August 6, 2019 • 22 mins
From plans to plough the vineyard to getting married between the grapevines: how one couple’s meeting saved a winery. Also in this podcast, when a bromance leads to rock songs being bottled and the love story of two adventurous winemakers.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to one unearthed this podcast takes you
behind the scenes of theMargaret River wine making
region in Western Australia, thevery place named best in Asia
Pacific by travel authority,lonely planet.
It's produced for you by yourMargaret River region and the
Margaret River Wine Association.
My name's flo manger.
(00:21):
I'm a food and travel journalistand I'll be taking you through
this gorgeous spot, tasting theone, meeting the people and
breathing in the surrounds.
Do you reckon it's fair to saythat good food and wine might
lend themselves to couplesfalling in love for me?
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
There is something magical about perhaps the aide
or the general ambiance ofMargaret River.
I guess for most of us, we gofrom a place where life is a bit
more hectic, a to a much morelaid back and visually
absolutely ravishing spawn.
And you know, even the, theparts of Margaret River that we
(01:04):
see most often, you know, really
Speaker 1 (01:08):
reaching sort of natural beauty, plenty of love
in the air in Margaret River.
And in this podcast we're goingto meet three joys to Folan hard
as they've crushed grapes,fermented juices, and made
spectacular wine.
Two of the couples have gone onto tie the knot, but the third,
well it's more of a bromancebetween two mates.
(01:29):
It was like not ticks.
People were talking in the, inthe town.
They were serious conversationsabout where this was going and
what does it mean for, for us.
Hello, I'm flirt and I'm herewith wine critic Peter Forrestal
.
So before we explore theseWestern Australian loves
stories, let's say for the thingthey're all passionate about
one, right?
(01:50):
What are we about to put to thelips here?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
This is the 2016 luminous state penal wash shod
night.
So it's a bubbly made by Lewin,which is a specialist shod night
produce a really, so not thatoften seen, but yeah, a really
vibrant sparkling wine.
I just had a little try.
(02:13):
It's delicious.
[inaudible] Yup, it's mouth.
Puckering lovely finishes.
Well this, that Christmas on thefinish
Speaker 1 (02:23):
when you're drinking the aids, especially after
you've had a couple, do youstart to think about the place
and get a little bit dreamyard?
Hmm.
The thing that I think aboutmush with Margaret River is the
quality of the one, the purityof the wine.
You know, it doesn't get muchbetter.
Charge your glass because we'reabout to meet Sasha and Ben
(02:44):
McDonald from one of MargaretRiver's youngest wineries.
Glen out he road, she's the onemaker and he's the vineyard and
they live and work in the farsouthern end of the region
outside Caradigm.
Ben and I actually met righthere in the driveway.
It was about five years
Speaker 3 (03:00):
ago.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I came before I started work to just have a
quick look at this Shiraz thatBen was growing down here.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I'd actually decided that I was pulling all the
vineyard out, so I booked amonth trip to Byron Bay.
A surfboard.
Yes.
Three days before I flew out.
Am Sasha showed up in thedriveway wanting to buffer it to
start around one label.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
So yeah, it was seven o'clock.
I rocked up in the driveway andBen was was late as usual.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah.
Um, I did fit in an earlymorning.
Steph.
Yeah, it was hard to get out inthe water.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
So you wrapped up with a surf board on the roof
and just throwing some thoughtsand some bodies that was
actually about to leave cause hewas so late.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I'm glad I caught her on the way out.
Yeah, very lucky.
Otherwise we wouldn't be heretoday.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Oh,
Speaker 1 (03:55):
needless to say Ben didn't pull out the 10 hectors
of grapevines that he plantedwhen he was 19 years old.
Instead the pair got acquaintedas those charettes grapes were
crushed and barreled.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
We went up to the winery where it was getting made
every day or every second day towatch the progress of the
fermentation and then barrelingit down.
And that's how we got to knoweach other over the, uh, 2014
sharez.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What'd you normally have been that interested in how
a particular parcel of grapeswere fermenting?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
No, no, not at all.
That there was a, yes, there wasa bit of chemistry at play there
too.
I think
Speaker 1 (04:34):
the couple's first date was typically Margaret
River.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
When we were processing the fruit.
We were talking about what welove that Margaret River.
And to me, I love the fact thatyou can always go on adventures
and explore and find differentthings and the coastlines just
so intricate as well.
And we were talking about thesehidden caves because we all know
that Margaret River has hundredsof hidden caves.
There's a quite a few that areon the tourist map.
So yeah, first date was goingsearching in the bush for one of
(04:59):
the, um, the hidden caves thathe used to go to when he was
younger
Speaker 1 (05:05):
on new years eve in 2017 the couple held their
wedding in the vineyardfittingly.
The Shiraz that brought themtogether was a feature.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
We actually got married on what we call the
Shiraz bar.
We built a couple of portablebars throughout the vineyard,
which we predominantly used totake people on progressive
tastings through the vineyard.
But we use the shreds bar, whichis nestled in this avenue of
spotted gum trees.
It's quite stunning.
It's elevated throughout thevineyard.
(05:34):
The funniest thing about thewedding was the fact that we got
a quote from our commercialcaterer to do the food for our
wedding and it was going to beabout 20 grand.
So we thought, well maybeinstead of getting a catering
we'll expand our kitchen.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
We didn't have a kitchen for the celador back
then.
Granny had a toaster sandwichmaker.
And uh, after getting a fewquotes for cannibis for our
wedding, I decided it would becheaper to build a kitchen.
I build enough table so that wecould say to 150 people for the
evening meal and yeah, verymemorable new years eve.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
And then you had to set up for a restaurant and
including the tables outside.
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Sasha.
It was quite hard for her towear Qatar, my table building
enthusiasm cause uh, you know,with the shed full of timber.
But yeah, we have seating fornearly 200 people outside.
It's good fun.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Now Glen Rt road has a flat out restaurant where the
love of food one and the farm ispart of every mouthful.
Well, we aim for about 40% ofwhat we grow here to make it
through to the kitchen.
So obviously we try and grow alot of the mates.
All the lamb is ours.
We've got a couple of thousandshapes, so that makes us my on
(06:44):
the menu in the right seasonsand then, yeah, lots of veggies.
Fruit, we've got, you know
Speaker 3 (06:49):
cows as well.
Yeah.
Grazing around at the moment.
Yeah.
Pigs last year that did hadrotary hound in the veggie
patches.
They made it to the restaurant.
[inaudible]
Speaker 6 (06:57):
that's amazing.
The way you, you're really quitewell stood up for what this has
evolved into, but it sounds tome like Sasha was the missing
ingredient to making that allhappen.
Is that how you would say it?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh.
Oh, d definitely has sharedpassion.
Makes it 10 times better.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Aw,
Speaker 7 (07:16):
beautiful.
Very good.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Let's travel now to another small young winery.
This time with the rock and rolledge.
Tiny Davis and Redmond Sweenygot to know each other at an
Auskick game.
The Red was coaching and Tony'skids were playing in.
Red was toying with the idea ofquitting his day job and Tony
was keen to go it alone in hisfield when they realized they
(07:39):
both wanted to start a winelabel and one that was a little
bit out of the box.
It was a light bulb momentbecause their skill sets in
marketing and wine-making madethem the perfect match.
Speaker 7 (07:50):
It was, you know, like not techs coming up with
wine strategies and our wivesstarting to get worried.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
That's when the bromance began.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Well, there's a couple of serious conversations
about we know where this wasgoing and what does it mean for
us.
And then people were talking inthe, in the town they were,
yeah.
That was really the, the birthof, of snake and Harry,
Speaker 6 (08:14):
the winery name isn't just catchy.
It's loaded with personality.
Just like the ones, yeah.
Speaker 7 (08:20):
Oh, along the snake.
That's tiny.
It's an old rugby nickname fromAdelaide university days where I
wasn't particularly greatplayer, but I um, I could rig my
way through a small hole in thedefense.
What about you hearing my firstname being Redmond, which often
gets shortened to read again.
When I was at university, I um,went on a surf trip up on the
(08:42):
northwest of Western Australia.
And on that trip, pretty mucheverything I took kept breaking
leg ropes, boards' camp gear,you name.
It was a bit of a bit of adisaster.
So my friends I was with, theykept saying, you know, what's
the next red herring that you'regoing to pull out by the end of
the trip?
They were calling me herring.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
Well, what about the names of your wines?
They're all named after music.
I understand.
Where does that sprout from?
Speaker 7 (09:08):
So just before I left a previous employer and started
sneaking herring, I just boughtthe best of radio head album.
I was listening to the song highand dry and I kind of felt a bit
that way.
And that was a bit of aninspiration to go, you know what
, uh, there's 20 years ahead ofchallenge and opportunity.
(09:34):
So, uh, I kind of felt it wasquite fitting that, you know,
we're able to name one of ourfirst wines high and dry.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Then about tough love for the Chardonnay
Speaker 7 (09:44):
with tough love.
Chardonnay is a intriguingvariety to a bit of a hero in
Margaret River and but itdoesn't get there easily.
Generally in the vineyard,there's a lot of work that goes
on behind the scenes before iteven gets into the winery.
There's an awful lot of workthat goes into the vineyard in a
lot of tough love on vines andthat spy became a great name for
our first shot I
Speaker 8 (10:11):
[inaudible]
Speaker 7 (10:12):
I've been just recently, we did a catenary alo
blend.
We named it stranded by thesites.
So this is an Ode to Tony's punkrock dies.
We do love to tune out to thatone
Speaker 8 (10:30):
[inaudible]
Speaker 6 (10:31):
we're sitting at in one of your vineyards and the
sun's shining in us.
It's light in the day.
It's warm and gorgeous andthey're kangaroos that are
jumping up and down the fenceline.
We can't talk about a love lackof romance without talking about
another love which is for theregion and also for the food
that comes out of this beautifularea you guys have.
Recently I've been to restaurantCode Yari that's doing really,
(10:52):
really well.
Had all those loves connect foryou guys.
Speaker 7 (10:56):
I came to Margaret River because I loved surf the
oceans, how clean they are, howprodigious they are, and I have
a love for agriculture.
Deep down that's probably thecore and I think that's why I am
(11:16):
hooked on the wine industrybecause you can grow something,
you make it into wine and youcan serve it at your restaurant
with amazing projects.
That's from this area in thisarea is it is special.
It's very unique.
It's unique because we're soisolated from the rest of the
world really.
It's a lovely maritime climate.
(11:39):
It doesn't get extreme.
So whatever you do here from anagricultural pursuit, growing or
nurturing animals, even theindigenous plants at Aaron at
Yari forages for it all.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now to a couple who if the awards roll call is
anything to go by, might be someof the best alchemists in the
Margaret River region.
Julian Langworthy is the winemaker at deep woods estate near
yelling up at the regionsnorthern end.
The cabernet Sauvignon he makesfor the label took out the most
coveted award in the Australianwine industry in 2016 the Jimmy
(12:16):
Watson memorial trophy.
Then he was named 2019 one Micahof the year by respected critic
James Halladay.
His wife, Alana, meanwhile isholding her own in 2018 the$7
Samsa of blogs she made for theColes Supermarket Label Story
Bay was named Best Australianone under$20 the pair first met
(12:38):
in South Australia when Julianhired Eliana as an assistant
wine maker at a winery in theCoonawarra.
I remember rocking up[inaudible]
Speaker 9 (12:45):
and meeting this guy who was, you know, in his mid
twenties at the time, crazycurly hair, deep booming voice,
and you know, quite a respectedwine maker in the area at the
time too.
And thinking, Gosh, I'm introuble this vintage.
We were young and made eachother laugh and I was possibly
slightly Austrac momentarily.
(13:07):
Julian and Alana worked togetherfor four months before she left
him for France.
Fortunately, the move wasn'tpermanent.
I knew it must have been truelove because I was working in,
in Burgundy at the time and theentire time I kept thinking,
Gosh, I think it could, maybe Ineed to go back.
I think now I'm really like thisguy, I need to go back.
(13:28):
And so I left the job early tocome back to live and work in
Coonawarra, uh, for this boythat I'd met that vintage.
So yeah, the rest is history.
Things clearly worked out and asJulian says, the pair have been
good for you.
Speaker 10 (13:43):
Alana was a longterm vegetarian when we first met and
um, and uh, I was still a good,um, country chain smoking boy.
And so I gave up cigarettes andAlana gave up, um,
vegetarianism.
Um, it was probably not the bestthing we both had ever done.
Alon has got an amazing flarefor food and, and fashion and
(14:03):
fun, um, which are all quitecompelling and wonderful and
I've got a flare for food andfun.
Not so much a flair for fashion,but you know, what are you going
to do to edit three, eight bed?
Um, you know, there's alwayssomething amazing around the
next corner.
Uh, nothing's ever too hard forAtlanta to achieve or to do
something.
She had heaps of fun, even tothe point of moving to Western
(14:23):
Australia, you know, it wasnever daunting.
It was the next thing that wouldbe a, a great adventure to do
together.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Alana remembers how she felt when she arrived in
Margaret River.
First Beach I ever went to wasSmith's beach.
And I remember walking withJules up and down the beach on
quite a cold afternoon.
But just thinking it was themost rugged, beautiful place I'd
ever seen and it didn't feelremote to me.
It felt homely for reason and toadventure through the region
(14:54):
with someone who was raisedhere, you know, you do get that
comfort.
So yeah, I'd, I'd adore it.
What was it like
Speaker 1 (15:00):
you usually in to move home?
Speaker 10 (15:03):
Uh, it was always my dream to be a one micro
[inaudible].
So as a young one macrouniversity, that was the idea.
You know, like the best Cabernetin the world came from Margaret
and the best Shodan and theworld came from my Greivis.
So why would you work anywhereelse?
I still actually truly believethat the best Cabernet in the
world comes from Margaret Riverand the best Chardonnay in the
world comes from Margaret River.
It's just I had to go viaFrance, Canada, quite a lot of
(15:27):
time in South Australia to havean opportunity that was worth
moving home for.
It just all made sense.
You know, like it's an amazingplace to live.
The beaches are gorgeous.
We've got this beautiful oldfriends here.
We live in the most spectacularlocation.
You can imagine in the runningup hills and yeah, the one is
spectacular luck.
It's the easiest and mostrewarding place in the world to
May one because the weather isso benign and the ones, the
(15:50):
result in ones are just sowonderful.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
But are there any clashes in this union of highly
skilled winemakers, particularlywhen they collaborate on a side
project, their own tiny winelabel knocked 10.
Speaker 9 (16:03):
Did they ever butt heads?
Yes.
Yeah.
I think we're quite lucky in thesense that we approach the
production of the wine fromdifferent angles.
Jewels has this amazing abilityto be quite myopic when he needs
to be.
No focuses on the minutedetails.
Whereas I see the big picture,you know, how it's going to
(16:24):
appeal to people or what itlooks like or the biggest stuff.
So he pulls me back into lineand tells me that we don't get
to the bigger picture withoutfocusing on the other things.
And I tell him to not be such aprick sometimes and focus on the
, um, the myopic things despitethe occasional TIF, sharing such
strong passions is what keepsthem strong.
(16:44):
Absolutely.
I really do think often it takeswinemakers to be married to
winemakers because we're adifferent bunch.
Um, you know, there's a lot ofdedication to the job, long
hours.
The fact that we connect overwine, food, travel, just life.
It's such a lovely, effortlessway to, to have a relationship
because you just connect on somany levels.
(17:05):
You know, there's alwayschallenges and always something
new and adventurous to do as afamily.
It's what keeps our relationshipinteresting and hopefully we'd
stand the test of time in thelong run.
Speaker 11 (17:21):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (17:22):
perhaps unsurprisingly, Margaret River
is a popular spot for bothproposals of marriage and
weddings.
The outlook at Rusticorestaurant at hated, who winery
lends itself to both thingshappening on a regular basis.
Rustico is owner who's also thewedding coordinator.
Vanessa Philippson says beautyand bragging rights are only
(17:42):
part of the reason people thathave fond memories here, they've
either had holiday houses orfamily holidays or had family
that
Speaker 12 (17:50):
lived in the region.
They often want to come back andshare the beautiful spaces and
wine.
They had that opportunity to goand get married on the beach and
then within 10 or 15 minutes,they're out of lineage enjoying
their reception.
Speaker 6 (18:04):
What are some of the more poignant moments, the
beautiful ceremonies that peoplemight have chosen?
Speaker 12 (18:09):
There's one that particularly comes to mind,
which is called a wine ceremonyand you'd often think that that
is blending of two differentwines together, but on this
occasion, the couple hadpurchased a beautiful magnum of
premium wine, which came in abeautiful wooden box, and prior
to their ceremony they hadwritten letters to each other
explaining what they adoredabout each other.
(18:32):
At the ceremony, they opened thebox, place the letters inside
the box and close the box withthe thought being that if times
ever got tough, they would openthe magnum, drink the wine, read
the letters are in Iran, remindeach other and what they loved
about each other.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Isn't that gorgeous?
Did you feel inspired by thatdaily?
Now we're just sitting herehaving a lazy glass of sparkling
and there's so much grass aboutso grain and you might be able
to hear the wind in the gumtrees that are just on our other
side.
You've been here a couple ofyears now.
How do you see it when you pullup at the restaurant every day?
Speaker 12 (19:06):
My first few weeks driving to work every day was
past mark wines, deep woods era,Vena down Johnson road, cows,
balls, a fox running across theroad and then arriving on the
corner of Metro Cup to see thebeautiful undulation of vines
shape between the vines and thenfour gorgeous horses on the
(19:29):
corner and then I turn rightinto hay shed hill.
It's pretty incredible.
You can, you can see everythingfrom the moment that you drive
in that driveway.
It, it definitely takes yourbreath away.
The seasonality, I think of theregion as well where all the
vines get super lashing grainand then over the next three or
four months, I guess it's theonly place in Western Australia
(19:52):
I feel that you can really seeautumn by May.
There's no wind, 22 degree days,clear blue skies.
I think it's probably the besttime of the year.
Me Personally,
Speaker 6 (20:01):
there's something about the air here.
Can you describe what it couldbe?
Speaker 12 (20:07):
Yeah, there's no clutter of the city.
There's a lot of space, there'sa lot of openness.
Everyone always talks about theminute you sort of drive down
south, how there's this lift ofanything that you've left behind
and it often happens when youprobably hit Busselton.
Is it about the air?
Is it about the trees?
Is it about the space?
It's, you know, it's probablyabout all of those things
Speaker 8 (20:29):
[inaudible]
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Gosh, it almost makes me want to go out and tie the
knot.
What about you Fari well, I knowit's probably not as possible
for me, but yeah, I mean I canunderstand the feeling of
romance that you know, wouldinfect of a lot of people and so
I guess
Speaker 1 (20:48):
that does cane to make one dream.
Maybe you can renew your vows.
Oh, well love is grand, isn'tit?
No, absolutely.
Especially in a place thatMargaret used to love.
Let's stick to that.
You're listening to localmusicians, Tilly k and dean
(21:10):
Taylor and their track into thebarrel by the Cullen.
One Song Soundtrack, additionalmusic by Josh Hogan and Ned
Beckley.
This podcast is supported by theinternational wine tourism grant
funded by wine Australia,Margaret River wine association,
Margaret River Busselton TourismAssociation, Southwest
Development Commission andAustralia southwest.
(21:31):
It's been scripted, recorded,and presented by May.
Flow manger from white noisemedia sound designed by Tom
Allen from barking wolf andproduced by Sophie Mathewson.
We acknowledged the were dandysalt water and forest people as
the traditional owners of thisregion and remind you to walk
softly on country forinspiration.
Planning your trip to thisbeautiful part of the world.
(21:54):
Is it Margaret river.com complexfruit driven.
Welcome to one unearthed this podcast takes you
behind the scenes of theMargaret River wine making
region in Western Australia, thevery place named best in Asia
Pacific by travel authority,lonely planet.
It's produced for you by yourMargaret River region and the
Margaret River Wine Association.
My name's flo manger.
(00:21):
I'm a food and travel journalistand I'll be taking you through
this gorgeous spot, tasting theone, meeting the people and
breathing in the surrounds.
Do you reckon it's fair to saythat good food and wine might
lend themselves to couplesfalling in love for me?
Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
There is something magical about perhaps the aide
or the general ambiance ofMargaret River.
I guess for most of us, we gofrom a place where life is a bit
more hectic, a to a much morelaid back and visually
absolutely ravishing spawn.
And you know, even the, theparts of Margaret River that we
(01:04):
see most often, you know, really
Speaker 1 (01:08):
reaching sort of natural beauty, plenty of love
in the air in Margaret River.
And in this podcast we're goingto meet three joys to Folan hard
as they've crushed grapes,fermented juices, and made
spectacular wine.
Two of the couples have gone onto tie the knot, but the third,
well it's more of a bromancebetween two mates.
(01:29):
It was like not ticks.
People were talking in the, inthe town.
They were serious conversationsabout where this was going and
what does it mean for, for us.
Hello, I'm flirt and I'm herewith wine critic Peter Forrestal
.
So before we explore theseWestern Australian loves
stories, let's say for the thingthey're all passionate about
one, right?
(01:50):
What are we about to put to thelips here?
Speaker 2 (01:52):
This is the 2016 luminous state penal wash shod
night.
So it's a bubbly made by Lewin,which is a specialist shod night
produce a really, so not thatoften seen, but yeah, a really
vibrant sparkling wine.
I just had a little try.
(02:13):
It's delicious.
[inaudible] Yup, it's mouth.
Puckering lovely finishes.
Well this, that Christmas on thefinish
Speaker 1 (02:23):
when you're drinking the aids, especially after
you've had a couple, do youstart to think about the place
and get a little bit dreamyard?
Hmm.
The thing that I think aboutmush with Margaret River is the
quality of the one, the purityof the wine.
You know, it doesn't get muchbetter.
Charge your glass because we'reabout to meet Sasha and Ben
(02:44):
McDonald from one of MargaretRiver's youngest wineries.
Glen out he road, she's the onemaker and he's the vineyard and
they live and work in the farsouthern end of the region
outside Caradigm.
Ben and I actually met righthere in the driveway.
It was about five years
Speaker 3 (03:00):
ago.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I came before I started work to just have a
quick look at this Shiraz thatBen was growing down here.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
I'd actually decided that I was pulling all the
vineyard out, so I booked amonth trip to Byron Bay.
A surfboard.
Yes.
Three days before I flew out.
Am Sasha showed up in thedriveway wanting to buffer it to
start around one label.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
So yeah, it was seven o'clock.
I rocked up in the driveway andBen was was late as usual.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yeah.
Um, I did fit in an earlymorning.
Steph.
Yeah, it was hard to get out inthe water.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
So you wrapped up with a surf board on the roof
and just throwing some thoughtsand some bodies that was
actually about to leave cause hewas so late.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
I'm glad I caught her on the way out.
Yeah, very lucky.
Otherwise we wouldn't be heretoday.
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Oh,
Speaker 1 (03:55):
needless to say Ben didn't pull out the 10 hectors
of grapevines that he plantedwhen he was 19 years old.
Instead the pair got acquaintedas those charettes grapes were
crushed and barreled.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
We went up to the winery where it was getting made
every day or every second day towatch the progress of the
fermentation and then barrelingit down.
And that's how we got to knoweach other over the, uh, 2014
sharez.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
What'd you normally have been that interested in how
a particular parcel of grapeswere fermenting?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
No, no, not at all.
That there was a, yes, there wasa bit of chemistry at play there
too.
I think
Speaker 1 (04:34):
the couple's first date was typically Margaret
River.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
When we were processing the fruit.
We were talking about what welove that Margaret River.
And to me, I love the fact thatyou can always go on adventures
and explore and find differentthings and the coastlines just
so intricate as well.
And we were talking about thesehidden caves because we all know
that Margaret River has hundredsof hidden caves.
There's a quite a few that areon the tourist map.
So yeah, first date was goingsearching in the bush for one of
(04:59):
the, um, the hidden caves thathe used to go to when he was
younger
Speaker 1 (05:05):
on new years eve in 2017 the couple held their
wedding in the vineyardfittingly.
The Shiraz that brought themtogether was a feature.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
We actually got married on what we call the
Shiraz bar.
We built a couple of portablebars throughout the vineyard,
which we predominantly used totake people on progressive
tastings through the vineyard.
But we use the shreds bar, whichis nestled in this avenue of
spotted gum trees.
It's quite stunning.
It's elevated throughout thevineyard.
(05:34):
The funniest thing about thewedding was the fact that we got
a quote from our commercialcaterer to do the food for our
wedding and it was going to beabout 20 grand.
So we thought, well maybeinstead of getting a catering
we'll expand our kitchen.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
We didn't have a kitchen for the celador back
then.
Granny had a toaster sandwichmaker.
And uh, after getting a fewquotes for cannibis for our
wedding, I decided it would becheaper to build a kitchen.
I build enough table so that wecould say to 150 people for the
evening meal and yeah, verymemorable new years eve.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
And then you had to set up for a restaurant and
including the tables outside.
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Sasha.
It was quite hard for her towear Qatar, my table building
enthusiasm cause uh, you know,with the shed full of timber.
But yeah, we have seating fornearly 200 people outside.
It's good fun.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Now Glen Rt road has a flat out restaurant where the
love of food one and the farm ispart of every mouthful.
Well, we aim for about 40% ofwhat we grow here to make it
through to the kitchen.
So obviously we try and grow alot of the mates.
All the lamb is ours.
We've got a couple of thousandshapes, so that makes us my on
(06:44):
the menu in the right seasonsand then, yeah, lots of veggies.
Fruit, we've got, you know
Speaker 3 (06:49):
cows as well.
Yeah.
Grazing around at the moment.
Yeah.
Pigs last year that did hadrotary hound in the veggie
patches.
They made it to the restaurant.
[inaudible]
Speaker 6 (06:57):
that's amazing.
The way you, you're really quitewell stood up for what this has
evolved into, but it sounds tome like Sasha was the missing
ingredient to making that allhappen.
Is that how you would say it?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Oh.
Oh, d definitely has sharedpassion.
Makes it 10 times better.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Aw,
Speaker 7 (07:16):
beautiful.
Very good.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Let's travel now to another small young winery.
This time with the rock and rolledge.
Tiny Davis and Redmond Sweenygot to know each other at an
Auskick game.
The Red was coaching and Tony'skids were playing in.
Red was toying with the idea ofquitting his day job and Tony
was keen to go it alone in hisfield when they realized they
(07:39):
both wanted to start a winelabel and one that was a little
bit out of the box.
It was a light bulb momentbecause their skill sets in
marketing and wine-making madethem the perfect match.
Speaker 7 (07:50):
It was, you know, like not techs coming up with
wine strategies and our wivesstarting to get worried.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
That's when the bromance began.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Well, there's a couple of serious conversations
about we know where this wasgoing and what does it mean for
us.
And then people were talking inthe, in the town they were,
yeah.
That was really the, the birthof, of snake and Harry,
Speaker 6 (08:14):
the winery name isn't just catchy.
It's loaded with personality.
Just like the ones, yeah.
Speaker 7 (08:20):
Oh, along the snake.
That's tiny.
It's an old rugby nickname fromAdelaide university days where I
wasn't particularly greatplayer, but I um, I could rig my
way through a small hole in thedefense.
What about you hearing my firstname being Redmond, which often
gets shortened to read again.
When I was at university, I um,went on a surf trip up on the
(08:42):
northwest of Western Australia.
And on that trip, pretty mucheverything I took kept breaking
leg ropes, boards' camp gear,you name.
It was a bit of a bit of adisaster.
So my friends I was with, theykept saying, you know, what's
the next red herring that you'regoing to pull out by the end of
the trip?
They were calling me herring.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
Well, what about the names of your wines?
They're all named after music.
I understand.
Where does that sprout from?
Speaker 7 (09:08):
So just before I left a previous employer and started
sneaking herring, I just boughtthe best of radio head album.
I was listening to the song highand dry and I kind of felt a bit
that way.
And that was a bit of aninspiration to go, you know what
, uh, there's 20 years ahead ofchallenge and opportunity.
(09:34):
So, uh, I kind of felt it wasquite fitting that, you know,
we're able to name one of ourfirst wines high and dry.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
Then about tough love for the Chardonnay
Speaker 7 (09:44):
with tough love.
Chardonnay is a intriguingvariety to a bit of a hero in
Margaret River and but itdoesn't get there easily.
Generally in the vineyard,there's a lot of work that goes
on behind the scenes before iteven gets into the winery.
There's an awful lot of workthat goes into the vineyard in a
lot of tough love on vines andthat spy became a great name for
our first shot I
Speaker 8 (10:11):
[inaudible]
Speaker 7 (10:12):
I've been just recently, we did a catenary alo
blend.
We named it stranded by thesites.
So this is an Ode to Tony's punkrock dies.
We do love to tune out to thatone
Speaker 8 (10:30):
[inaudible]
Speaker 6 (10:31):
we're sitting at in one of your vineyards and the
sun's shining in us.
It's light in the day.
It's warm and gorgeous andthey're kangaroos that are
jumping up and down the fenceline.
We can't talk about a love lackof romance without talking about
another love which is for theregion and also for the food
that comes out of this beautifularea you guys have.
Recently I've been to restaurantCode Yari that's doing really,
(10:52):
really well.
Had all those loves connect foryou guys.
Speaker 7 (10:56):
I came to Margaret River because I loved surf the
oceans, how clean they are, howprodigious they are, and I have
a love for agriculture.
Deep down that's probably thecore and I think that's why I am
(11:16):
hooked on the wine industrybecause you can grow something,
you make it into wine and youcan serve it at your restaurant
with amazing projects.
That's from this area in thisarea is it is special.
It's very unique.
It's unique because we're soisolated from the rest of the
world really.
It's a lovely maritime climate.
(11:39):
It doesn't get extreme.
So whatever you do here from anagricultural pursuit, growing or
nurturing animals, even theindigenous plants at Aaron at
Yari forages for it all.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Now to a couple who if the awards roll call is
anything to go by, might be someof the best alchemists in the
Margaret River region.
Julian Langworthy is the winemaker at deep woods estate near
yelling up at the regionsnorthern end.
The cabernet Sauvignon he makesfor the label took out the most
coveted award in the Australianwine industry in 2016 the Jimmy
(12:16):
Watson memorial trophy.
Then he was named 2019 one Micahof the year by respected critic
James Halladay.
His wife, Alana, meanwhile isholding her own in 2018 the$7
Samsa of blogs she made for theColes Supermarket Label Story
Bay was named Best Australianone under$20 the pair first met
(12:38):
in South Australia when Julianhired Eliana as an assistant
wine maker at a winery in theCoonawarra.
I remember rocking up[inaudible]
Speaker 9 (12:45):
and meeting this guy who was, you know, in his mid
twenties at the time, crazycurly hair, deep booming voice,
and you know, quite a respectedwine maker in the area at the
time too.
And thinking, Gosh, I'm introuble this vintage.
We were young and made eachother laugh and I was possibly
slightly Austrac momentarily.
(13:07):
Julian and Alana worked togetherfor four months before she left
him for France.
Fortunately, the move wasn'tpermanent.
I knew it must have been truelove because I was working in,
in Burgundy at the time and theentire time I kept thinking,
Gosh, I think it could, maybe Ineed to go back.
I think now I'm really like thisguy, I need to go back.
(13:28):
And so I left the job early tocome back to live and work in
Coonawarra, uh, for this boythat I'd met that vintage.
So yeah, the rest is history.
Things clearly worked out and asJulian says, the pair have been
good for you.
Speaker 10 (13:43):
Alana was a longterm vegetarian when we first met and
um, and uh, I was still a good,um, country chain smoking boy.
And so I gave up cigarettes andAlana gave up, um,
vegetarianism.
Um, it was probably not the bestthing we both had ever done.
Alon has got an amazing flarefor food and, and fashion and
(14:03):
fun, um, which are all quitecompelling and wonderful and
I've got a flare for food andfun.
Not so much a flair for fashion,but you know, what are you going
to do to edit three, eight bed?
Um, you know, there's alwayssomething amazing around the
next corner.
Uh, nothing's ever too hard forAtlanta to achieve or to do
something.
She had heaps of fun, even tothe point of moving to Western
(14:23):
Australia, you know, it wasnever daunting.
It was the next thing that wouldbe a, a great adventure to do
together.
Speaker 9 (14:30):
Alana remembers how she felt when she arrived in
Margaret River.
First Beach I ever went to wasSmith's beach.
And I remember walking withJules up and down the beach on
quite a cold afternoon.
But just thinking it was themost rugged, beautiful place I'd
ever seen and it didn't feelremote to me.
It felt homely for reason and toadventure through the region
(14:54):
with someone who was raisedhere, you know, you do get that
comfort.
So yeah, I'd, I'd adore it.
What was it like
Speaker 1 (15:00):
you usually in to move home?
Speaker 10 (15:03):
Uh, it was always my dream to be a one micro
[inaudible].
So as a young one macrouniversity, that was the idea.
You know, like the best Cabernetin the world came from Margaret
and the best Shodan and theworld came from my Greivis.
So why would you work anywhereelse?
I still actually truly believethat the best Cabernet in the
world comes from Margaret Riverand the best Chardonnay in the
world comes from Margaret River.
It's just I had to go viaFrance, Canada, quite a lot of
(15:27):
time in South Australia to havean opportunity that was worth
moving home for.
It just all made sense.
You know, like it's an amazingplace to live.
The beaches are gorgeous.
We've got this beautiful oldfriends here.
We live in the most spectacularlocation.
You can imagine in the runningup hills and yeah, the one is
spectacular luck.
It's the easiest and mostrewarding place in the world to
May one because the weather isso benign and the ones, the
(15:50):
result in ones are just sowonderful.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
But are there any clashes in this union of highly
skilled winemakers, particularlywhen they collaborate on a side
project, their own tiny winelabel knocked 10.
Speaker 9 (16:03):
Did they ever butt heads?
Yes.
Yeah.
I think we're quite lucky in thesense that we approach the
production of the wine fromdifferent angles.
Jewels has this amazing abilityto be quite myopic when he needs
to be.
No focuses on the minutedetails.
Whereas I see the big picture,you know, how it's going to
(16:24):
appeal to people or what itlooks like or the biggest stuff.
So he pulls me back into lineand tells me that we don't get
to the bigger picture withoutfocusing on the other things.
And I tell him to not be such aprick sometimes and focus on the
, um, the myopic things despitethe occasional TIF, sharing such
strong passions is what keepsthem strong.
(16:44):
Absolutely.
I really do think often it takeswinemakers to be married to
winemakers because we're adifferent bunch.
Um, you know, there's a lot ofdedication to the job, long
hours.
The fact that we connect overwine, food, travel, just life.
It's such a lovely, effortlessway to, to have a relationship
because you just connect on somany levels.
(17:05):
You know, there's alwayschallenges and always something
new and adventurous to do as afamily.
It's what keeps our relationshipinteresting and hopefully we'd
stand the test of time in thelong run.
Speaker 11 (17:21):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (17:22):
perhaps unsurprisingly, Margaret River
is a popular spot for bothproposals of marriage and
weddings.
The outlook at Rusticorestaurant at hated, who winery
lends itself to both thingshappening on a regular basis.
Rustico is owner who's also thewedding coordinator.
Vanessa Philippson says beautyand bragging rights are only
(17:42):
part of the reason people thathave fond memories here, they've
either had holiday houses orfamily holidays or had family
that
Speaker 12 (17:50):
lived in the region.
They often want to come back andshare the beautiful spaces and
wine.
They had that opportunity to goand get married on the beach and
then within 10 or 15 minutes,they're out of lineage enjoying
their reception.
Speaker 6 (18:04):
What are some of the more poignant moments, the
beautiful ceremonies that peoplemight have chosen?
Speaker 12 (18:09):
There's one that particularly comes to mind,
which is called a wine ceremonyand you'd often think that that
is blending of two differentwines together, but on this
occasion, the couple hadpurchased a beautiful magnum of
premium wine, which came in abeautiful wooden box, and prior
to their ceremony they hadwritten letters to each other
explaining what they adoredabout each other.
(18:32):
At the ceremony, they opened thebox, place the letters inside
the box and close the box withthe thought being that if times
ever got tough, they would openthe magnum, drink the wine, read
the letters are in Iran, remindeach other and what they loved
about each other.
Speaker 6 (18:46):
Isn't that gorgeous?
Did you feel inspired by thatdaily?
Now we're just sitting herehaving a lazy glass of sparkling
and there's so much grass aboutso grain and you might be able
to hear the wind in the gumtrees that are just on our other
side.
You've been here a couple ofyears now.
How do you see it when you pullup at the restaurant every day?
Speaker 12 (19:06):
My first few weeks driving to work every day was
past mark wines, deep woods era,Vena down Johnson road, cows,
balls, a fox running across theroad and then arriving on the
corner of Metro Cup to see thebeautiful undulation of vines
shape between the vines and thenfour gorgeous horses on the
(19:29):
corner and then I turn rightinto hay shed hill.
It's pretty incredible.
You can, you can see everythingfrom the moment that you drive
in that driveway.
It, it definitely takes yourbreath away.
The seasonality, I think of theregion as well where all the
vines get super lashing grainand then over the next three or
four months, I guess it's theonly place in Western Australia
(19:52):
I feel that you can really seeautumn by May.
There's no wind, 22 degree days,clear blue skies.
I think it's probably the besttime of the year.
Me Personally,
Speaker 6 (20:01):
there's something about the air here.
Can you describe what it couldbe?
Speaker 12 (20:07):
Yeah, there's no clutter of the city.
There's a lot of space, there'sa lot of openness.
Everyone always talks about theminute you sort of drive down
south, how there's this lift ofanything that you've left behind
and it often happens when youprobably hit Busselton.
Is it about the air?
Is it about the trees?
Is it about the space?
It's, you know, it's probablyabout all of those things
Speaker 8 (20:29):
[inaudible]
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Gosh, it almost makes me want to go out and tie the
knot.
What about you Fari well, I knowit's probably not as possible
for me, but yeah, I mean I canunderstand the feeling of
romance that you know, wouldinfect of a lot of people and so
I guess
Speaker 1 (20:48):
that does cane to make one dream.
Maybe you can renew your vows.
Oh, well love is grand, isn'tit?
No, absolutely.
Especially in a place thatMargaret used to love.
Let's stick to that.
You're listening to localmusicians, Tilly k and dean
(21:10):
Taylor and their track into thebarrel by the Cullen.
One Song Soundtrack, additionalmusic by Josh Hogan and Ned
Beckley.
This podcast is supported by theinternational wine tourism grant
funded by wine Australia,Margaret River wine association,
Margaret River Busselton TourismAssociation, Southwest
Development Commission andAustralia southwest.
(21:31):
It's been scripted, recorded,and presented by May.
Flow manger from white noisemedia sound designed by Tom
Allen from barking wolf andproduced by Sophie Mathewson.
We acknowledged the were dandysalt water and forest people as
the traditional owners of thisregion and remind you to walk
softly on country forinspiration.
Planning your trip to thisbeautiful part of the world.
(21:54):
Is it Margaret river.com complexfruit driven.
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