2006 West Australian Tour Diaries Chapter Six

The 2006 West Australian Tour Diaries

Chapter Six Part Two – Day 8 - Wednesday Pemberton continued

An early morning walk was on the agenda but when we stuck our heads outside, the air was liquid. It wasn't raining, but it just as well could have been. We decided we wouldn't melt and headed off to explore the local area, initially heading up towards the forest. Brian, being smarter than the average bear decided that if we walked through the forest, we would encounter rather large droplets that were likely to drench us, so after a while, discretion being the better part of valour, we headed back in the direction from which we came. After half an hour, we got to a rather steep hill and Brian wanted to go down it. A minute ago, I said he was smarter than the average bear but doesn't he realise that if he walks down it, he is going to have to climb back up it? With a shake of the head, I headed back to the motel as he went down the hill.

About half an hour later when he got back, he said, “I met three girls walking their dog and they invited me in for sex and coffee, but I said I had to finish my walk.” The only thing I can say to that is, had they offered coffee first, he probably would have gone with them.

Brian continued, “I walked past the hotel/motel where one of the residents was sitting out on the balcony drinking his breakfast from a can of VB. I wandered on up the hill to the bakery; by the look of the population of yesterday's dried-out pies in the bakery's hot rack, this is one place we are not going for breakfast. A bit further on, along the main street at the service station which was just opening up, the attendant must have had a big night. He was going in and out of the dark area of the workshop to bring out oil bottles with very dark sunglasses firmly in place. And it was dark and drizzly! The coffee shop at the hotel was open, and judging by the odour of burnt toast that was emanating, was doing some trade.”

That was helpful, we knew where we weren't going for breakfast and I remembered from my last trip, that after three days of undrinkable coffee, there was a little place in the main street that served good breakfast, and above all drinkable coffee, so we headed there.

The bacon and eggs were good, but the short black espresso coffee was even better; Brian and I both had two cups.

Being a couple of wine tragics, we arrived at Salitage cellar door at 9:40 a.m. and had 20 minutes to kill before they opened; talk about to desperate looking for an early morning drink.

The winery is set amongst lush, picturesque gardens and is one of the originals in the area. Last time I was here, I tried a number of unreleased wines and spoke at length with both the owner (John Horan) and the winemaker. On my last visit to this winery, I spent hours here and tasted multiple vintages of their wines as well as numerous barrel samples. On that visit, I walked out impressed with the quality of their product.

We had intended this stop to be a flying one, as we had another appointment at 10:30 so we didn't want to get caught up here and stay too long, but the best laid plans of mice and bigots are subject to the vagaries of the cosmos, and our timetable went out the window when the winemaker, Patrick Coutts came into the cellar door to get a cup of coffee, and recognised me. Whilst we were having a long chat, Patrick was kind enough to open a number of bottles of wine for us to try.

Salitage 2003 Treehouse Cabernet Merlot sells for $20 at cellar door. An interesting bouquet with moderate intensity; it showed savoury nuances with underlying sweetness, and floral, red berry fruit, earthy and leafy notes, and a touch of cedar. With enough unobtrusive tannins to hold the wine together for the short term, the pure, obvious fruit is well matched and produces a medium-weight, solid wine with a supple consistency and harmonious complexity. Red cherry, green bean, leafy tobacco, and minor amounts of chocolate; the wine finishes clean and with reasonable persistence. A good, very drinkable bistro wine, it's rated as Recommended with *** for value.

Salitage 2004 Treehouse Cabernet Merlot was a finished, blended tank sample and the wine was ready to be bottled. Showing a very good, solid, elegant, and tight structure, the wine is well-backed by smooth, dusty tannins that provide a supple mouth feel and contribute to its harmonious nature. Very earthy spectrum flavours but it's ripe with underlying sweetness, and has a good finish. Medium-weight, it is brooding and needs time but looks like a good wine and is rated as Recommended with **** for value; a couple of years in the cellar will do it the world of good.

Salitage 2003 Treehouse Shiraz sells for $20 at cellar door. The bouquet doesn't show much, earth and chocolate; it leads to a palate with sweet fruit, but it is light and thin. A soft, drinkable wine with a supple consistency and elegance structure, it is rated as Agreeable with ** for value.

Salitage 2002 Pinot sells for $34 at cellar door. Showing good Pinot characters, it earthy, slightly feral, with forest floor and cherry scents which is replicated on the palate with the addition of chocolate; it finishes with good persistence. It seems a touch thin and if the acid integrates it will be quite good. Rated as Recommended with ** for value.

Salitage 2003 Pinot will sell for $34 at cellar door when it is released around May or June. Sealed in a Stelvin, as the wine had just been opened the bouquet was totally shut down. Strawberry, chocolate and with good pinosity, the wine is richer and more approachable than the previous vintage and whilst it finishes with acceptable persistence, it needs time to build complexity and fill out the back palate. Well-backed by fine-grain tannins this solid, firm wine is rated as Recommended with *** for value and the rating may improve as the wine matures.

Salitage 2002 Cabernet Blend sells for $32 at cellar door. A very sedate bouquet showing a touch varnished oak, it is very earthy with hints of coffee. Unobtrusive tannins and crisp acid support a lean-weight wine with a supple consistency, a solid, elegant and tight structure, and an agreeable complexity. The bouquet is off-sweet, with earthy, chocolate and dark cherry flavours, and is rated Recommended with ** for value.

Salitage 2004 Treehouse Pinot will sell for $20 at cellar door when it is released soon. A sweet, ripe bouquet with earthy characters translates to a palate of the cherry, milk chocolate, and earthy flavours that finish dry and clean. A lean wine with a supple consistency and harmonious complexity, it is a very drinkable wine that will be appreciated by non-red drinkers and will also be improved by food. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Salitage 2004 Pemberton is a blend of 75% Cabernet and the balance is made up with other Bordeaux varieties; it will not be released for some time. The wine was not in its best light as it had been dumbed down by its recent pre-bottling treatment. Loads of drying, dusty tannins and pure, deeply-seated fruit combine to form an ample-weight wine with a firm consistency, and structure that is solid, layered and tight. The sweet fruit is well balanced to the serious tannins; off-sweet flavours of earth and dark chocolate are offset by a layered river of sweet berry fruit; the wine finishes clean and has a well-developed complexity. A classy drop, it was the best of all line-up and rated as Highly Recommended with *** for value and that rating should improve as the wine matures around 2011.

This wine is only made when the fruit is up to the standard and they are not afraid to declassify it in lesser years like 2003.

It was an interesting visit with mixed results; ranging from some average wine to some very good wines and much of the variation may have a lot to do with vintage.

On my last trip to WA Black George was only open by appointment. I rang up the day prior to try and make an appointment, but by the time they returned my call, I had already left the area, so I was looking forward to our visit this time. In theory, an appointment is no longer necessary as the winery is supposedly open from 10.30 to 4.30 seven days a week, but not wishing to take any chances, an appointment was made weeks in advance.

When we arrived (about 10.45 although our appointment was for 10.30) there was no one around. A sign on the cellar door said “ring the buzzer, (which apparently rings in the house,) wait three minutes and if no one arrives in that time, go to the winery.” This we did, but unfortunately there was no one there either.

We hung around for some time, and as we were driving off, just after 11 a.m. Chris arrived and apologise for being late because she had to go out and buy some milk for tea.

As we got into the cellar door, we were informed that basically there were no reds left to taste. One can only wonder why Chris bothered taking me up on my request for an appointment, especially as I specifically stated, both in my e-mail and subsequent fax that I wanted to try their red wines and she was not there until after our appointment time; and a carton of milk had a higher priority than our appointment.

To say that Chris is eccentric is an understatement. Her husband “makes wine for people to drink, not to win medals” and don't enter wine shows. They do their own thing quite happily. The fact that they have sold out of red wine means they must make some reasonable stuff, but unfortunately we only got to try an $8 clean skin Pinot and one other wine that was just okay. It was interesting to note that they were complaining that they were having trouble selling their white wine.

Black George 2004 Clean Skin Pinot sells for eight dollars at cellar door. A subtle bouquet with floral aspects and some sweetness, the wine is sweet on the uptake with some pinosity and an acid finish. A light-weight wine with a supple consistency and seamless structure, it is okay for the price. Rated as Acceptable with *** for value.

Black George 2003 Cabernet Merlot sells for $20 at cellar door. A slightly volatile nose showing black fruits was replicated on the palate with some herbaceous character but the plummy Merlot sweetness dominates the palate and it finishes with clean acid. Minimal smooth tannins provide a supple mouth feel and the wine is driven by distinct fruit; it's an easy-drinking wine with good intensity. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Needless to say, this visit was pretty much a complete and utter waste of time, but that's life.

The wineries around the Pemberton area were not looking exactly great with Picardy being the standout exception and Salitage, while not exactly awe-inspiring was the only other one that was worthwhile, (at that stage I had not tasted the Batista wines); so we decided to head north and check out Fonty’s Pool. This is no boutique winery, they have a 110 hectare vineyard not far from Manjimup and it seems to take for ever to drive from the start of the vines to the cellar door.

The operation is a joint venture between Cape Mentelle who provide the winemaking skill and Fonty's Pool Farm who provide the fruit. The wines were originally made at Cape Mentelle, but it looks like more of it is taking place here as time goes by.

A dull grey misty and rainy day.

After a long, cool and wet summer, this is just what these wineries don't need now.

The winery was built in 2002 and the cellar-door which is clean, bright and a concrete and steel structure that is in keeping with the modern image, was built in 2003.

Fonty’s Pool 2004 Cabernet Merlot sells for $15.99 at cellar door. The bouquet showed a touch of VA, with fairly high toast American oak evident; the fruit was ripe and showed menthol and mint. Sweet and savoury nuances running through the wine in layers seen concocted with some residual sugar noticeable to offset the crisp acid. The tannins seemed slightly green and the wine is rated as Acceptable with ** for value.

Fonty’s Pool 2004 Pinot sells for $20 at cellar door. The bouquet showed a touch of VA with noticeable char to the oak. Minimal unobtrusive tannins combine with noticeably sharp acid and delicate fruit to form a lean, simple wine with unsweet strawberry, cherry and chocolate flavours. Rated as Agreeable with ** for value.

Fonty’s Pool 2003 Shiraz sells for $20 at cellar door. Noticeable oak with some slightly vanished characters, the bouquet is earthy and in some ways seems more like a Merlot. Dusty tannins and noticeable acid combine to form a medium-weight wine with a firm consistency, solid structure and simple complexity; unfortunately the fruit seems lacking and thin; it finishes very dry. Rated as Acceptable with ** for value.

If you want an example of Australian industrial swill, this fits the bill. The wines showed varnish oak, VA, and some of them were distinctly lacking in fruit. In varying levels, to a lesser or greater extent, this is what Parker was talking about when he was referring to industrial swill and searing acidity.

After this experience in Manjimup, we decided that the best thing to come out of it was a road heading north towards Bunbury. The wineries further north may not be great, but it's unlikely that all will be worse than what we found here. Very disappointing!

We stopped for lunch at one of the “up” towns; every second town finishes with the letters up. There is Manjimup, Boyanup, Dardanup, Mumballup, Burekup, Wokalup, Nannup, Dwellingup not to mention Cowaramup and Carbunup to name but a few. They sound like shocking diseases, I wonder if they saw a good doctor they could come up with a cure?

The first place we saw looked good, until reading the window menu I realised that it was a health food joint which was okay, but it was vegetarian to boot; I didn't feel like a sandwich made entirely of rabbit food, so we moved on. Brian then spotted a bakery that looked like they specialised in the worst type of junk food possible. In theory, they made sandwiches to order but they were made out of sight and that's always a worry. They also made hamburgers, but these were premade and kept under lights to keep them warm, so as much as I love a good hamburger, because I love a good hamburger, I wasn't going to try one here. Naturally Brian went for a pie of some description (steak with jalapeños, nice chilli bite, Recommended with *** for value); that lad really is starting to be a worry, and with very little choice, let alone a sane choice, I reluctantly went for the chippies; they were also kept under warming lights. They were edible, but only because I was extremely hungry.

I was still muttering four letter words under my breath as we got back into the car and headed north back into the Peel Geographic region, in the endeavour to try and find a winery that had wines that were worth tasting. The original plan had been to spend most of the day in the Pemberton region and then head north in the late afternoon, spending over-night just out of Perth, but we were already hours ahead of that plan and that's why were doing the wineries in this region.

We decided Ferguson Falls Winery looked interesting. It was in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between one “up” and the next “up” and down the road from what’s up. This place looked very different to most of those that we had spent time visiting over the last week. In this case, we drove past a small plot of vines and down a dirt driveway winding our way past to the back of the house. Considering the location and size of this “winery” there was a good-sized visitors' parking lot and we found a pleasant shady spot under one of the many trees. We were greeted by a large (and friendly) dog that had been taught to bark when visitors arrived, so that the owner's attention would be attracted. The cellar door was open, but we elected to wait outside until somebody arrived. It was easy to see this is a working farm as well as a winery, and once we got into the details, it all makes sense.

Three generations ago, this was a dairy farm that had been started by an immigrant Italian farmer. The current owner, Peter Giumelli spent time in his youth helping his grandfather tend the vines and watched him making his home-made wine. This eventually led to him starting his own winery. Being a dairy farm, they have complimentary marketing down to a fine art; they also sell cheese.

Ferguson Falls 2002 Cabernet Merlot sells for $16.50 a bottle or $14.50 by the dozen. A brooding bouquet showing a touch of varnished oak with good fruit below and coffee essence. Solidly backed by smooth, drying, dusty tannins the distinct fruit delivers blueberry and red fruit flavours but the tannins have a slight green edge to them. Medium-weight with a supple consistency, the wine would have been better with less acidity which is sharp on the finish. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Ferguson Falls 2003 Cabernet Merlot sells for $16.50 a bottle or $14.50 by the dozen. A simple, medium-weight, astringent wine that’s well backed by drying, puckering tannins; it has a solid structure and supple consistency. Coffee, liquorice, aniseed, plum and chocolate flavours are attractive but the wine needs time to settle. Rated as Acceptable with *** for value, the rating may improve as the wine matures.

Deluxe Transportation seen in Margaret River.

Guess what the sign on the back window says? (Answer below)

Now that's a surprise!

Ferguson Falls 2004 Cabernet Merlot sells for $16.50 a bottle or $14.50 by the dozen. This is better. A ripe nose showing strawberry and cassis spectrum fruit that leads to an intensely flavoured palate that is very without being under ripe; with chocolate, blueberry and mint, there is reasonable intensity of flavour for its ample weight. An acceptable wine for the price and style, it's rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Ferguson Falls 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $16.50 a bottle or $120 for a dozen. A big, earthy, brooding bouquet that leads to a very earthy, sour cherry flavoured palate; it’s the sort of wine that demands food. Abundant ripe dusty tannins provide a solid and firm backbone for this muscular-weight wine that is worth trying for something different. Rated as Recommended with **** for value (case price) this is a great everyday, quaffing food wine.

Ferguson Falls 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon sells for $16.50 a bottle or $14.50 by the dozen. The bouquet was a bit volatile and showed abundant varnished oak, nutmeg and spices. The drying tannins are attractive; they are almost creamy. The varnished oak over red berry spectrum fruit with a touch of liquorice, the wine seems a little green but it also seems ripe. Ample-weight with a firm but supple consistency, the acid is lively; the wine is not my style. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

The cheese was very nice so if you are in this area, the place is worth a visit. Some of the wines were not great, but they were certainly reasonably priced and the chances are, you might be able to find a bargain.

There was one thing that was extremely impressive about this winery; they use a Vintec Cabinet to keep their wine (and cheese) at the optimal storage temperature. What a smart move; if a small winery like this can do it, there is no reason why others shouldn't do it too.

There are a number of wineries in this area but unfortunately not many of them are open, but luckily Willow Bridge Estate was not far and was open, so we headed there. The property is 180 hectares, of which 60 are under vines. The vines were planted around 1996/97 and their first vintage was in 2000. According to their web site, they had a capacity of 195,000 litres in 2000 and plan to grow to a million litres by 2004. Their web site doesn't make much sense because it appears to be years out of date. One further checking, it looks like it hasn't been updated since prior to the phones going in. We were told they crush about 1200 tonnes which equals about .675 million litres of wine.

Willow Bridge 2001 Shiraz sells for $15 a single or $12 a bottle by the dozen at cellar door. The bouquet shows pure fruit with strawberry and red cherry spectrum characters which are replicated on the palate with the addition of milk chocolate, savoury spices, and white pepper. A lean wine with a supple consistency and elegant structure, it is okay as a quaffer and is rated as Acceptable with *** for value based on the case price.

Willow Bridge 2004 Cabernet Merlot sells for $15 a single or $12 a bottle by the dozen at cellar door. The bouquet of earthy black notes with red spectrum fruit leads to a very earthy palate with sour red cherry; it's very acidic and whilst it finishes with reasonable persistence, there is no real length. A lean wine with a supple consistency and simple complexity, it needs pasta. Rated as Acceptable with ** for value based on the case price.

Willow Bridge 2004 Shiraz sells for $15 a single or $12 a bottle by the dozen at cellar door. Cherry, spices and liquorice flavours finish clean with the aid of fresh acid. Medium-weight with a supple consistency, the complexity is agreeable but the wine finishes slightly short, which is not surprising as there are minimal tannins. Rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Willow Bridge 2004 Tempranillo for $17 a single or $13.60 a bottle by the dozen at cellar door. The drying tannins are unobtrusive but they quickly sneak up on you; it's sweet on the uptake but the acid cuts through the aniseed, spices and earthy characters to finish clean. A lean wine with a firm, solid structure, the flavour doesn't go all the way through as one would expect; it's rated as Agreeable with *** for value.

Willow Bridge 2002 Reserve Shiraz sells for $28 a bottle at cellar door. Lifted alcohol and varnished oak are apparent on the bouquet which leads to a palate of plum, spices, aniseed, and pepper which finishes with noticeable lively acid. The almost silky tannins have a green note to them and provide a supple mouth feel and solid backing. Rated as Recommended with ** for value.

Willow Bridge 2000 to Black Dog Shiraz sells for $60 at cellar door. A black bouquet with iodine, it's dominated by varnished and coffee oak. The palate shows coffee, iodine, sweet fruit but is not for the oak-a-phobic. Silky tannins provide a supple consistency, very solid structure and the complexity needs time to build. It seems as though there is a slight green note to the oak. Rated as Highly Recommended with * for value.

It is interesting to note, there is no Willow Bridge in the area and there is no Black Dog at the winery but the dragonflies that adorn the labels of some of the wines are actually seen in the area.

Just as relevant was that of the eight bottles opened here, three of them had cork-related problems. I didn't mention this here to single out this winery, but the level of cork failure, either TCA or random oxidisation was far too high on this trip and makes me wonder about the quality of the corks being supplied to wineries in WA. It also makes me wonder how many wineries actually test their cork batches prior to use. Whilst I didn't keep accurate track, the cork failure rate seemed higher than on comparable visits to wineries in either South Australia or Victoria. As we only tried a couple of hundred wines, that could be a statistical anomaly, but it is worth noting and was a concern to me.

By no stretch of the imagination could today’s wine tasting, which was unfortunately our last day, be considered a great success. We basically gave up and headed back to Perth early. In this part of the world, I actually had good shoe-phone reception so rang our good mate Davo to see if he was free for dinner. He was, so we arranged to meet that night.

We tried to book into the hotel we stayed at on our first night, but unfortunately it was fully booked so I got back on the shoe phone and ask Davo to check out wotif so that we could find some reasonably priced accommodation. The Commodore Hotel was $90 a night and by chance, right across the road from where we stayed the first night we were in Perth, so we knew exactly where it was, but that did not stop Brian taking a long way round to get there. In all honesty, it wasn't his fault (there is the first time for everything ) because we didn't know exactly which exit off the freeway to take.

We met Davo at the station and walked up to his favourite Chinese restaurant in Northbridge. Normally I'm not a great fan of (Cantonese) Chinese restaurants and prefer Szechwan, Thai or Vietnamese but the James Street Kitchen was good. We were initially the only Caucasians in a restaurant full of Chinese, and that's always a good sign.

We started with a bottle of Leasingham 1996 Classic Clare Shiraz and in all honesty, it was by far and away the best wine we had tried all day. It was absolutely gorgeous; dominated by liqueur blackberries, the balance was good and it finished with a clean acid finish. The tannins have resolved nicely and the mocha oak is attractive. All-in-all a good wine and rated as Highly Recommended, it's a pity it is no longer $25.

The first course was Peking Duck; it's been years since I've had it and I still love it. Made in the traditional fashion, it was absolutely delicious, and unlike many other restaurants, our waitress didn't make one round and leave us to make the rest, she made all bar the last serving.

The only complaints came from Brian, when he had to spit out the tannin/tartate chips from the glass of wine that Davo had poured him from the end of the bottle.

The second course was San Choy Bow made with the balance of the duck meat that was not used in the first course. It was delicious, especially as we all loaded it with extra chilli to add heat to the dish.

The next bottle of wine was a Gralyn 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon which Brian was kind enough to sacrifice and bring to dinner. Our mate Davo has six of them, but did he bring one for dinner? Noooooo way! It was absolutely stunning with the food as the fruit intensity could easily stand up to the heat of the chilli.

The menu in this place is amazing; there is everything from snow crab with Singapore chilli sauce through to venison with snow peas in XO sauce or Emu fillets with the same sauce.

Whilst we were having dinner, the conversation turned to some of the highlights and low lights of the trip and once again, Davo came up with a classic comment. "Only a millionaire with Alzheimer's would buy that wine.”

The next dish we tried was a hotpot with tofu, chicken and salt fish. From my perspective, the dish was very bland and whilst I like tofu, the way this was prepared I could have been eating anything; it was far too subtle for my taste, it needed more salt fish and chicken.

We then ordered Szechwan prawns. They tasted more like sweet and sour prawns; there was very little Szechwan pepper and virtually no chilli in the dish. Whilst the prawns were cooked to perfection, it was disappointing as the flavour profile was all wrong.

After dinner, we walked Davo back to the station and this time said goodbye, knowing that without a doubt it will be the last time we would see him for sometime, although we would be visiting each other via e-mail and wine forums, so it is not as though we would lose touch.

We walked back to our hotel; Brian had scored a room with a view because his had two single beds. Mine had a queen size and it looked out onto a light shaft. Still at $90 a room, they were spacious, in good condition and good value. (If you want a queen and a view, it costs more.)

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, the quality of the wine was not as good as expected. Before I finish this diary off I'll share some final thoughts with you. Normally these are placed in the chapters as the thoughts occur to me, but this time I decided to save them to the end.

"Royal" Pemberton Golf Course has deluxe putting greens made out of sand!

Conclusion and Observations

Climate

Margaret River is a huge geographic wine region and I would hazard a guess that it is the largest in Australia. From Cape Naturaliste in the north, to Augusta in the south is a distance of approximately 100 km and from east to west, it's almost 50 km wide; that size of means that there has to be a big diversity in climate.

In 2005 there was a large dump of rain right around the time people were picking their reds. Those that got the grapes off prior to the rain were in good shape, those that didn't have problems. But it is not that simple; the rain did not fall uniformly across the whole region and those that had their grapes harvested had some pretty good fruit. As to whether the grapes were harvested or not prior to the rain falling, basically depended on where in the region of the vineyard were located, and 5000 square kilometres allows for a fairly big margin in climatic variation.

Water

Unlike many other wine regions throughout Australia, drought in South-Western Australia is not really an issue. As you drive through the region, on many of the properties, especially the new ones, you will notice dams, and some of them are gigantic. The ability to be able to store rain water for irrigation, especially on young vines, is a distinct advantage. However, access to large amounts of water is a double-edged sword as too much water can easily lead to over-cropping and poor quality fruit. When setting up a new vineyard, there is a very fine line between giving the vines enough water to survive and giving them too much.

Vine Age

Like the rest of Australia, there have been some reasonably large new plantings across WA and in Margaret River. Due to the grape glut, a number of wineries have not renewed contracts, or have taken less fruit from established growers. This has led to a proliferation of new labels as established growers are forced to produce their own wine under their own label. The one difference here is unlike say the Barossa, where “old vines” can mean a hundred years plus of vine age, in Margaret River old vines are lucky to be 30 years old. So whilst there are a number of established growers producing their own labels, my feeling is that there is less old vine material available in Margaret River for this purpose.

Tourism

Surprisingly, given the distance from Perth there is a huge amount of wine tourism in Margaret River and this wine tourism combined with support for local industry is one of the major underpinning reasons for this region’s continued financial success.

If Margaret River was picked up and transplanted three hours out of Adelaide, the chances are the majority of wineries would wither on the vine and only the very best, and the few that sell keenly priced wines would survive.

As production in Margaret River in particular and Western Australia in general increases, many of the local wineries will feel the pinch, and in the same way that wineries in the rest of the country are now suffering, they will too. The residents of WA are intensely proud of their state and very supportive of local industry, but there is only so much a local product the people of WA can consume. Likewise, there is only so much high-quality wine that the people in the eastern states will be prepared to shell out money for; in many some cases having to pay a premium for the Western Australian appellation. The surplus has to be picked up either locally or via export and it will become increasingly difficult to justify the value of that premium, especially when the quality does not justify it. This is what WA faces in the future and the challenge that brand Margaret River in particular has to overcome. This is especially so given the lack of popularity of Cabernet versus Shiraz.

Corked and Oxidised Wines

Many of the staff have no idea what a corked bottle of wine smells like and whilst they open the wine, sniff it, taste it and then shake their heads knowingly, many of them miss wines that are moderately and in some cases badly corked.

When it comes to oxidised wines, the situation is chronic. Far too many wineries think nothing of keeping bottles open for three days, even when there is not much in the bottle. By the time you get into the third day, or if the bottle fill level is low, well before that time, in many cases the wine is rank with oxidation.

At one winery we spotted a badly corked open bottle that was almost finished. The classic comment after we pointed it out was “I was wondering why no one bought any of that wine today.”

Staff Training

The staff in the wineries we visited were generally very friendly but unfortunately many wineries are deficient in their staff training. As mentioned above, the ability to spot corked and oxidised wine is a problem, but the lack of staff training in many establishments is chronic. Wineries are business just like any other; employing staff to man the cellar door that are family, neighbours, friends or people that have stuck labels on bottles is fine but they should receive adequate wine education.

Adequate education does not mean winding them up like robots, pointing them in the right direction, and having them can spew forth details of the bouquet and taste of the wines they are pouring. Staff needs to have at least a minimal understating of terms like oxidised, so they don’t look at you with a blank face when you say a wine is badly oxidised. Staff need to have a rudimentary understanding of wine basics. By that I don’t mean they need to be able to talk about the effect that reverse osmosis has on winemaking, but they do need to understand basic things like there are tannins in wine; they are the “furry bits” on the palate and form part of the structure of the wine.

According to this link, there are Cellar Door Salesperson courses available through the Margaret River TAFE.

If you had a jewellery shop would you get your bubbly sister-in-law who can't tell the difference between a diamond and a piece of pretty glass to serve your valuable customer?

Serving Wines That Are Far to Hot

On mass, West Australian wineries must be the worst offenders in the country for serving wine at undrinkable temperatures. Room temperature for red wine is not thirty or thirty five degrees, it’s not even twenty eight degrees; it’s about eighteen, possibly twenty degrees. There is no excuse for serving red wine that is too warm, which results in it being volatile and unpleasant. A small amount of time in an ice bucket or a refrigerator is all that is required. If the wine gets too cold, it will warm up quickly on a hot day. Who is going to want to buy wine when it’s so volatile it’s undrinkable? And don’t wineries care if they are showing people wine that is unattractive because of its temperature?

Expense

Accommodation in the wine regions of WA is not cheap, even in the less popular areas. For example, even in Pemberton, it’s virtually impossible to find anything that does not resemble a flea pit for less than $100 a night. Even at $100 a night, the standard of accommodation is often lower than in places like Rutherglen or the Barossa. Add to that the cost of flying from the east coast and car hire, and it’s not an inexpensive trip.

Clothing

As indicated in a number of places throughout the chapters of the Tour Diary, many wineries in this region resemble clothing shops. As someone who wears polo shirts in summer almost every day, many with winery logos, I'm always on the lookout for them in my travels. At every single winery visited, I had a look at their range of shirts. With the exception of Leeuwin Estate and possibly one, or perhaps two others which sold some with long sleeves, I did not see a single polo shirt that was made out of pure cotton. Every one of them was made out of poly-cotton.

During my visit to other wine regions, a large variety of polo shirts are available and this mix normally includes a variety in the type material used. Many of the winery stock polo shirts that are made out of pure cotton, and I regularly find wineries that stock polo shirts in both cotton and poly-cotton; so it's not exactly an unusual item I was looking to buy.

There is a large variety of brands of polo shirts throughout the wineries and many of these brands actually also produce cotton polo shirts, so I cannot work out why the wineries in Margaret River are so stupidly restrictive in the choice of polo shirts offered to customers. Perhaps it's like the mobile phone coverage in the area, there's one service and if you want anything else, tough luck.

Chapter Six continued – Last day – Going home

I woke very early so that I could clear my e-mail etc only to find after spending 20 minutes trying to log onto the Internet that the phones into and out of the hotel were down.

Brian and I met for breakfast and went to a place we had seen when we were here last week that looked pretty good, and it lived up to expectations but more importantly, the coffee was good enough to have two cups; even more importantly, we both got them the way we like them. Whilst we were eating breakfast, we watched the police with radar guns having a fun time booking cars going through that had exceeded the 40k school zone limit. Considering they were here on our first morning as well, this area looks like a popular revenue raising spot.

On the way out to the airport, we filled the bus up at the BP petrol station, and when I went to pay the young lady that served me was unbelievable. She was so friendly, inquiring about our trip, how long we had been there and what we had done; she could have easily got a job as an ambassador for the State.

As per plan, we got to the airport early so that we could try and get good seats. Unfortunately we were told the bulkhead seats over the wings were all taken but they would give us seats with good legroom. When I looked at the tickets and they showed 2D and 2E I thought we were in for trouble as whilst it is the front row on the right-hand side of the plane, the bulkhead is right in front of you and if anything, you have less legroom, especially if you have big feet like mine.

When we got onto the plane, it looked like it was the first plane in the Virgin Blue Australian fleet. Had we been allocated row 1 we still would have had a problem as there was a huge bulkhead between it and the crew seats. Just prior to take off, the guy in seat 1A was complaining because he had been given that seat as he had recently had a knee operation and needed to keep his legs straight; this was impossible with the bulkhead. Straight after takeoff, they moved him and his girlfriend into seats further down the plane and asked Brian if he would like to sit in 1A which meant that we both had vacant seats next to us; great, it gave both of us additional legroom. The flight back from Perth is actually an hour less than the flight over there because of tail winds.

It was about 9.30 p.m. by the time we got home, but our bodies were telling us it was only 6.30 so we had a bite to eat, a bottle of wine and went to our respective beds a couple of hours later. Early the next morning I dropped Brian off at the station for his trip home.

Finally, it would be remiss of not to thank two people who made this trip so enjoyable. Firstly David Pearson (Davo), it was a pleasure to have him along for part of the ride and the dinners he arranged and the older wines he provided were much appreciated. Secondly, to my good mate Brian, as always it was great to have him along for the whole escapade and his wise council and knowledge is a great help, even if he does manage to pick some crap wineries to visit. If you, dear reader, have noticed a large reduction in typing mistakes, that’s down to Brian’s dedication and effort as my proof reader and I also thank him sincerely for that assistance too.

All-in-all we both had a great time and are looking forward to our next adventure which will take place in May when we team up with the Pie King for our annual jaunt through South Australia.

Click here for Chapter Six Part One

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