The French Connection

There’s a definite Gallic influence in the Geographe Wine region, and not just because it was named after a French explorer. Fergal Gleeson discovers more.

DOING THE CONTINENTAL

The Geographe wine region is home to 57 growers, 26 producers and 36 different grape - a quite remarkable diversity in such a contained area.Opposite, Willo Bridge Estate wines.

With a strong tradition of discovery, the Geographe Wine region takes its name from Geographe Bay. The bay was named by French explorer Nicholas Baudin, who first mapped the coastline with his two ships, the Geographe and the Naturaliste, in 1801.

The wine region wraps around the bay, extending from Harvey in the north, southwards through Capel to Busselton and eastwards to encompass Donnybrook and Ferguson Valley. Home to 57 growers, 26 producers and 36 different grape varieties, Geographe is the most diverse wine region in Western Australia.

The Wine Show

That French connection is remembered at the Geographe & WA Alternative Wine Show each year with the Nicholas Baudin Trophy for Excellence in Winemaking. This trophy is based on the accumulated medal scores for Geographe wines entered into three categories.

Previous winners have been Peter Stanlake (who makes wine for a variety of small wineries including Talisman Wines and Fifth Estate), Kim Horton & Dougal Herd (Willow Bridge) and Stuart Pierce, (Harvey River Estate) who is also a previous Jimmy Watson winner (arguably Australia’s most prestigious prize for a red wine).

The 2019 winner was Damien Hutton, of Millbrook Winery which uses Geographe fruit, though, sorry to say visitors, the winery and cellar door are

THE GEOGRAPHE WINE REGION TAKES ITS NAME FROM GEOGRAPHE BAY, DISCOVERED BY FRENCH EXPLORER, NICHOLAS BAUDIN.

outside of Geographe in the Perth Hills wine region!

The 2020 Geographe Wine Show winners were led by Willow Bridge who won four gold trophies (as well as the Baudin Trophy for Excellence in Winemaking), and Smallwater Estate who scooped three awards including the Geographe Wine of Show.

The Geographe Wine Region

Nearby Margaret River is now famous for its great estates and world class cabernet and chardonnay. The Geographe Wine region gets its distinction from the fact that most wineries are small and are family run, where you are likely to meet the owner and winemaker at the cellar door.

Geographe also makes highly awarded versions of the Western Australian classics: cabernet, chardonnay, shiraz and sauvignon semillon blends, but it is also getting considerable attention for Italian and Iberian varietals. This is a real point of difference for wine drinkers wanting to explore new flavours and approaches to wine.

Geographe also remains somewhat under the radar, with the advantage for drinkers that you can you can buy high quality, small batch wines at very reasonable prices.

Geographe Wine Experiences to Try:

Blind Tasting at Green Door Wines

Do you think you could tell a red wine from a white wine if you couldn’t see the colour? Put yourself to the test and taste four different wines out of solid black glasses at Green Door. These glasses are the perfect tool to handicap your senses, removing all visual clues and allowing for a non-biased approach to the wines. Do the tasting blind and win a glass of wine on Green Door if you can guess all wines correctly. No pressure!

Green Door have had great success with the El Toro Tempranillo winning a gold medal at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show. They have also been fermenting Spanish-style wines in amphora clay pots producing an amphora grenache and an amphora tempranillo. The vessel that a wine is fermented and stored in, whether new or old oak barrel or tank, can have a big impact on the wine in your glass. See for yourself at the cellar door.

Grazing platters are also available at the cellar door which was voted Best Small Cellar Door Geographe by Gourmet Traveller Wine 2019. Visit greendoorwines.com.au

Match Wine and Food at Capel Vale

Capel Vale planted the first commercial vines in Geographe in 1974 and it is the region’s largest producer. It is still owned and operated by the Pratten family.

Unlike other Geographe producers Capel Vale has expanded beyond the region and now owns additional vineyards in Margaret River, Pemberton and Mount Barker. The logic of the expansion has been to be able to produce varietals in the regions to which they are best suited.

Their Geographe malbec plantings at the Stirling Vineyard in Capel are now 10 years old and were originally grown for blending with cabernet sauvignon.

Jonathan Loxton from Capel Vale describes the 2019 Capel Vale Debut Malbec as “soft and generous. The wine highlights flavours of juicy rich plum, raspberry, licorice and spice”.

Match Restaurant at Capel

Vale allows guests to take a wine and food journey with multiple food components paired to an individual varietal of wine.

The Malbec Match Plate is perfectly paired with Szechuan lamb ribs, ssamjang mayonnaise, or pickled mushrooms and steamed bao buns with vegetable and gochujang. Match Restaurant is open for lunch from Thursday to Monday.

The Cellar door is open seven days a week. Visit capelvale.com.au

Wine, Beer and Pizza at Oakway Estate

Oakway Estate won the Trophy for Best Alternative Wine at the WA Boutique Wine Show 2019 for Los Niños Single Vineyard Malbec 2018.

They bottled their first il Siciliano Single Vineyard Nero d’Avola 2019 with a release date in mid-2020. Nero d’Avola is a Sicilian red grape with soft tannins, dark plum colour and is easy drinking. With nine different traditional and alternative varieties in the vineyard, they offer a range of red, white, rose, sparkling and fortified wines.

If your palate tires of wine-tasting you can head to their in house nano brewery, Ned’s Brew Club where they rotate three craft beers on tap in the themes of lighter, unusual and hop influenced. Their Kolsch is a popular summer light ale, their Lampo Rosso and Lampo Bianco are Belgian styled Witbiers with red or white wine grape infusions as a secondary fermentation and there is a hop influenced Red IPA.

All wines and beers combine with fresh made pizza and gourmet local produce platters. Oakway Estate has some of the best flavoured coffee beans in the region at the cellar door café on the Capel River which is a 15-minute drive west of Donnybrook. Visit oakwayestate.com.au

A Taste of Italy at Vineyard 28

Vineyard 28 is continuing to make a name for itself with Italian grape varietals such as dolcetto, nebbiolo and arneis (all of which originate in the Piedmont region). Their dolcetto has been awarded a gold medal for two years running at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine show and collected the Best Red Italian Variety Wine Trophy in 2018.

In November they will release their first sparkling made from pignoletto, from the Emilio Romagna area in Italy originally and very rare in Australia. It has been made using the methode champenoise/traditional methode.

There are a variety of tasting experiences available at the cellar door including a ‘Grazing & Tasting Flight’ at $20 per person where guests are offered a choice of up to five wines paired with a grazing board of local produce – cheese, olives, charcuterie, seasonal fruits and gourmet crisp bread.

A ‘Taste of Italy Tour’ at $65 per person runs for one and a half hours. Start your Italian journey among the vines with winemaker Mark Cumbers and learn why Vineyard 28 grows these Italian varieties.

Then get a behind-thescenes at the winery insight. Taste and learn how wines are aged in barrels and match these with food. You will receive a complimentary bottle of your favourite wine on conclusion of the tour.

Opening hours are Thursday to Monday 10am to 5pm Visit vineyard28.com.au

Times are a-changing at Barton Jones Wines

Preeti and Brad Coughlan took over the running of the Barton Jones vineyard in 2018 and have just had their first vintage in 2020. They have a unique eco-sustainable cellar door, constructed from hay bales with a skate ramp roof with solar panels and rainwater collection system The space lends itself to live

music, art and dining. There have been upgrades both inside and out since they’ve taken over and a lively events calendar is in place which you can follow on Instagram.

They promise “warmth and hospitality and good vibes” at the cellar door.

“Rufus and Rosie the cellar door dogs love our visitors and posing for the camera!” Preeti says.

“We serve light meals at the cellar door, as well as coffees and cakes which are made in-house. Our platters showcase the local producers we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep.”

They are also transitioning to a new brand to reflect their ownership, Coughlan Estate – making premium boutique wines, hand made from some of the oldest plantings in the region (1978). Visit bartonjoneswines.com.au

Wines with Bling at Willow Bridge Estate

Willow Bridge is one of the region’s largest wineries (along with Capel Vale Wines) and holds a 5-Star Halliday rating. Willow Bridge is owned by the Dewars family and has been a great success story, now producing about 25,000 cases a year.

The Dragonfly range which includes shiraz, cabernet and a sauvignon semillon blend has the happy knack of winning trophies and medals year after year as well as being very well priced at just $22 per bottle. The Solana Geographe Tempranillo is one of my favourites at $30.

Winemaker Kim Horton came to Willow Bridge after working in Margaret River. He has been impressed with Geographe. “There are magnificent vistas and vineyards. There is a great variation in the sub regions of Geographe.”

“We are discovering the nuances of each. People have noted the similarity of the region to the Iberian Peninsula which is why people are looking at the possibilities of trialling different varieties.”

Willow Bridge was voted Best Large Cellar Door 2019 by Gourmet Traveller Wine. www.willowbridge.com.au

CHEERS TO WINE

Opposite, Vineyard 28 offers A Taste of Italy wine experience for visitors while Oakway Estate offers beer, wine and pizza experiences.