Margaret River: The Wine Region That Changed Australian Wine

The Margaret River wine region, three hours south of Perth in the southwest corner of Western Australia, has in the 50 years since its first plantings in the late 1960s established itself as one of Australia's finest wine regions and one of the most significant Cabernet Sauvignon producers in the world. The region's combination of the maritime climate, moderated by the Southern and Indian Ocean influence, the laterite soils of the karri and jarrah forests, and the commitment of the pioneering producers to varieties and quality standards that the region's conditions were suited to rather than the commercial volumes that other Australian regions were chasing, created the foundation for the reputation that Margaret River now commands.

The Cabernet Sauvignon that Margaret River produces at its finest, from the families of Vasse Felix, Cullen, Moss Wood, and the dozens of serious producers who followed the pioneering estates, provides the most internationally respected example of Australian Cabernet, its combination of blackcurrant fruit, fine tannin structure, and the cedar and tobacco complexity that the region's slow-ripening maritime conditions develop standing alongside the finest Cabernet-based wines of Bordeaux and California as a statement of what the variety can achieve in the right conditions.

The town of Margaret River, the commercial hub of the wine region, provides the accommodation, restaurants, cafes, and the surf shops that serve the region's dual tourism identity as a wine and surf destination. The Margaret River Pro surfing competition, held each May at the Surfers Point beach break, is one of the most prestigious events on the World Surf League Championship Tour, the location's wave quality attracting the world's best surfers to one of Australia's finest beach breaks.

The food scene that has developed around the wine industry, with the restaurant at Leeuwin Estate providing the most celebrated winery dining in Western Australia and the broader network of winery restaurants providing the farm and vineyard dining that complements the cellar door experience, creates the culinary tourism dimension that sustains visitor expenditure beyond the wine purchase alone. The region's organic farms, artisan cheese producers, and the olive and truffle growers that have established in the karri forest country provide the local produce that the winery restaurants feature in their menus.

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