Domaine Naturaliste
MARGARET RIVER, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
BRUCE DUKES has been receiving high ratings and accolades for more than 30 years – just mostly for other people’s brands. His custom winemaking business, Naturaliste Vintners, is responsible for many top Margaret River wines, so to be recognised with this award for his label he launched in 2012 is extremely well deserved. “It’s nice to have a brand of my own to explore different parts of this beautiful industry and place,” he says. The names of his businesses hint at the philosophy, and Bruce’s background in agronomy plays a part, too – it’s about working with what nature provides. “As an agronomist, I specialised in sustainable farming and, despite later training in winemaking, that foundation stems through everything I do,” he says. This holistic approach goes some way to explaining how Bruce achieves beauty and balance across price points. “It’s the same as with cooking. If you start with quality ingredients, you can simply showcase or translate those into something delicious, and that’s what I seek to do.” A part of this thinking is choosing the right varieties for the environment, and Bruce champions the Margaret River heroes of cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay. While many young winemakers jump around the world completing vintages, Bruce instead chose to invest in one international place, and that has paid him dividends. “I worked at [filmmaker] Francis Ford Coppola’s Napa Valley winery Inglenook for five years, and learnt a lot about sustainability and high-end cabernet,” he says. “I did plan to work in other places, but then I started there and thought, while it’s great to go to different parts of the world for experience, every year I’m here, I’m getting more involvement and trust. That, and as a kid, getting to sit in Francis’s kitchen tasting wine with [winemaker] Scott McLeod and [US wine critic] Robert Parker was pretty incredible.” Fast forward to today, and Bruce has a 20-year-old vineyard in the Wilyabrup subregion that produces his own premium cabernet. “I’ve assembled what I consider to be the five best clones for Margaret River,” he says. “The hope is that blending these with world-class selections of cabernet franc, merlot and malbec will allow me to create something with greater complexity.” On the white side, the idea is purity over the puzzle. “I’ve converted roughly 40 per cent of the vineyard to the Gin Gin clone of chardonnay, which is distinctly Margaret River and has all the complexity I need. My challenge will be to understand how it expresses itself on my site.” A new cellar door ties it all together, where these wines can now be tasted alongside the vines.