Freemantle Wine Shops?

[JDSJDS]

My wife is heading to a conference in Fremantle in early November. Of course, I can't let her come back to Canada without the 2 wine bottles we are allowed to bring back into our country - yes, that's right, our government allows only 1500 ml of wine, slapping a 115% tax on additional bottles.

I tried to search for quality wine shops in Fremantle on the Internet, but it's hard to figure out what the best stores are. I need some local knowledge - what are the wine shops in Fremantle with the best prices and selection? I'd want to buy wines from WA producers.

Also, given the 2 bottle limit, what WA wines would you bring back with you if you were in my position? I'm thinking that a cab or cab blend would be the best option for WA wines, and I'm looking at price tag up to $50-ish in Oz dollars. Unfortunately, the 2001 Moss Wood cab is a bit beyond my normal price. We already get the Cullen Diana Madelaine 2001 here ($87 CAD).

Any help you can provide on these two questions would be gratefully appreciated!!

[Andrew Jordan]

JDSJDS,

From my limited exposure of the Perth/Fremantle wine retail scene, the best wine shop that we stumbled across was La Vigna. Not sure how far from Fremantle it is (located at Mt. Lawley), but it is definitely worth the trip across town to check out. Very good range of WA wine producers, they even stock some of the hard to get/limited production releases as well from Margaret River and the other WA wine regions. Michael Tamburri and his staff are all very knowledge and should be able to help your wife out with her selections. They do not have an interent site but if you would like the contact details, send me a PM and I will forward them to you.

Hope this helps.

[DaveL]

I concur with Andrew, La Vigna is easily my favourite of the local stores. You'd be looking at a 30 minute drive from Frmantle to North Perth though so that may not be do-able.

Failing that I'd suggest Old Bridge Cellars in North Fremantle, they've got good range of WA wines and others. Should be a single train stop and a 5 minute walk out from Fremantle Central.

She should check Little Creatures if she likes hand crafted beers too, very nice on a sunny November day.

[Max]

I concur with Andrew, La Vigna is easily my favourite of the local stores. You'd be looking at a 30 minute drive from Frmantle to North Perth though so that may not be do-able.

Failing that I'd suggest Old Bridge Cellars in North Fremantle, they've got good range of WA wines and others. Should be a single train stop and a 5 minute walk out from Fremantle Central.

She should check Little Creatures if she likes hand crafted beers too, very nice on a sunny November day.

Good call, Old Bridge Cellars is a great place to go. They hosted a new producers expo a few months back that was a great day!

Speaking of bringing wine back into the country.. I've heard that while the Australian government has a three wine bottle (2250ml limit in total) limit on duty-free alcohol, if you're part of the trade they usually let you off with a little bit more? Someone told me if you can convince the customs officer that you need to be bringing those extra bottles - show 'em a business card or something - they'll usually let it pass...

Does anyone have anything to add to that? Urban myth perhaps?

cheers
Max

[cranky]

If you can go a bit over the $50 you may want to look at the Devil's Lair 2001 cabernet or the Houghton Gladstones shiraz or cabernets. The 2003 Gladstones shiraz has recently collected a bunch of gold medals and trophys in local wines shows. Both around $60-65?
For cabernets definitely below that mark, the Voyager is usually good, and the Woodlands Margaret is very tasty, though harder to find.

[Kieran]

Can't remember the name, but there's a reasonable place in the backstreet behind the Tradewinds Hotel.

Kieran

[JDSJDS]

Thanks for the suggestions! Wish me luck convincing here to go wine shopping for me!