Paringa Estate

Paringa Estate is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.
Only the best of Australia’s best wineries are ranked as a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.

In 1984 Lindsay McCall walked onto a derelict orchard at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula and – with no formal winemaking training and against the advice of local in-the-knows – set about creating a modern winemaking legend. Indeed he – along with Main Ridge Estate and Stonier – built the Mornington Peninsula, in wine terms, up from scratch, and stamped it firmly and forever on the world wine map. Paringa Estate has been an outstanding Mornington Peninsula producer with a relentless focus on quality ever since. Interestingly, and crucially, Lindsay McCall was a high school geography teacher prior to (and indeed during) his wine calling, and is the son of a milk farmer. Lindsay McCall’s connection to, and knowledge of, the land and a life on it is innate, observed, learned and immense. A wine person could not possibly have a better grounding or inclination; he is the prototype of the winemaking and wine growing ideal.

It shows in the wines. Paringa Estate is a marvel in that it has never slowed down, or let up, or ever considered loosening its grip on the quality tiller. It’s a benchmark producer of benchmark producers. If anything, the wines of Paringa Estate have improved over the years, as the outstanding quality of the fruit has been afforded a clearer run. Both up and down the price range at Paringa Estate, fine wine is always delivered. All of this excellence is built around Pinot Noir, most notably and most impressively, though chardonnay and shiraz from Paringa Estate are also routinely stellar, and have been forever, the latter in particular against the theoretical odds – not that, it has been proven time and again, you would ever bet against the geography-teacher-milk-farmer’s-son-turned-vigneron McCall or, in more recent times, his son Jamie.

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