Tokar Estate is a family-owned and -operated winery, restaurant and cellar door that boasts spectacular views of the Yarra Valley. The beautiful estate encourages visitors to taste wines in the cellar door or dine in the award-winning restaurant, where they can experience a seasonal menu of modern Australian cuisine. When owners Leon and Rita Tokar purchased the property in June 1995, hoping to produce grapes for their own consumption, the land was covered in thistles, tussock grass and teeming with snakes. True perseverance saw the couple transform the property into a usable piece of land, and they soon found that the fabulously positioned site, with its extremely fertile soils, was an ideal location for a modest planting of pinot noir.

The owners have never taken the fortuitous location for granted. Rather, they work hard to ensure the quality of its fruit is always improving. Tim Scanlon, the vineyard’s viticulturalist, tends the vines by hand. Since 2012, the winery has reduced cropping levels to ensure exceptional fruit is produced and it has implemented more sustainable vineyard practices, such as minimising herbicide use to encourage soil microfauna and native grasses that harbour beneficial insects.

With this humble beginning, Leon Tokar’s vision was born and in 1996, the vineyard was established with 12.5-hectares under vine, and it’s been producing premium fruit since 1998. In 2024, winemaker Chloe Earl joined the Tokar Estate team, bringing with her a wealth of winemaking experience gained from several wine regions of Australia and France. Her passion for creating high-quality, elegant wines will ensure the continued success of the winery in the next chapter of the Tokar Estate story.

Tokar Estate specialises in Yarra Valley single-vineyard wines, producing a diverse range of white, rosé and red wines. The varieties made under the Tokar Estate label include chardonnay, pinot noir, tempranillo, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and most recently the addition of prosecco. Alongside the core range, there are a few reserve releases made only in the best of years with the flagship wine, “The Aria” being the most special of them.