Experiential wine tourism in Margaret River
So, what is experiential wine travel or tourism?
This implies a form of tourism that offers an active and meaningful engagement with a destination's culture, people, and/or environment to create unique and memorable experiences.
This is already being delivered at the highest level through ‘Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia’, offering a hand-selected collection of Australia’s premium wineries offering quality winery experiences based around world class wines, warm and knowledgeable hospitality and culinary excellence. And here in the Margaret River wine region we can boast three of these esteemed icon wineries, namely Vasse Felix, Leeuwin Estate and Voyager Estate.
And so why not extend this into the wonderful and often mysterious world of artisan winemaking!
Artisan wine-makers face one particular challenge in that, by definition, they do not make wines in mass-market, supermarket-friendly quantities yet they are not able to command the kinds of price premiums that are attached to top Bordeaux or Burgundy, Barossa or Margaret River wines for example.
Their biggest challenge, is not the weather, or the changing climate, it is persuading people to pay a bit extra to buy their wines. Artisan wine producers also, sadly, do not have deep pockets to spend on expansive and expensive marketing and promotion campaigns.
So, in summing up, Artisan winemakers have a genuine passion to make wines that are related to their personality and to their land.
The story of any artisan producer you will find is about culture – why and how it’s made, and nature – what it’s made of. For an artisan wine producer, the wine has to be a pleasure to drink, to be consistently high in quality, and have the potential to age if desired.
The artisan winemakers tour of margaret river
MYDRIVER Margaret River has recently introduced a precisely focused, small group tour that encompasses a few of the best lo-fi, organic, natural and traditional (essentially artisanal) wine producers in the Margaret River region.
Partnering wine producers at this time are Mr BARVAL, Corymbia, Flowstone Wines, AMATO VINO, Si Vintners, South by South West Wines, Whicher Ridge and Blind Corner.
This is a tour where we actively seek out genuine artisan wine producers and embrace the magic and the story that lives within each glass! Limited to between four to six people, you will be travelling in a NEW luxury seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle, whilst we delve into the often-perplexing world of ‘thoughtful consumerism’.
This full day tour includes an in depth exploration of three outstanding artisanal small batch winemaking producers in the Margaret River wine region. Here you will get the chance to tour a micro winery, taste their wines as well as thieve some straight out of the barrel and tank. There will also be an opportunity to tour their vineyards learning all about grape growing, organic certification and their approach to land conservation and management.
The choice of where we go is yours to make within the selection provided. This naturally will be subject to your pick up and drop off location in the region, as well as the availability of each producer that is contingent upon their operational requirements that vary throughout the year.
Some of these wine making operations have cellar doors that are available to the general public. Whilst a few others are completely off the grid and partnering with MYDRIVER Margaret River on an exclusive basis.
A delicious selection of local produce, and an ever-changing and creatively curated mix of international specialties will be provided in a picnic hamper format, to enjoy with a glass or two of wines whilst at one of the selected venues.
* catering to vegetarians and vegans upon request.
And now to explain some terminology…
‘artisan’
An artisan wine usually comes from a small producer with their own vineyards, produced in limited quantities using traditional winemaking practices. The wines are different from year to year and have characteristics that set them apart from the vast majority of other wines…
‘lo-fi’
Lo-fi indicates no or very few additions or adjustments throughout the fermentation process (such as but not limited to acidification/deacidification, added tannin, chaptalisation (aka added sugar), inoculated ferments and most other tweaks that you can imagine here) and often the wines are bottled unfiltered and/or ...
‘traditional winemaking’
Fresh and fully ripened grapes are used to make wines. In a traditional method, the grapes are picked when the flavour, its acidity and sugar ripeness are in balance. Since there were no high-end technologies at that time, the fermentation process occurs with no additives. Traditional wines are typically made in an Old World, earth-driven style, upholding the methods of that region. Modern wines emerged in the early 1980s, and are produced in a New World style, placing more emphasis on fruit and new oak…
‘natural winemaking’
While there is no universally accepted definition of natural wine, it is generally agreed to be wine that is farmed organically (biodynamically, using permaculture or the like) and made (or rather transformed) without adding or removing anything in the cellar…
‘organic’
According to Australian Organics, organic wine comes from grapes grown without synthetic chemicals, pesticides or herbicides…
‘small batch’
Small batch winemaking is exactly as it sounds, a small batch of wine made from a small parcel of grapes…
‘terroir’
Terroir is a French term that simply means “a sense of place.” When someone says a wine exhibits terroir, all they mean is that the wine they are drinking tastes the way a wine grown and made in the region where it was grown and made should taste…
And finally…
Artisan winemakers have a genuine passion to make wines that are related to their personality and to their land. Here’s an opportunity to get into their space for an insight into the ‘why and how’ small batch, artisan wines are made!
Artisan winemaking is an approach based on regenerative, sustainable and often organic vineyard practices. Acute attention to detail in the vineyard and winery is applied with a deep respect for history, tradition, knowledge of their vines, intuition, and science. This ensures the wines speak of purity and place!