LA VETTA was awarded ‘Premium Hoyel Restaurant of the Year’ at the 2026 Victorian Accommodation Awards for Excellence.
Self-proclaimed hidden gem, Marnong Estate is nestled into the hills looking to the Macedon Ranges, only 40 minutes from the Melbourne CBD.
With a working vineyard that produces award-winning wines, boutique accommodation offering, and multiple dining outlets, it’s a curated experience to dine and stay at Marnong Estate. This historic homestead has undergone signific growth to become the culinary location it is today.
At the 2026 Victorian Accommodation Awards for Excellence, La Vetta took out a win in the prestigious category, Premium Hotel Restaurant of the Year. Their local produce, attention to detail, outstanding service delivery, and overall luxury experience was a stand-out.
We chatted to General Manager, Jonny Trow to understand more about the property, its growth trajectory and what winning at the Awards meant to the team.
What makes Marnong Estate so special?
Marnong Estate truly feels like a world away from the moment you drive through the gates. I want our guests to feel transported, almost as though they’ve arrived at an international destination, despite being so close to
Melbourne. The sheer scale of the property and the gardens is something I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of. Even now, there are days when I arrive at work and find myself reminded of just how extraordinary the setting is.
What I also love about Marnong is the diversity of experiences within the one Estate. You can come for lunch, celebrate a milestone, attend an event, stay the night or simply spend some time exploring the property, and each visit can feel completely different. There’s a sense of escape here that I think is quite rare this close to the city.
How long have you been at the property and how have you seen it grow?
I’ve been with Marnong Estate for just over three years now. When I originally left my previous role in the city, managing a four-story hospitality venue, I genuinely thought I was moving into a slower pace of life, I remember thinking I was going “out to pasture” in my hospitality career. What I found was quite the opposite.
I arrived at an Estate that was ready to grow at an extraordinary rate. All the pieces were there; they just needed some reshuffling and aligning to really start unlocking the potential that has always been there.
I got a taste of that potential very quickly. In my first week, we held what was then our first petting zoo event, and the response was enormous. Having survived the day, which I then ranked as the busiest day of my 15-year hospitality career, I realised just how much demand there was for what Marnong could offer, both from our local community and from people travelling to experience the Estate.
Since then, I’ve had the privilege of growing alongside the business and watching many of those pieces begin to fall into place. When I look at what Marnong was when I first arrived compared with what it is today, the transformation has been significant.
Looking forward, what makes you most excited and inspired at Marnong Estate?
What excites me most is how much room we still have to grow. We’re looking at how we can expand our wedding spaces to meet the
demand we’re seeing, while also thinking much bigger about the future of our accommodation offering. At the moment, our accommodation has a beautiful boutique quality, but the opportunity is to grow that into something capable of supporting a true destination location, whether that’s for a wedding, a corporate retreat or simply a few days away.
The horizon is incredibly bright for Marnong. Ultimately, I’d love to see the Estate continue evolving into a destination in its own right, where everything you could want from a great getaway exists right on the doorstep of the accommodation, somewhere you can escape to for a few hours or immerse yourself in for a few days.
As the General Manager, what does it mean to take away such a significant win at the recent awards?
There is an enormous amount of hard work that happens behind the scenes from our incredible teams here at Marnong. It truly takes a village to create a meaningful guest experience in just one of our outlets, so to receive recognition like this means a great deal. For me, the award is recognition not only of the direction we’re heading in, but of how much we’ve grown together as a team and the level of service we’re now able to deliver consistently.
Most importantly though, this award belongs to the team. They came through an incredibly long and busy summer, maintained their smiles and their service standards, and continued
to push themselves to make every guest experience better. At La Vetta, we’ve worked hard to create our own style of hospitality elevated, but genuinely warm, with that sense of generosity and familiarity you associate with Italian family dining. To see the team recognised for delivering that experience means the world to us, and I’m incredibly proud of what they’ve achieved.
How do you execute service excellence across La Vetta and your other outlets? What are the team encouraged to focus on?
Each of our outlets has its own personality and its own style of service, but there are a few things that should always feel consistent across Marnong; personable, warm and approachable hospitality.
“Know the steps, but forget the script.” We can teach sequences of service and give people the tools they need to do their job well, but great hospitality happens when you allow personality to come through.
Hospitality is quite a unique industry in that when your team is genuinely having a good time, it translates directly into the experience of your guests. Our leaders work hard to keep morale high and our service sequences simple, so once the fundamentals are taken care of, our people have the freedom to do what they do best, connect with guests and have some fun with it. To me, you can’t fake great hospitality. People know when you’re genuinely there with them in the experience rather than simply going through the motions. Those authentic interactions are what people remember, and ultimately that’s what we want a visit to Marnong to feel like.
One thing I think is particularly important to Marnong’s story is the balance between becoming a true destination and remaining connected to our local community. As we grow, I never want Marnong to become somewhere people feel they need a special occasion to visit. We can host beautiful weddings, significant events and elevated dining experiences, but we can also be the place a local family decides to visit on a Sunday afternoon. I think there’s something quite special about being able to exist in both of those worlds.
For me, the challenge and the opportunity as we continue to grow is making sure we never lose that sense of warmth and accessibility. The Estate may become bigger and the experiences more diverse, but ultimately hospitality still comes down to how somebody feels while they’re here.
We can’t talk about the delicious food and upscale offering at La Vetta without talking to La Vetta Head Chef, Ashleigh Mckay.
What does it mean to you to have La Vetta recognised at the Victorian Accommodation Awards for Excellence as the Premium Hotel Restaurant of the Year?
For me it’s an extremely proud moment, there is so much work that goes on behind the scenes from the kitchens to the front of house and the whole team at Marnong estate. Being recognised for this award is a reflection of our teamwork and what we are trying to create here at La Vetta.
We want people to come in and have and amazing experience enjoy the food we offer, feel the sense of hospitality and connection to the estate and the land that surrounds it.
Being recognised as Premium Hotel Restaurant of the Year gives us more motivation to keep delivering something we can be proud of.
How do you curate your seasonal menus? What are your priorities during this process?
The first process for me always starts with the produce. Being in Melbourne we are lucky to have some incredible seasonal ingredients; I like to let what’s available at the time of year to influence the menu.
My priorities while creating our menu, is flavour first, and then seasonality and quality of the ingredients and sourcing local where I can. I also want the menu to have an Italian theme at heart whilst showcasing our beautiful Victorian produce and native ingredients.
There are a range of dining options at Marnong Estate, do you have a favourite?
I’m probably a little biased, but I’d have to say La Vetta. What I love is, in La Vetta, it gives us the opportunity to showcase what we can do with the produce around us, while creating an experience to our customers that feels really special. Seeing the sun set every night through our windows is a magical experience.
But I also love that Marong estate has an array of different dining experiences for different occasions, a romantic dinner or special occasion at La Vetta, celebrations and casual Italian bistro dining at Cucina, family outings on the lawn Café Vista, and the larger scale events with our many function spaces we really have it all in one destination which I feel makes us really special and unique.
Looking forward, how will you innovate and continue to be creative at La Vetta?
For me the biggest thing for us is to never become complacent, winning an award is amazing but with that it set a high standard for where we go next. I want to continue to explore new techniques with our team, different ingredients and showcasing Victorian and Australian native produce, and incorporating these to flow with Italian dining and not use them just for the sake of it they need to make sense with the dish. I want Lavetta to keep evolving and we want our customers to come back and experience something familiar but still be surprised by what we are creating.
Learn more about Marnong Estate by heading to marnongestate.com.au
2335 Mickleham Rd, Mickleham, VIC 3064
03 9216 3300