Three hours south of Perth, where the great warm Indian Ocean and the cold Southern Ocean collide, lies the most renowned and ambitious of all Western Australian districts: Margaret River.
Originally known for its timber, it is one of the world's newer fine wine regions — vines were not planted until the late 1960s, more than a century after grapes were planted in the Napa Valley — and it remains extremely remote, known to the wider world mainly for its hypnotic giant waves.
A key pioneer was David Hohnen, who learned winemaking in California and founded Cape Mentelle in 1970 (he later founded Cloudy Bay in Marlborough, New Zealand, in 1985).
Given the region's maritime location and gravelly soils, Hohnen and other pioneers focused not on shiraz but on BORDEAUX varieties, and today Margaret River is considered something of a 'little Bordeaux' for the loveliness of its sémillon/sauvignon blanc blends and the structure and elegance of its cabernet sauvignons — especially from Cape Mentelle, Leeuwin Estate and Vasse Felix.
Chardonnay too has an almost magical affinity for the region: Leeuwin Estate's Art Series Chardonnays are wines of depth that grow richer and more expansive with several years' age, and are among Australia's leading examples.
Despite a nearly ideal sunny, ocean-cooled climate there is one huge problem: birds.
Each row of vines must be netted as harvest approaches — before netting, three crops out of five were lost to the omnivorous silvereyes.
