Margaret River, West Australia (Part 3) Food and Wine

 It was another glorious morning in this lovely part of the country and we were up and ready to go by 7.30. But first, breakfast, which we had at the White Elephant Beach Cafe overlooking the sea at Gnarabup Beach. This is a popular surf beach and we enjoyed the sublime view while eating our breakfast and then drove the length of the beach to watch the surfers tackling the breakers. With the sunshine, surf and gleaming white sand it was a fantastic sight.

View from the cafe, Gnarabup Beach

The next stop was at the Yahava Koffee Works, a coffee roasting company where we were greeted by the divine smell of roasting beans wafting through the car park. Here we were given a short talk on the production of coffee from the plant to the cup and then had a coffee tasting.  This was the first time I had been to a coffee tasting and it was an interesting experience, I was surprised by the range of flavours that come from different beans. You can buy coffee to drink at their on site cafe or all sorts of coffee products from the shop.

Our first winery for the day was Edwards Wines, named for the founder, Brian Edwards. Brian was a fascinating man who flew his 1943 Tiger Moth plane from London to Australia in 1990. He was daring and adventurous and loved a challenge. Developing the winery fitted the bill. His beautifully restored plane, Matilda, sits inside the entrance to the new and very glamorous winery building.  We had a tasting of 7 different wines there while gazing out over the vineyards. Edwards Wines is conducting a very interesting experiment by submerging wine 18 metres under the ocean in the belief that the wine will mature to perfection away from light and with constant temperature and pressure. Intriguing. Before we left we browsed  some stunning photographs of the sea and surf in the winery's adjoining gallery.

Waiting for the wine tasting at Edward's Wines

On our way to our second winery visit we drove through the pretty little town of Cowaramup.  The locals call it Cow town and have taken a cheeky twist on the indigenous name, which means place of the cowara (a bird) by displaying numerous full size, fibreglass, black and white cows at various spots around town. It is charming.

Thompson's Estate is a boutique winery founded by a cardiologist, Peter Thompson, and his wife, Jane. Our tasting was held in the barrel room and this time we had local cheeses and crackers to accompany the wines. Thompson Estate is proud of the fact that their wines are made in a traditional way and I have to say I enjoyed them the best of the three wineries we visited. Thompson's Estate has been recognised by Australia's premier wine critic, James Halliday, as a Five Red Star winery which puts it in the highest echelon of all Australia's wineries.

A cardiologist's wine label

Olio Bello is an olive farm and it was here that we had lunch but firstly we had the opportunity to taste a wide variety of olives, oils, sauces and condiments.  I bought a couple of things there and would have loved to buy more but, luggage constraints! We sat at a long table looking out over the olive trees to eat lunch, it felt like being in Italy. I felt very lucky to have had such a great group of travel companions, we had become friends in the three days we had been together so chatted amiably. 

Olio Bello

Sadly, lunch was our last activity of the tour and then we travelled the 3-4 hours back to Perth and said our farewells.  Many of us were going to continue on to take the Indian Pacific train across the Nullabor Desert but that's another story to tell.

A big shoutout to McLeods Tours, a small, family run, travel company. The tour was well organised, the activities were superb and our guides, Rusty and Jason, were well informed, friendly and helpful. I loved this trip and couldn't have asked for more so thank you, McLeods.

Disclaimer:  I paid full price for this tour and was not asked to promote McLeods Tours in any way.  These views are simply my own.