Western Australia – quality over quantity

Western Australia contributes less than five per-cent of the country’s total crush, yet it is responsible for the greatest portion of premium wines exponentially of any Australian state. The haul of medals the state manages to trawl across the country’s wine show circuit attests to its exalted status. 

 
While Margaret River is a reliable flagship, the vast GI of Great Southern and the notable sub-region of Frankland River produce among the finest Rhône-inspired expressions hewn of peppery Shiraz, ferrous Mourvèdre and increasingly, sinewy Grenache, in addition to Riesling that is more textural and strident than the Australian norm, bringing to mind the best wines of the Pfalz. As exciting, the resurgence of the Swan Valley and Perth Hills, with their trove of old, bush-vine Chenin Blanc. Even more so, Grenache. Liberated by the excitement that swirls around the variety of late, but also by the acknowledgment that it is the right cultivar for these parts, as it is for much of the torrid Australian clime.

 

 

‘... The region’s consistent stream of complex wines is on an inexorable trajectory. Upwards!’’

 

 

Margaret River is a beacon of redoubtable quality and leads the state in terms of reputation. The region’s consistent stream of complex wines is on an inexorable trajectory. Upwards! The quality frequently leaving intra-state rivals threadbare, while the recent flood of superlative vintages – 2018 the zenith – has only fortified the region’s mantle, evincing an authority worthy of greater global recognition of its Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux-inspired blends, in particular. While biodynamic certification underlies the holistic principles at Cullen, possibly the leader of the pack, its rivals amidst the pantheon include Vasse Felix, Woodlands, Deep Woods, Xanadu and the long-lived stalwart, Moss Wood, each crafting nuanced iterations of maritime reds flecked with purple pastille, currant, dried sage and tapenade. Riveting, too, are the lo-fi expressions of Blue Poles and Si Vintners. The straight Merlot of the former is possibly the finest of its ilk in the country, while Si can do no wrong, be it white, orange or red wine. Dormilona, too, an address boasting wines of vitality hewn of extended macerations and the use of inert fermentation vessels including amphorae.

While the alluvial loamy gravels of Wilyabrup, the sub-regional equivalent of a Margaret River grand cru, service the majority of the better reds, the wetter and cooler southern screes boast fine whites, while auguring for more complete reds as the effects of climate change impart a perverse positivity, at least in terms of grape growing. Of course it is from Margaret River’s southern zone that Leeuwin Estate brought Margaret River Chardonnay to the world. Today the style can seem forward in a contemporary context, yet Leeuwin’s tacit refusal to calibrate a broader textural patina and bumptious stone and tropical fruits to the more linear Australian zeitgeist, is somehow refreshing. Leewin’s Chardonnay is one of breadth over sheer tension alone. Rivals include Cullen, Voyager and Vasse Felix to be sure, but also Pierro with top cuvées exhibiting an even broader orchard, stone and tropical palette, welded to a creamy core of nougatine and creamed cashew

In these parts Sauvignon Blanc is closer to a Graves-like prototype than a Loire, the best examples such as Flowstone and Suckfizzle, embellished with oak and far from the madding crowd. Chenin Blanc, too, under the guise of Tripe Iscariot and LAS Vino gives the Margaret River firmament a strong nudge, rivalled by Vino Volta’s textural suite, each crafted with varying degrees of tank, oak, yeast choices and skin contact, alongside Corymbia’s well judged and highly considered interpretation, both from old vines in the Swan Valley, close to Perth.

Down past Albany, where the Indian Ocean lashes the coast and its maritime effects are felt as far afield as Frankland River, some 50 kilometres inland, Frankland Estate’s wines are fantastic across the board. Recent highlights, the Alter Weg Riesling and evergreen Olmo’s Reward, a mid-weighted and savoury Cabernet Franc-dominant wine that ages as well as any red in the country. The Riesling on the other hand defies the Australian prototype of steely resolve and lime cordial with every turn across the palate, delivering chew, mineral force and scintillating breadth following fermentation in large oak under the aegis of wild yeast. Here, on these coffee ironstone soils, Swinney, a relative newcomer, has swooned critics with ferruginous expressions of Mourvèdre and Grenache, suggesting that there is so much more to come from this vast state.