Australia’s most westerly wine region, Margaret River is a little corner of paradise. It’s strange to think that its beginnings as a commercial wine region only date back to the late 1960s, when Dr Tom Cullity, founder of Vasse Felix, planted vines here. Today, it enjoys a well-earned reputation as one of the great fine wine regions of the world, particularly for its plush and silky cabernets and full, generous chardonnays.
Order by midday on Friday 15th November
Margaret River is producing wines that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the great wines of Europe, albeit still at a fraction of the price. Savvy and knowledgeable wine buyers around the world are making the most of the spoils of this remote part of Australia, but many consumers are yet to discover it. This makes it a very good time to buy.
As Australia buyer for The Wine Society, I get to spend much more time visiting producers in the field (or rather, vineyard) than just about any other wine buyer in the UK. It has been a privilege to get under the skin of this region, and to have discovered wineries which have a phenomenal local reputation, but who had otherwise never exported their wines.
Keen to offer the best of Margaret River for Society members, I’ve put together my top six wines from the 2022 and 2023 vintages, spanning various prices but all offering particularly good value. These are wines to delight for years to come.
The producers
I contacted a number of producers whose wines I thought were well worth considering for this offer, with the intention of having one wine each from six different wineries. When I lined them all up on the tasting bench, however, there were a couple of producers whose wines were so good that I couldn’t help but include two!
LS Merchants are a small estate with a big local reputation. Dylan Arvidson is a Kiwi by birth and has worked vintages in Bordeaux, Tuscany, New Zealand and Australia, before settling in Margaret River and founding LS Merchants. He produces a plethora of wine styles for the local market and enjoys a stellar following from engaged Aussie wine drinkers, and his chenin blanc was a winner in our Wine Champions tasting this year. Cabernet sauvignon is a key variety for Dylan and his entry and top-tier wines are so good that we had to include both. The fragrance, lift and elegance of the entry-level wine and the depth, silkiness and equally impressive aromatics of the top Jolliffe Vineyard expression sets them apart from the competition.
Larry Cherubino may be better known to members as the chief winemaker at Robert Oatley Vineyards. We tasted two wines from Larry’s own brand, Cherubino, and both were seriously impressive. The Elevation Chardonnay wowed with its generosity and finesse, and the more premium Caves Road blew the competition out of the water with its layers of complexity, iron-fist-in-velvet-glove intensity and clear ageworthiness. These are some of the most classically styled Margaret River chardonnays from the region.
Vasse Felix is the founding winery of Margaret River and enjoys an utterly outstanding reputation with multi-award-winning winemaker Virginia Willcock at the helm. Their estate Margaret River Cabernet oozes class in a vintage like 2022 and is not to be missed.
South by South West is one of my favourite discoveries of my wine buying career. This tiny winery is owned and operated by Livia Maiorana and Mijan Patterson and their top red, ‘Super Margs’, is inspired by Livia’s Italian heritage and the great Supertuscan reds. This is a cunning blend of sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon, capturing the structural elegance and red fruit of the former and the silkiness and plush dark fruit of the latter. It's a masterful combination and we are the only company to have access to this highly allocated red wine outside of Australia. This is a future icon.
The vintages
We are offering both here due to the wineries in this selection launching at slightly different times, but I am delighted to report that 2022 and 2023 are excellent Margaret River vintages. 2022 began with a cool wet spring, which helped to build the moisture in the soil and ensure minimal stress. The summer season was steady, without heatwaves, meaning ripening was consistent, even and not rushed. The result was grapes with fresh acidity and great complexity of flavour, producing fine elegant wines with good mid-palate weight and lifted aromatics.
2023 got off to a cool start and spring was a little delayed. However, summer was warm and dry, with cool nights, which ensured drawn-out ripening and captured freshness in the grapes. The chardonnays are fine and elegant with driven acidity, setting them up well to age. The reds have a delicious and concentrated core of intense fruit but ample freshness and tannic grip to hold that fruit together.
In short: 2022’s wines were vibrant, fine and elegant, while 2023 produced wines with a little more density, concentration and refined tannins.
Margaret River 2022/23 - South by South West, LS Merchants, Vasse Felix & Cherubino
