Dexter Wines

Tod Dexter travelled to the US for a ski season, afterward becoming an apprentice winemaker at Cakebread Cellars, a well-known Napa Valley establishment. After 7 years he returned to the Mornington Peninsula, planting pinot noir (4ha) and chardonnay (3.1ha) in ’87. To keep the wolves from the door he became winemaker at Stonier and leased his vineyard to them. Having left Stonier to become the Yabby Lake winemaker, and spurred on by turning 50 in '06, he and wife Debbie established the Dexter label. The quality of his wines has been impeccable, the pinot noir especially so. -JAMES HALLIDAY