coffee or wine on the lawn as the sun sets, and the free tickets for its petting zoo are snapped up in minutes, because everyone wants a selfie with the pushy alpacas and camel. Tours of its dramatic new winery building are slated to launch later this year.

The estate is 20 minutes’ drive from Melbourne Airport, and an hour to Bourke Street Mall (although not on a Friday afternoon). Far better to pop over to Rupertswood Mansion in Sunbury to visit the home of The Ashes, and keep going to explore the other cellar doors in this tiny, overlooked wine region.

The verdict

For a country getaway within the city limits, Marnong Estate is a one-stop shop of good wine, food and accommodation, guaranteed to diffuse city stress.

Essentials

From $279 a night for a studio cabin, $324 for a one-bedroom cabin, $575 for a homestead room. 2355 Mickleham Rd, Mickleham, Vic. Phone: (03) 9216 3300. See marnongestate.com.au

Our score out of five

★★★★

Highlight
Score a window table at west-facing La Vetta to watch the sun sink over the Macedon Ranges. It’s hard to believe there’s a population of more than 5 million at your back.

Lowlight
Peacocks aside, the lowlight is getting up for breakfast in cavernous, rather brisk Cucina 3064 – I should have ordered room service and snuggled up in the warm cabin with its vineyard views.

The writer stayed as a guest of Marnong Estate. See marnongestate.com.au