Motoring
A scenic escapade at Western Australia’s food and wine capital Margaret River is much more exciting in a Lexus
James Deakin takes us on a scenic escapade around Margaret River behind the wheel of a Lexus
I remember a time, not so long ago, when, if a car company wanted to flex, they would take you to an international race track or scenic driving route, throw in a factory tour, dazzle you with lots of stats and figures like hp, kw, 0-100, drag coefficients and top speed, then cap the junket off with an industrial strength drinking session with their top designers and engineers. That’s how you sold cars. At least in the old days.
Many still do this, of course, but f or Lexus, this formula became stale once they started shifting their business model from transporting people to transporting senses. They understood, better than most, that the luxury car market was as much about selling cars as, say, a Patek Philippe was about telling time. For them, it was, and always has been, an ownership experience.
And that is exactly what they showcased last November in Margaret River when they invited several owners to experience an amazing gourmet escape through one of the most gastronomically diverse regions of the Southern Hemisphere.
The adventure begins in Perth, Western Australia, one of the most beautiful cities you’ve never heard of. And that’s just how the folks down here like it. I should know because I lived here for almost 10 years and the unofficial tagline was, “Yeah, we know it’s bloody beautiful; try not to tell anyone so it stays that way.”
That was in the mid-nineties, though. Since then, Perth has blossomed even more, and her beauty has gotten almost impossible to keep secret—so much so that Western Australians slowly started to embrace it, but on
their own terms. One of those is the Gourmet Escape, which is an initiative of the Western Australian tourism ministry as well as the private sector that promotes the incredible wines and fusion cuisine born out of this giant melting pot of cultures.
We arrived in the newly renovated and recently expanded Perth airport, where a fleet of Lexus vehicles greeted the guests and ferried us to the Crown Casino—a US$650 million 6-star resort hotel and casino complex, with almost 1200 rooms, 32 restaurants and a chairman’s suite that costs $25,000 a night, stunning views of the Swan River and the city skyline included. It was a quick overnighter there and then off to the main course—a 3.5 hour scenic drive down to the foodie capital of Western Australia, Margaret River.
Now I’m not sure if that is an official title, of course, but when you see the incredible concentration of world class chefs, wineries, organic kitchens, microbreweries, and boutique resorts, it’s hard to think of the area as anything else. Perhaps a better description would be more like the Silicon Valley of food and wine, while the gourmet festival would be their Woodstock.
Imagine over 50 pocket events featuring culinary superstars, including Marco Pierre White, Momofuku’s David Chang, Colin Fassnidge, Pierre Koffmann, The Rubens, James Halliday, and more, plus over 160 local wineries and producers showcasing their wares in a 10-day food, wine, and music festival across Western Australia, from Margaret River to Swan Valley and Perth, making it the holy grail of the food and wine industry.
Whether it is hearing from chefs who have dedicated their lives to perfecting a single dish, or listening to the wine maker that has kept a vine alive since the early sixties simply to maintain the grape lineage that promises the best chardonnay, the passion here is abundant, intoxicating, and highly contagious. And the only thing more amazing, is experiencing it all through the windows of a Lexus.
You soon realise that the synergy is no coincidence. Lexus has always been about celebrating passion. And not just theirs, mind you, but more importantly, yours. You see, while some luxury cars place the star on their grille or on the hood, with Lexus, the star is always inside the car, either behind the wheel or in the back seat. So, whether
“The adventure begins in Perth, Western Australia, one of the most beautiful cities you’ve never heard of”
you are a world-class musician, businessman, artist, or world leader, their goal has always been to build cars that are the mechanical expression of that passion.
They do this by employing Takumi master craftsmen who possess a precious blend of skill and spirit. Each Takumi is a master of their craft, with a minimum 25 years of experience and over 60,000 hours of practice. Before even becoming a Takumi, candidates are rigorously assessed in a vast number of ways, including a challenge to fold a relatively simple origami cat. But the catch is they must do it with just a single hand—their nondominant one—and their creation must be fully formed and complete in under 90 seconds.
That may seem absurd to many, but for Lexus, it is entirely about the power of human touch, something a machine cannot or should not attempt to replicate. Because true luxury is something that can only be felt.
In terms of hierarchy, there is no higher honour within the Lexus engineering ranks. Among the 7,700 workers at the Miyata Lexus Plant in Kyushi, there are just 19 Takumi. Each is carefully chosen to be the guardian of an artisan philosophy and to apply the subtlety of human touch to the brand.
But more than a craft, being Takumi is a culture. A mindset. An ideology that there is nothing more important than the customer. This permeates the brand. For example, this trip was planned months ago. We were scheduled to be joined by the chairman himself, Alfred Ty. Just a day or two before we flew out, however, Mr Ty’s brother-in-law, Lucio Tan Jnr, passed away suddenly. No one at the event would have raised a question about Mr Ty’s absence, yet halfway through our trip, he joined us for dinner in Margaret River. He arrived in the afternoon and was on the first flight out at six am the following morning. He was in the air longer than he was on the ground, but it was a testament to the honour that Lexus bestows on its customers. A perfect distillation of Japanese luxury.
It’s just like being given the opportunity to feel what it’s like to own something that has been obsessed on by the finest craftsmen on earth, all challenged with the single goal of winning your approval. Try to imagine the experience of sitting in a luxurious cabin like the LS, knowing that it took a Takumi craftsman 67 manufacturing steps over the course of 38 days just to make the steering wheel for you. Humbling, as a word, doesn’t quite cut it. But it is precisely that relentless pursuit of perfection that you marinate in, because it speaks more about the value Lexus places on your approval rather than it does on themselves. This is exactly what true luxury should be all about: you.