Morrisons The Best Western Australia Cabernet, Australia 2018 (£7.25, Morrisons) If your familiarity with Western Australia is based on the hard-drinking lives of ornery fishermen as depicted in the novels of Tim Winton or the moustachioed toughness of West Australian cricket, it can come as a shock to learn the wine region with which it is most frequently compared is Bordeaux. OK, so the vineyards of Margaret River or Frankland River may not be punctuated by 18th-century châteaux and the history of winemaking in the state is a matter of decades rather than centuries old. But particularly in Margaret River the mild, maritime climate, where the Indian Ocean breeze plays the same role as the Atlantic in Bordeaux, there’s an affinity of style in wines that balance crunchy cassis and freshness, such as Morrisons’s nifty cabernet.
Xanadu Margaret River Cabernet, Australia 2018 (£10, Marks & Spencer) Just as it is in Bordeaux, cabernet sauvignon is the recipe for many of the finest wines in Margaret River, which is by far the biggest and most productive Western Australian region. The style is not uniform, any more than it is in the great French region. But there does tend to be a common thread running through all my favourite Margaret River wines; a seam of freshness, occasionally a touch of leafiness, and a consistent purity of ripe blackcurrant fruit that is different from Bordeaux in being a touch more intense or more vividly juicy. The immense growth in the region in the past couple of decades means there’s some good value to be had, too, in sumptuous wines such as M&S’s Xanadu, which is down from £12 until the end of month.
Vasse Felix Semillon Sauvignon, Margaret River, Australia 2020 (£12, Tesco) Although winemaking only really got going in the region after a survey by viticulturist Dr John Gladstone in the 1960s, a certain hierarchy of producers is starting to emerge. Few would dispute the position at the top of the tree held by three leading red-wine producers: Moss Wood, Cullen and Leeuwin Estate. Each is also just as dextrous with white wine, however – not least with chardonnay, which does very well in the Margaret River climate and soils. Leeuwin’s Art Series Chardonnay is among the most consistently fine wines made from that variety anywhere. But the style I most identify with the region is, again, one familiar from Bordeaux: the match of semillon and sauvignon, which in the latest release from the region’s oldest producer, Vasse Felix, is a superbly grassy and zippy yet nicely weighted dry white.
Follow David Williams on Twitter @Daveydaibach
November 08, 2020 at 01:00PM
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A light touch: wines of Western Australia - The Guardian
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