Western Australian Chardonnay
60 wines tasted
Bottles from a selection of vintages show regional personality and skilled winemaking
The sheer scale of Western Australia’s wine regions is mind-boggling. If evidence were needed, the scenic drive from Perth south to Mount Barker takes a good four hours. Fanning out west to the Indian Ocean and east to the Southern Ocean, Western Australia’s nine regions are geographically reminiscent of South Africa’s Western Cape except for one major detail: the state’s main concentration of vineyards and wineries lies in a single region, Margaret River. Indeed, for many, Margaret River is Western Australia.
Excluding inland Perth Hills, Blackwood Valley, Manjimup and Pemberton, five of the nine wine regions are lapped by the two great oceans, but significantly, Margaret River is girdled by the Indian Ocean on three sides, giving a maritime-Mediterranean. climate. Sitting on the western side of the Great Sandy Desert, with moderate annual rainfall, it enjoys mild to warm vintages in most years. The other four coastal regions are Swan Districts, Peel, Geographe and the sprawling Great Southern. While Margaret River is king, pockets of Great Southern and cooler climate areas of Geographe in particular make tight, cool-climate Chardonnay.
Margaret River
Identified in 1965 by Dr John Gladstones as a viticultural paradise, Margaret River, with its preponderance of small wineries, tourism, beaches and craft community, has proved to be not just primus inter pares in Australia’s west, but in the entirety of Australia. Nearly 100km long and up to 27km wide, Margaret River has become internationally recognised for three main styles: elegant Bordeaux-like reds based on Cabernet Sauvignon, Graves-style blends of Semillon and Sauvignon, and of course Chardonnay. The latter is so prized that the average price per tonne of grapes is A$1,760, compared to the Australia average of A$565.
Leeuwin Estate was one of the region’s pioneers of Chardonnay with its Art Series label. It’s always been a distinctive, complex style with the full Burgundian treatment and was originally the model for the concentrated, long-lived style of Western Australian Chardonnay whose power, vibrancy and balance derives equally from the maritime climate, the gravelly, sandy loams and granitic terroir and the predominantly high-acid Gin Gin (Mendoza) clones. On occasion it can lack a dimension where early picking emphasises its greenness.
However, Margaret River Chardonnay has evolved since the pioneering days of Leeuwin as winemakers continue to create a style distinguishing it from Australia’s other great Chardonnay regions, notably Adelaide Hills, Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley and Tasmania.
Anthony Rose writes for the Independent and i. He is DWWA Regional co-Chair for Australia