The Auswine Forum

Hi there everyone.

My wife and I are heading off to MR in May with another couple for 3 nights. Will you please be so kind as to suggest the best cellar doors to attend, and quality/value accommodation in the area. Eatery choices also welcome. Thanks in advance.

Colin.

Me and my wife stay at Adinfern farm. When we stayed there lat they let us join in on the bottling , was fun. Also have some very nice wines. Its about 10 min outside of MR.

I normally stay at Adamsons, which is reasonable though basic clean motel style rooms for about $100 per night. It right on the edge of the centre of town and everything is walkable in terms of restaurants etc.

Foodwise, Winos and Vat 107 are the two main spots and Winos is about a 100 yard stagger from the aforementioned accommodation. Both have pretty good wine lists though Winos probably has slightly better food choices based on my last visit three months back.

As for cellar doors, I am sure plenty will recommend the biggies, so I will suggest Happs, Brown Hill and Rockfield instead! If you go to Happs, make sure you carry a spare drinking stomach you will need it should you work your way through their rather large range!!

Cheers

Dave

I'll second Dave's suggestions (well at least the last two as we never made it to Happs).

Consider doing it in stages e.g. Day 1 South-East and township (Leeuwin, Voyager, Cape Mentelle), Day 2 Caves Road area Cullen / Gralyn / Woodlands / Juniper / etc, Day 3 North MR (e.g Woody Nook) and re-visits.

Of the non-winey stuff, Wilyabrup Dreaming does some interesting pottery (we still have our Bunyip teapot) and the MR venison company do some excellent stuff. The MR chocolate company is a tourist trap IMO - get your sugar fix from the incredibly well-stocked sweet shop in town instead.

Wine shops are not cheap (I recall mention of one near a caravan site that was fair value for back-vintages though). I'm not sure if price-fixing is allowed in Australia, but if it's not I'd suggest the authorities have a look at local bottle shop pricing to form their own opinion.

The MR visitor centre is good and often have tastings running there.

Highlight wines from our last trip were Juniper Cabernet, Voyager Reserve Cabernet, Brown Hill Finniston Shiraz, Woodlands (all of them), but for once Cullen was disappointing (either they or I had an off-day).

Hope you have fun

Ian

You may want to check this out.

http://www.torbwine.com/pf/WA2006Chapter1.htm

No price fixing is anti competitive and is not allowed.

Hey there Colin,

We have been there twice in the last couple of years. Both times we stayed at Moondance Lodge. I can recommend it very highly. As to food, the new restaurant in Dunsburough, called Baxx on Dun was excellent. They will also allow BYO, but they use those annoying stemless Reidels...

Have a great time there.

monghead

O series Reidels, funky aye.

Torb,

I sent an Email to Brian a little while ago and he put gave me the inside run on the highlights of your tour. It sounds like you both had a great time!

I am settling in tonight with a bottle of Zema '04 Cabernet that Brian has recommended. If a few of the MR Cabs come near this, it will be happy days!

Thankyou to all those that have provided input. I'd appreciate anyone else that can be of assistance. This is such a great place for information.....

Maybe one day we could possibly organise a dinner for the regular readers and contributors in each capital city each year - it would be special!


Colin.

ColinB wrote:I am settling in tonight with a bottle of Zema '04 Cabernet that Brian has recommended. If a few of the MR Cabs come near this, it will be happy days!

Recommended by about a dozen other reviewers as well... You should be lucky by now in MR there should be a fair few 2004 or even some 2005 cabs around, they should be in general a lot better than the 2002/2003 stuff we struck in Feb 2006.

Hi Colin,

some places to think about foodwise include The Far Side of the Moon restaurant at Bunker Bay for breakfast with an ocean view, and check out lunch at Clairault, or the more informal surrounds of Cullen are good too. Edwards is an interesting winery, as is Ashbrook; both pretty small. I'm sure others are better qualified than me to suggest wineries though.

Have a great couple of days,

Dave.

The last couple of trips over to WA, myself and the wife have stayed at Bunker Bay Quay West resort. It's a beautiful place to stay. The restaurant, Far Side of the Moon was excellent. Also conveniently located next door to Wise which also has a great restaurant and would recommend visiting for lunch. Enjoy.

Bunker Bay is very good but also pretty exxy and is about as far as you can get from most of the wine action, and a long return drive to those south of the Margaret River township.

Have a look on the Margaret River tourist centre web site for accommodation, especially if you are trying to fit in 2 couples and both want double beds.

The best way is to rent one of the self contained houses/cottages.

Where the Bigot Brothers stayed was very nice, and from memory had 2 double beds, was close to the ocean and the splendid food at the Seagarden Cafe in Prevally, and a very short drive into town and the surrounding wineries. The only problem was that the timbers creaked loudly at night, apparently.

Lunch at Xanadu is always excellent. Must is great for dinner.

Definitely check out Juniper and Woody Nook as they are turning out very good value juice at the moment, and check out the damaged label bin at Gralyn.