“So who here is afraid of water, heights, spiders or snakes?” our guide Sean from the Margaret River Wine & Discovery Tour Co. asks our group.
I raise a finger gingerly. “Is there a biking component because you’ve just listed all the things that I can’t do except for bike riding”. He is not joking. I am clearly going to be out of my depth today.
Canooooeing!
And by depth I mean water depth. We are on a combination of Sean’s most popular two tours, a discovery tour and a Wine Maker’s tour. We will start the morning off with a canoe ride down Margaret River. “By river, it’s a bit overstated” Sean from Margaret River Discovery tours says. His tour happens to be the top tour for the Margaret River on trip advisor and he has exclusive access to certain parts of the river including this canoeing portion. And according to Sean, a vast percentage of locals and West Australians have never actually stepped foot on the Margaret River itself.
Brian the editor from News Ltd’s Escape (who wrote his story about our trip here) pipes up and tells us that every time he has been on a canoe it tips over without fail citing his body shape as a reason for why (long body, short legs). Which of course means that Sean pairs Brian and I up together. I look at my canoe buddy with some trepidation. Would we prove the rules wrong? Sean offers up a morsel of hope that he will be in the canoe too and tells us in the entire time that he has held these, he has never had one tip over. So I have the opposing forces of Brian vs Sean at play. And I am the meat in the sandwich-and I was never a fan of soggy sandwiches.
We make our way in the Land Rover to the banks of the river and don our life jackets. Before we get in the canoe he tells us a few golden rules in order to avoid ending up in the water (don’t stand up or move suddenly in the opposite direction) before we board the canoe and he gently pushes us into the river. There are three canoes and two pairs go in the other two canoes and I take the “Pochohontas” position in the centre (i.e. the “do nothing” one). It’s clear that I am not in any position to steer the canoe.
We glide out onto the water and watch as schools of mullet swim under the water. One flicks its tail up in the water and the rest glide past us. We spot a Pukeko or a swamp hen and an eagle’s nest but most of the action is in the water. The river is abundantly full of fish which is all edible and despite the promised cyclone, the water is calm and flat and it could not be more ideal for our adventure.
And with an enormous sigh of relief there is no upturned canoe, no soggy wet threesome shivering on the banks of the Margaret River and we keep Sean’s record of no overboards intact. We then make our way to one of the most well known wineries in the area. Wine making in the Margaret River has only been around for the past 40 years. Prior to that surfing was what the area was known for whereas now wine and food sits alongside the surfing. There were five “Founding Father” wineries: Vasse Felix, Cape Mentelle, Cullen, Mosswood and Leeuwin but now there are 10-15 top class wineries and over 100 cellar doors in the area. Although less than 3% of the total of Australian wine is produced in this region, about 30% of premium wine is produced here which is why it has such a great reputation.
Cape Mentelle was started by David Hohner who was formerly of the Cloudy Bay label and it was now owned by huge conglomerate LVMH. We make our way to the Warcliffe winery where there are 100 hectares of vines growing and Robert gives us an overview of operations. Their farming and horticultural principles are based on long term and organic and biodynamic principles although they are no certified so.
When the vintage is over, they let a 300 head herd of sheep loose to eat up all of the leaves to fatten up in this fenced off area. He explains what it is that makes the region so unique to wine and the main thing is the consistent temperature-it never exceeds 1c-30C and this is no doubt partially due to the Indian ocean that blows the coastal breezes throughout the area. They also has a low vigor soil with a low yield and low humidity.
Older style French oak barrels
He shows us where the grapes are processed and then stored in the French and American oak barrels. The new French oak barrels are bought for approximately $1400 each and they use them for a period of 4 years (industry averages are 4-10 years). After that they are passed onto artists or sold back to Bunnings for $50 each. They use the French oak somewhat for flavour but mostly for oxidisation and the inside of the barrels are charred to “toast” the wood and they use a medium toast. And during the tour he quizzes us constantly about yields of wine and all sorts of wine minutiae and of course we are constantly failing. You see we are getting the ultimate wine nerd’s tour for the complete and utter wine enthusiast but none of us are quite at that level.
We adjourn to a room that has been set up for a food and wine tasting. We will get to try various foods with six of their wines which you can book these tastings through Margaret River Wine & Discovery Tours or through Cape Mentelle directly.
Looking at the colour of the wine against a white background
Delicious goodies
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