Margaret
River, Western Australia
Part
1:
introduction
In
the last few years, I’ve visited Australia a number of times,
but I’d never found my way over to Western Australia, and its
most celebrated wine region Margaret River. The reason? Not any
perceived lack of quality in the wines; more because of the
isolated location.
Did
you know that Perth is closer to Singapore than it is to Sydney?
And Margaret River itself is a 3.5 hour drive from Perth. [You can
drive it quicker, but you’ll almost certainly get zapped by a
radar trap, of which there is always at least one on the route, if
you try to average more than the rather conservative 110 km/h
speed limit]. It’s not a journey you undertake on a whim.
So this time I decided to visit Western Australia. I was
travelling with my family, so I restricted myself to Margaret
River, although I’d have liked to head further down south to the
regions of Denmark, Pemberton, Mount Barker and Frankland. But it
was April, and it would have been decidedly chilly there by then.
After doing the wine leg of the trip, we then drove back to Perth
and flew up to Exmouth, 1300 km north, for the wonders of the
Ningaloo Reef.
Aside
from its relative isolation Margaret River is a dream wine tourism
destination. There are dozens of estates making decent wine, in
easy driving distance of each other, almost all eager to receive
visitors. And then, when you’ve had enough wine, there are
spectacular beaches for both surfing and bathing within 10
minutes’ drive of the vineyards. The town of Margaret River
itself has a spattering of restaurants and the usual array of
shops, but the best eating is generally to be had at lunchtime at
some of the winery restaurants. There is plenty of accommodation
in the region, ranging from budget to swanky: you can stay either
in the town, or in the bush, or at the beach.
Margaret
River is a new wine region. Before the mid-1960s it simply
didn’t exist. That it became a wine region at all is down to the
foresight of Dr John Gladstones, a horticulturalist by training
who developed an interest in winegrowing. Through his exhaustive
trawling through weather data, and with his knowledge of geology,
Gladstones identified Margaret River as having ideal climate and
soils for quality winegrowing. Overall, his assessment of the
local climate was that it was like right bank Bordeaux in a good
vintage. His work encouraged a band of pioneers to begin planting
vineyards here.
[As
an aside, Gladstones’ book Viticulture
and Environment is well worth a read if you have a serious
interest in viticulture. It’s available from Winetitles in
Australia, and will give you all the information you could
possibly want on the intricacies of Margaret River, as well as
many of the world’s other leading regions.]
History
has proven Gladstones right. Margaret River has now established
itself as one of Australia’s top regions, making perhaps
Australia’s best Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as impressive
Chardonnay and stylishly fresh Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blends.
Where else in Australia produces Bordeaux blends with as much
definition as Margaret River? Only Coonawarra comes close, and
then only sporadically.
I visited some of the top names in Margaret River and came
away impressed. The wines were typically fresh and had real
definition to them. As well as the classics – Cabernet,
Chardonnay and Semillon Sauvignon – there were some nice Shiraz
wines, some fresh Rieslings and deeply impressive Malbecs. So
impressive were some of the Malbecs that this would be my tip for
the next big thing for the region. Over the following weeks I’ll
be writing up my experiences in the usual rather nerdy wineanorak
fashion.
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