DAY 115 –COWS AND WINE IN MARGARET RIVER……..
Since Margaret River is
noted for it’s wine, we would be remiss if we didn’t do a wine tour, so we
booked to do the tour at Leeuwin Estate Wines at 11am for this morning.
We figured if we left early
enough we could drive through Cowaramup and check out all the cows we had been
reading about….
We left home around 8.30am
and headed inland along the Bussel Highway towards Cowaramup. What a beautiful part of the country this
is, rolling green hills and
paddocks, cows, lovely black and white
cows and sheep grazing, picture card perfect.
We arrived in Cowaramup
before 9.30am so that gave us plenty of time to look around. Cowaramup is situated on 12 kms north of
Margaret River, so we knew we had a little bit of time here to have a good look
around.
The name Cowaramup derives
it’s name from Cowaramup Siding, which was located near the townsite on the now
disused Busselton to Augusta railway.
The town originally back in
the early 1900’s supported the timber and dairy industries, and it’s name is
believed to have been derived from an Aboriginal word “Cowara” which means
purple-corned lorikeet. The locals in
town refer to their town as “Cowtown”, it’s a reference to the use of “cow” in
the town’s name and its history or dairy farming.
We walked the length of
town, taking photos of all the cows and some of the parks and other nice
buildings around.
We bought a couple of
postcards to send home to our grandchildren and then proceeded to write them so
that we could post them at the local supermarket before heading onto the
winery.
We left Cowaramup and headed
to Margaret River, as it is only 12 kms further on it didn’t take us long to
get there. We didn’t bother stopping to
check it out, we figured we would be better off to arrive early at the Winery
than spend time in town and it make us late.
The drive out to the Leeuwin
Estate Winery was lovely, again through green paddocks but this time with lots
of lovely vineyards around….
Leeuwin Estate is a family
winery that really does celebrate fine wine, food and its long association with
the arts. It is located in one of the
world’s most spectacular and isolated wine regions. It has earned an international reputation for
producing outstanding wines and it released its first commercial vintage in
1979, which quickly attracted international attention when Decanter Magazine
gave its highest recommendation to the 1980 Art Series Chardonnay in a blind tasting. The winery now exports to over 30 countries.
The Leeuwin “Art Series” wine labels |
The Leeuwin “Art Series” wine labels |
The Leeuwin “Art Series” wine labels |
using the wine thief to test the wine... |
barrels of red wine |
Leeuwin Estate hold special
events throughout the year, and they were setting up for the Big Wine and Food
festival which is being held here next month.
They also bring in big names in the music industry each February for
their annual alfresco summer concert series.
The Riesling labels - a set of four frogs. |
The Leeuwin “Art Series”
wine labels have also become very famous.
They have a wonderful gallery at the winery which has more than 100 paintings from
Australia’s leading contemporary artists that have been commissioned to paint a
painting so that Leeuwin had feature them on the labels of their wine…
We very much enjoyed
checking out the art gallery also.
Our tour cost $25 which
included an hour’s tour of the actually winery itself, where we were shown and
told about the wine making process from how they grow the grapes, pick them,
crush them, and then the taste testing as they mature. I never realized that wind making was not
only very scientific but also a real art.
All in all it was definitely worth it’s money, and once the wine tour was over we were then able to spend as much time as we liked back in the art gallery, on the decks, in the restaurant or just walking around the grounds and vineyards.
It was well after 1pm when
we left to head back into Margaret River where we had planned to have
lunch.
On our drive through town
earlier in the morning we had noticed a Bakery in the main street so thought we
would head back there and check out their pies.
We have been trying out bakeries right down the west coast checking out
their pies, and sausage rolls and rating them.
This bakery turned out to be
a very eclectic little café that was buzzing… it was really busy which
indicated to us that it was good, and good it was. We ordered our lunch and quickly found a
table. There were few free ones. The bakery café had both charm and character
and I will let the photos speak for themselves.
After lunch, we had a wander
around town. It very much reminds me of
Mount Tambourine in the Gold Coast Hinterland, with it quirky little cafes, art gallery, and craft shops, which a splattering of grocery stores, and other
essential services. I ended up seeing a
Sports Power store and ended up scoring a new pair of joggers. My others were
almost had it and the outer soles had collapses making it hard to walk properly.
The relief on the feet was instant. I
walked out of the shop with the new shoes on my feet and I left the old ones
behind for them to dispose of any way they liked.
Around 4pm we decided it was
time to head for home. As we had traveled down the main Bussel Highway to get to the Margaret River, we decided
to cut across from the Highway to Caves Road and take the scenic road back
home.
It was such a lovely drive,
with rolling green hills dotted with cattle and sheep, and we even managed to
see a deer farm as well. We did stop to snap some photos. Although a full day, it was nice to get home
and rest our weary legs. Steve headed
down to the beach to throw out a line.
He has enjoyed staying at
the campsite here as being right on the beach, he can just walk out and cast
out a line whenever it suits him. Most
days he caught some kind of fish…. Mostly though he had to throw them back as
they weren’t the legal size.
We have decided to stay one
more night, as we need to catch up on some washing and also do a bit of a
grocery shop before heading off once again. Roll on tomorrow, a day to slow our pace down and unwind, even
though we will be busy catching up on cleaning, banking and housework…
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