Margaret River 3

Sure enough, it rained during the night, but when we woke up it wasn’t raining. We walked over to the Margaret River bakery and had granola and yogurt again, because we know we like it. You are hearing a little regret, because there were a lot of interesting options when we got up to the case, but it’s a popular place and we didn’t want to hold up the line. We only ate half of the yogurts and we may have them tomorrow, or we might go back so I can try something else.

The weather seemed to be holding so we dropped off our leftovers and went to see if we could find the walking path that alltrails showed. There was an obvious trail behind our unit and it did indeed meet up with the official trails, so we had a nice walk through a natural area on the banks of the river from which the district gets its name (Margaret, in case you missed it). It did rain on us a bit at first, but we have our rain jackets and rain hats and we’re from Oregon after all.

Daniel picked us up at 9:30 and we headed to our first destination Vasse Felix, the oldest winery in Margaret River. It turned out that we didn’t need to leave so early, so we stopped at an olive oil tasting place. They weren’t open yet so we got to tour a lakeside glamping (yes, that word is down here too) spot, which was cool to see. We went back to Olio Bello but it wasn’t quite 10, so we waited there until a little after 10, at which point Daniel decided it was time for them to be open, so he went and unchained the gates (he kept quiet about whether there was a lock) and we went in, followed by at least one other car. When we got in it started raining really hard, and the people who work there were so pleased not to have had to go open the gates that they gave Daniel 10% off his coffee. They had lots of olive oil to taste (we bought a tiny bottle of the kalamata oil, because who knew kalamatas were used for oil?) but also had lots of olive things like tapenades and non-olive things like jams and sauces and also baked goods and skin care items. A very good addition to our day.

Then it was off to Vasse Felix, established in 1967, to learn their history and the history of wine in the Margaret River. They are about the same age as David Hill where we work, but are much larger. Their focus is specifically on traditional varietals (Semillon, Sauv Blanc, Chardonnay, Cab Sauv and Shiraz) made with traditional methods. We did a little walk around the vineyard and then settled in to taste 10 wines, all of which were very good to very very good. Our tour guide/pourer Stephanie was very knowledgeable; she has done WSET (Way-Set, in Aussie) level 3 so we had good common ground for our discussions. You can look up the history of Tom Cullity and the winery on the internet, but I liked the story of where it got its name, which is the unexpected survival of a drunken French deckhand named Thomas Vasse – Lucky Vasse, in Latin.

After Vasse-Felix it was lunchtime at Fishbone, a Japanese restaurant and winery. They had wine tastings as well but we’d not gotten a good vibe about their wine from Daniel so we skipped that and headed right in to lunch, which was delicious; we started with a beef tataki (lightly seared Margaret River beef) and salmon sashimi; both were really outstanding. We followed up with a rainbow roll and double salmon roll, just a half roll (4 pieces) of each. They were also delicious, although I could have done without the sweet teriyaki sauce on both. Being able to order half rolls is really nice with only two people (Daniel ate with us the first lunch, but after that he didn’t do meals or tastings with us). In between the rainbow and the double salmon we had Korean-inspired chicken arancini, which really could have gone either way and turned out to be very tasty.

After lunch we headed across the street to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, which is much more of what you’d expect a chocolate place to be in a tourist area, including Chokka the chocolate Quokka. Dave got some ice cream and I got a piece of chocolate covered Turkish delight, which I started eating when I was in England and which I’ve not found in the US, so that was yummy. On the way to our next stop I was talking about the chocolate chunk cookies that I’d successfully resisted at Gabriel Chocolates but hadn’t stopped thinking maybe resisting was not the right thing to have done.

Next stop was Fermoy Estates, whose tasting room made you think of a French barn without really looking like one. Their wines were pretty uniformly just good. One of the wines had in its description peach kernel and green olive pits, which aren’t words I’d look for in a tasty wine. In fact to me all of the wines were bitter, and the salinity that is a hallmark of Margaret River wines was a little overwhelming. So probably my least favorite of the places we’ve visited.

Daniel always disappears while we’re tasting, and this time he’d disappeared somewhere extra special – when we got back in the van we each had a Gabriel chocolates chocolate chunk cookie sitting next to our seat. They were just as good as they’d looked, with lots of gooey chocolate and an unusual slightly crumbly, cakey (sorry, Jen) consistency that we both approved of. We nibbled on them on the way to Voyager Estate, our last stop of the day.

Voyager had the prettiest grounds of anywhere we’ve been, and a nice cellar door with options for standing or seated tastings. We opted for the standing tastings because you got more wines (5 instead of 3) and coincidentally because they were a lot cheaper - $5 and $10 vs $15 and $20 for the regular and premium tastings respectively. And that’s something I haven’t really talked about, since Daniel takes care of all of those things, but tastings here are very inexpensive – the $20 one is about $14 US and is really high end. The wines are relatively inexpensive as well. We enjoyed the wines at Voyager a lot. I’d put Leeuwin on top, then Vasse Felix slightly above Voyager. We picked up a nice sparkling Chenin Blanc and a small bottle of sparkling grape juice to bring as a host/ess gift at dinner.

We had a quick stop at the hotel to freshen up and then a delightful part of our tour; dinner with Daniel and his partner Lauren and their daughter Nala who is 3 and a half and a good cuddler and harmonica player. Dinner was spaghetti with Bolognese sauce and Margaret River Chocolate Factory chocolates for dessert and it was so nice to eat in and get to know Daniel and his family a little better. The big van is spacious and comfortable but it’s a little hard to chat from the back seat to the driver. We enjoyed our evening very much, and also were pleased to have another early evening at the hotel.