Mulline Vintners

Wild ferments and Geelong decisions

Wild ferments set the pace for Ben Mullen, winemaker at Mulline Vintners in Geelong, where the work begins with fruit chosen for local difference rather than broad regional shorthand. He came to the bench through Adelaide University, then through cellar door work in Barossa and winemaking at Torbreck, before time as a vintage worker at Domaine Dujac in Burgundy in 2013. From 2014 he worked as winemaker at Yarra Yering, then from 2015 as assistant winemaker at Craggy Range in New Zealand, later becoming winemaker at Craggy Range in Hawkes Bay. In 2017–2018 he was chief winemaker at Clyde Park. Since 2018, he has been owner and winemaker at Mulline Vintners.

That progression matters because Mulline is built around selection and separation. Geelong is not treated as a single taste. Mullen has spoken plainly about wanting to show the difference between Geelong, the Moorabool Valley and Bellarine Peninsula, and the winery follows that conviction through single-site bottlings and regional blends. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sit at the centre of the range, with Fumé Blanc, Syrah and other cool-climate varieties extending the same question across different fruit.

Solids, barrel and single sites

The method at Mulline Vintners keeps the handling close to the material. Wild fermentation runs across the range. For whites, Mullen uses a lot of solids; juice is not racked or settled after pressing, but sent directly to barrel. Apart from a portion of the regional Sauvignon Blanc, the whites generally avoid malolactic fermentation, holding line and freshness rather than rounding the wines too far.

Pinot Noir often carries whole bunch in measured proportion, with one recent example noted at 12.5% alcohol, 20% whole bunch, 15% new oak and six months in barrel. Those figures suit the house language: texture without heaviness, oak as frame rather than statement. Halliday Wine Companion’s coverage of the 2025 vintage release noted 24 wines, 18 of them from single sites, a count that shows how closely the program is tied to parcel and place. The vineyard work reaches across Moorabool Valley sites including Sutherlands Creek and Bannockburn, Bellarine Peninsula sites including Portarlington, Drysdale and Curlewis, and Surf Coast sites including Anakie.

A cellar door in Sutherlands Creek

The cellar door sits at Sutherlands Creek, in the Moorabool Valley near Geelong, with the winery’s own vineyard footprint listed at 10 hectares. The public room is a boutique, collaborative space with other local producers, aligned with the wines: not a stage set, but an extension of the regional argument. The address, 131 Lumbs Road, places the house inside the country it keeps returning to in bottle.

Mulline currently makes wine in a shared winery while seeking a long-term dedicated site, so the place has two parts: the cellar door where the region is poured, and the working cellar where Mullen continues to sort Geelong into smaller, clearer lines. The glass that carries the thesis most directly is Bannockburn Syrah 2022.