Checking Out Margaret River’s Products.

Day 12  7/11/24

I could have gotten out of writing today’s blog by saying that I couldn’t remember what had happened. We spent the day testing Margaret River’s agricultural products.

About forty years ago, someone noticed that Margaret River had very similar soil and climate to the Bordeaux region of France. Bordeaux produces some of the best and most expensive wines in the world. Two and two were put together, and it was decided that it might be worthwhile growing some grapes and seeing what happened.

What happened was that some remarkable wine was produced. The Margaret River wine industry was born. It is compulsory to visit a few, or more, wineries whilst in Margaret River. We signed up for a tour with Margaret River Vintage Wine Tours. To avoid someone being stuck as a dedicated driver or being prosecuted for drunk driving. We decided to let someone else do the driving.

Our driver/ guide, Tony, was knowledgeable and funny. We sampled the wines of three producers, Xanadu, Voyager, and Jarvis. There should have been a fourth. The power company was doing some work, which meant that the fourth winery was without power. So they canceled. We went to the local chocolate factory instead.

I liked most of the wines that I tried, but my favorites were the Cabernet Sauvignon from Voyager and Jarvis. We didn’t like any of them enough to buy. This might have been partly due to the thought of having to transport them home. I also think that a slightly different impression of a wine is given when served 20 to 30ml to taste. This is compared to when you are served 125 to 150ml in a glass. I don’t think you get quite the same bouquet, or as full a sense of the taste.

The winery produces some pretty fine wine. The buildings and gardens are also worth seeing.

We did buy a couple of dessert wines from Jarvis. One is called WTF. It stands for Wine That’s Fortified. It is a Port, but only wine from the Douro valley can be called Port nowadays. So, they call it WTF. The other one is their take on the Italian mistella. Named Miss Ella after the owner’s late dog.

We concluded our wine tasting tour at a brewery, obviously. The Margaret River Brewhouse brews decent beer.

I welcome the explosion of craft breweries. However, I feel that most of them only do variations on a West Coast IPA. Margaret River, at least, did a few other varieties.

It was an enjoyable day, definitely best done with someone else doing the driving.