Margaret River – a world class wine region with many artisan cheese & meat shops, & breweries.
We booked a tour with ‘Harvest Wines’, a small company which specializes in boutique wineries and food pairings. Good decision! Our driver and owner/host, Steve, is a blast. It’s a ‘foodie’ tour which begins with a stop at a great coffee shop, then on to a series of wineries. Our first stop is at the Arlewood Estates. The vineyards are managed by a herd of sheep who graze in a fenced field before work. We followed a young lamb ‘escapee’ up the gravel drive to vines. Great! Good food and wines all day. Steve wrapped things up with some nice photo ops along the coast.
A place to come back to.
Dick
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Today is all about exploring the food and wine of the Margaret River in Western Australia. We have booked a full day foodie tour with Harvest Wines. Harvest Wines tours concentrate on the boutique wineries and local food producers. We are joined by 6 other people, Claude and Carol from Perth – celebrating their 34th anniversary, Les and Lyn from Tasmania and 2 sisters; Sandy and Mary, from Brisbane.
We start our tour at Yahava, a local coffee roaster, for a coffee tasting. Maddy, our coffee guide appears to enjoy many cups of coffee during the day as she is very animated. We learn a fair amount about coffee sourcing and the roasting process.
Next, we are off to Arlewood Estate to start our wine tasting. Paris meets us in the vineyard for our private tasting. This region is known for Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, although other varietals are produced as well. She takes us through a tasting of 8 wines and discusses the production of each. The vineyard is also home to many sheep, who are responsible for trimming the lower grape leaves and keeping the rows cropped, before they head to market.
McHenry Hohnen is our next stop. Besides wine they also have a butcher and smokehouse on site. With our wine tasting, we sample the lamb merguze and chorizo sausages. They use chickens in their vineyards to keep the bug populations under control.
Vasse Felix is one of the bigger wineries we will visit today and is also our lunch stop. After a private tasting of 8 wines, we adjourn upstairs for lunch. Dick has a wonderful lamb chop and I have the Pasta with local wild mushrooms. Yummy!
A small certified organic winery is up next, Stormflower Vineyards. They have an amazing garden of wildflowers that line the path to the cellar door. Here, we sample their wares with a pairing of cheese. Lastly, we go to House of Cards, where we have the opportunity to have some handmade chocolate in addition to our wine. All in all, a very nice day.
Mary