Here at Pizza D’oh we’re committed to selecting the finest and freshest local produce and ingredients, because it’s not just what we know about making pizza that counts, it’s also who we know.
We’re proud to partner with a number of local Mornington Peninsula suppliers to ensure your next meal doesn’t just taste incredible, but supports the local community too.
Sustainable. Environmentally friendly. Mouth-wateringly delicious.
These aren’t buzzwords to us, but the most important qualities we look for when we choose a supplier. We prefer to go better, not bigger, and whether we’re ordering meat, veggies, eggs or wine, where our food comes from is every bit as important as where it’s going.
Today we’ll be shining the spotlight on our long term wine supplier - Crittenden Estate Winery, and share their incredible pioneering story with you. If you thought your favourite Crittenden Estate chardy or pinot was just another drop from the average vineyard, think again.
Read on to learn about the team behind Crittenden Estate Winery so the next time you pop by for dinner and drinks, you’ll know exactly where your meal has come from.
Who is Crittenden Estate Winery?
There would be no Crittenden Estate Winery without Garry.
Garry Crittenden that is!
A true pioneer in the Australian wine industry, Garry was the FIRST vintner (aka ‘winemaker’) to look at the Mornington Peninsula’s climate and soil and think “these are the perfect conditions for a thriving wine region”. The result? Some of the Mornington Peninsula’s finest cool-climate wines.
Although Garry’s background was in horticulture (which helped him understand the soil) he transitioned to a career in viticulture (aka ‘wine growing’) with 5-acres of vines back in 1982. And if being the founding father of the Mornington Peninsula wine industry wasn’t enough, Garry is also credited as being the first Australian winemaker to commercialise Italian wine varieties.
If you’ve ever sat down at a restaurant or at home and enjoyed a barbera, nebbiolo, dolcetto, or sangiovese then you’ve got Garry to thank.
Why are we proud to partner with Crittenden Estate Winery?
At Pizza D’oh we’re passionate about serving you food that’s as eye-catching as it is mouth-watering, but it’s not enough to focus on the finished plate.
We’re driven to ensure the entire process from the sourcing of ingredients to whipping everything together in our kitchen, is one that’s sustainable and environmentally-friendly - and that’s exactly why we love partnering with Crittenden Estate Winery.
Conventional farming (which was responsible for 16% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions as recently as 2013) creates a significant carbon footprint. This applies to vineyards too that typically rely on a mixture of synthetic chemicals and fertilisers to support crop growth. As you can imagine, that’s not great for the environment.
Garry and the entire Crittenden Estate Winery team acknowledged this harmful impact and set out to make a change, ceasing all use of chemicals and fertilisers in 2008 - and they haven’t looked back since.
Instead, Crittenden Estate Winery cleverly uses the 50-odd tons of Marc (aka ‘the solid remains of grapes after pressing’) they generate each year and re-use them. Rich in magnesium, nitrogen and other essential elements, the excess Marc is used to create high-quality fertiliser on-site - which saves on unhealthy synthetic chemicals and avoids paying for greenhouse gas-producing trucks to have the organic waste taken away and dumped in landfill.
This natural preparation approach is an example of the Crittenden Estate Winery approach to winemaking. It’s a ground up approach that leads to less waste, fewer unnecessary processes, and more natural soil health.
The result? Better grapes become better wines. And since the effect on the environment is lessened, your favourite drop doesn’t just taste better, but it’s better for the planet too.
We partner with people, not businesses
Product costs. Wine availability. Logistical overheads.
If we picked suppliers based on numbers alone your Pizza D’oh dining experience would be entirely different. Having been serving our customers of the Mornington Peninsula since the early 1980’s, we know that it’s the people that create incredible businesses, not spreadsheets.
Our relationship with the Crittenden Estate Winery team started as a chance meeting at an organised wine night many years ago. Seeing the quality of the wine - and more importantly the quality of the Crittenden family creating those wines - was enough to bring our two local businesses together and we’ve got almost their entire range on our Pizza D’oh wine list to show for it!
Check out our full wine list here
We’re also proud to call Garry and his family friends, not just suppliers, with their wine-making passion clearly in the Crittenden genes as Garry’s children, Rollo and Zoe, have embraced the family business and are helping Crittenden Estate Winery to grow in 2021 and beyond.
And while the Crittenden family recently suffered the loss of Margaret Crittenden, Garry’s wife of 49 years and a driving force behind the Crittenden brand’s success, we’re excited to share Margaret’s legacy with you in every glass - incredible flavour, a passion for sustainability, and the belief that a family-run business can be just as successful as the big boys of the industry when they put love into everything they do.
Learn more about the Crittenden Family here
Supporting Mornington Peninsula local businesses
All Pizza D’oh suppliers have unique and inspiring stories that set them apart as businesses - and as people. That’s why we’re so selective with who we partner with, because we’re just as passionate about supporting our local Mornington Peninsula community as we are about serving delicious food.
With a long association between Pizza D’oh and Crittenden Estate Winery we’ve watched each other’s businesses grow, and the organic gardening principles Garry and his family have applied to their way of growing grapes inspires us to find new ways to deliver the food we’re passionate about, in a way that’s sustainable.
Oh, and if you’re looking for a recommendation on our favourite Crittenden Estate Winery wine, that’s like asking us to pick a favourite child, so we couldn’t possibly…
But if you really push us, we’d have to say the Gepetto range (just don’t tell the other wines we said that).
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