8th, 9th & 10th February, A journey to Margaret River

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Tuesday 8th February

One of the areas that we had wanted to visit was Margaret River to visit the wineries. Graham had advised us that to see the area in comfort without being in too much of a rush we should take three days, a day to get down there, a day to explore the area, and a day for our return journey.


We had booked accommodation at the Margaret Forest Holiday Apartments, we found the place on the net, Graham said we would get a better rate if we phoned, which turned out to be the case. We had booked a car from Hertz when we were out sightseeing the previous day.

Graham gave us a lift to the Hertz office in the morning of Monday 8th Feb, and gave us detailed indstructions as regards the route, both down to Margaret River and on our return to Perth.

The journey down was quite enjoyable and the roads were relatively quiet. We broke our journey by stopping at Busselton for lunch. We had lunch at a restaurant called "the goose" just opposite the Busselton Jetty, we had a real enjoyable lunch (DI having a burger and me the Red Snapper) with a fine New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc called Kevin Judd Greywacke (Must look out for this when we are in NZ).
We then went for a walk along Busselton jetty - "which goes for miles"! (or 1.7 km to be precise). Nonetheless it was a substantial walk after lunch

We returned to the car and completed our journey to Margaret river. Our apartment was easily found being just at the start of the main street in Margaret River. The apartment was as good as described on the net, the recetionist was really helpful and assisted us in booking a winery tour for the following day. That evening we decided to take it easy, and ate in the apartment, enjoying salad platters and a bottle of wine that we got from the local supermarket

Wednesday 9th February

We were allowed a lie-in today, as the wine tour did not start until 11:15 am. We arose about 09:00am and had breakfast on the terrace, another lovely day, or as Graham puts it “Another beautiful day in paradise!”

We then took the opportunity to have a wander around Margaret River high street. With Diane taking the opportunity to send a postcard to the grand daughters – She is getting paranoid that they will have forgotten her when she gets back. I had a wander around the bookshops. Books seem to be generally more expensive in Australia. I was quite surprised to see that the Aberdonian crime writer Stuart McBride had a big display in the shop, whilst there was nothing on display by Ian Rankin.

I had booked on a wine Tour entitled “Wine for dudes” which was described as a “Fun, relaxed & informative Wine Tour” and “No intimidation, just a fun celebration of the famous Aussie drop”. I had booked it based on the recommendation of the Lonely Planet Guide Book and the holiday apartments receptionist. I was now beginning to worry that it would be mainly younger people and we would feel out of place, I needn’t have worried the tour was really good. We were picked up at around 11:15, our tour guide John was a New Zealand surfer who had started up the business for people who wanted to find out about wines, but not get involved in the snobbery that sometimes surrounds the topic.

John had worked in the wine industry and was very knowledgeable and very approachable, which made it easy to ask any questions that you might have.
The tour started at the Edwards winery. What you find is that a lot of the wineries have a story behind them and Edwards was now different. Brian Edwards established the winery in 1991. Prior to this Brian had made an epic journey from the UK to Perth in a small Tiger Moth primarily to raise money for an organization called “Legacy” who had cared for him and his mother for twenty years. Unfortunately Brian had passed away in 2003 from leukemia, and his two sons now run the winery, The Tiger Moth named “Matilda” in which Brian made his epic journey is on display at the winery.

Wed started the tour at Edwards with a “walk through the vines” which involved sampling the grapes on the vine, I was surprised at how sweet the grapes were, I was used to grapes being a little bit bitter. We learnt how the skin (tannins) supplied the different tastes and how whites, rose and red whites were made. We then went to sample, and tried a variety of Chardonnays, Semillon Sauvignon Blancs, Shiraz, Merlots, and Cabernet Sauvignon. I bought the Biggles Blend (A ready to drink wine), the 2009 Chardonnay and surprisingly the 2008 Shiraz (As I am not normally a red wine drinker). The tasting was great and we learnt so much about wine and sampling wine.
Edwards has a UK distributor (The Wine Explorer - [e-mail]) that we will have to visit when we return to the UK as we enjoyed a number of the wines.

Next stop was the Hayshed Hill winery, here our wine taster was name Ulf, I was convinced he was Norwegian, So I asked “er du Norsk?” to which he replied “Nei Svensk”. Not a good start mistaking a Swede for a Norwegian. Ulf however proved to be very informative on the wines at Hayshed. Essentially they had three levels of wine:
• Block Series and world Series – These are the top level that can be laid down
• Vineyard wine series – drink now or lay down wines
• Pitchfork – ready to drink wines
We bought a bottle of the 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon (again surprising not being a red wine drinker – but such a good fruity wine).
We then moved on to mix our own wines that we could drink with our lunch. We were given Shiraz and Cabernet to mix to our taste. Although Diane and I took part in the exercise, we decided on a glass of Chardonnay 2010 from the Block 6 series that we had sampled earlier.
Lunch was alfresco under the shady tree in the winery and consisted of salad, ham, cheese and fresh brown bread – truly enjoyable!
Hayshed also had a UK supplier (Bancroft Wines Ltd. - www.bankcroftwines.com); again I will have to visit their site when I return to the UK.

Prior to the next winery visit we had brief stops at a chocolate factory, where we enjoyed the free samples – but did not purchase anything. And also Olive oil tasting, apart from the Virgin Olive Oils there were olive oils mixed with Lemon, Lime and Parmesan Cheese.


The last winery was the Thompson winery – which had just won a gold medal at the world wine fair for their Chardonnay. Robin was the wine taster here, again she had been in the wine industry for years and was extremely well informed, we tried a number of great wines, but due to the fact that I had a box of wines in the back of the mini—bus meant that I could not buy anymore!!!

Last visit was to a brewery (Saracen?). I tried a glass of the local unfiltered brew. Very cloudy – but I was assured it was OK!!!

John dropped us off back at our apartment after a thoroughly enjoyable day!

In the evening we decided to dine out and went to restaurant at the top of the Margaret River main street called “Arc of Iris”. The restaurant was “BYO” (Bring Your Own – drink). Which gave us the opportunity to use some of the bottles of wine that we had bough on the wine tour. After a good meal and wine we walked back to the apartment for a well-deserved nights sleep!

Thursday 10th February

We had decided to use this day to travel back to Perth, so again we could allow ourselves a long lie. We were up by 09:00 and again had breakfast on the deck outside the apartment (“Another beautiful day in paradise!”).

We checked out of the apartments and had a last look around Margaret River and then hit the road for Perth. We had a great run back (the road are so straight that you need to be careful that your mind does not wander!). Arrived back in Perth at around 14:00 and dropped off the car back at Hertz. We had a walk around Perth whilst making our way to the station. Stopped for a bite and wine at “The Generous Squire” on Hay Street. Spent some time “people watching”. It appears that the office workers in Perth walk around the centre with a diary or note book under their rams for most of the day under the guise of working!.

Caught the train back to Graham & Cath’s, where Cath had prepared dinner, after a chat and watching some TV. We turned in for another sound slumber

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