My wife and I will be heading to Australia before too very long and plan to spend a week or more driving around SW WA with some cousins from Victoria. I’m hoping to be able to visit some wineries and would appreciate suggestions on interesting producers to visit in the Margaret River area and elsewhere in the SW. On a previous trip we checked out Clairault, Cape Mentelle, Vasse Felix and Voyager.
Any restaurant recs for Perth, Fremantle, Margaret River and Albany also would be greatly appreciated.
Too long since we’ve been to offer any restaurant recco.s, but some wine recco.s and a couple of random memories.
You’ve visited Voyager, which would normally be a recommendation for the gardens, but actually I think they are pretty capable on the wines, though the cellar door can suffer coach parties.
Woodlands are no secret any more, but a seriously impressive outfit.
Juniper Estate are pretty good value and still a bit under the radar
Woody Nook may not be the best wines (but they can surprise), however the setting for their winery is idyllic.
Plenty of other established big names such as Cullen, Gralyn, Moss Wood, Howard Park etc., but it can be fun to follow any local advice on up and coming smaller operations (Brown Hill were one that got a couple of mentions on an earlier trip). I’d be interested to know how Rockfield were getting on, as they were very low profile & aiming for a more European style. Likewise Thompson Estate whose cellar door was still being built when we tried to visit, but had a type of ‘busman’s holiday’ winemaking arrangement to start with, where they contracted local specialists to make the wines (from the grape varieties) they were best known for. What I tasted was good & cracking value.
Other stuff
Margaret River Venison was perhaps for us the pick of the burgeoning peripheral businesses that have emerged to complement / benefit from the now quite serious wine tourism. We were less impressed by the cheese place. Whatever your preference, these places do make a nice break from the cellar doors
We were very taken by their cured meats.
Art (& crafts) is thriving in the area. Robert Juniper of the winery family mentioned above had a strong name local. There was a glass blower using very vibrant orange/reds that very much reminded of the local landscape. I think Wilyabrup dreaming was where we bought our ‘Bunyip’ teapot that we still have today. I can still recall the exchange with the owner/potter, where we off the cuff went into a deep conversation about the charming but elusive Bunyips. My poor partner by the end of it was doubting herself that they weren’t real, so confidently were two people (who had never met) spinning these recollections out.
Margaret River township had certainly become a little touristy the last time we went there, and no doubt is more so now. It wasn’t unpleasant, but shouldn’t distract too much from the wineries themselves. Plenty of info at the slick tourist info site http://www.margaretriver.com/
I’ll second the Juniper wines. Xanadu has been making some good Cabernet lately. I quite like Capel Vale and Howard Park as well.
There is a lot of good craft beer in Western Australia as well, if you need a change after a hard day of wine tasting. Look out for Feral and Nail.