July 31, 2019 • 29 mins
Is it a smell, a taste or just a feeling? Get to know Margaret River’s arresting natural environment through an Aboriginal cultural custodian who explains human’s sense of connection to the land (and gives a leaf-blowing demo). Also, learn what drives a biodynamic winemaker to nurture soil, and a hiking guide walks us along an ancient mountain ridge.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to one on earth.
This podcast takes you behindthe scenes of the Margaret River
wine making region in WesternAustralia, the very place named
best in Asia Pacific by travelauthority, lonely planet.
It's produced for you by yourMargaret River region and the
Margaret River Wine Association.
My name is Flo Bainer.
(00:21):
I'm a food and travel journalistand I'll be taking you through
this gorgeous spot, tasting thewine, meeting the people, and
breathing in the around
Speaker 2 (00:31):
far, what do we got here?
This is a Dick Woods, one of thesuperstars of Margaret River at
the moment.
Very much the expression of justwant it like in that little part
of yelling up what you find inthis characteristic.
A cabernet has abusiveness tothem.
It's structured, it's quitetight bodied, dried her
(00:55):
characters, perhaps even someblack Holland, especially
towards the yelling up intowards the northern end of
Margaret River.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Margaret River is almost too good to be true.
It's essentially a peninsulathat sticks out the side of
Western Australia, edged byocean speed with masses of tall
trees and rode with vineyardsthat produce a huge amount of
Australia's highest level one.
One of the reasons it's able todo that is it's magical
environment and that's somethingwe're going to learn a bit about
(01:24):
in this podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Everywhere you go, there's just wildlife, you know,
you'll hear the birds, you'llsee the birds.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
In a moment we'll pull on our hiking boots and
explore the regions June's as wehear how natural elements
combined to create perfectconditions for wine making.
This drained low nutrientenvironment that produces
ultimately high quality wine.
A little later we'll meet a winddandy man who's going to walk us
through the deep connection thathe's got for country
Speaker 2 (01:49):
here.
The sixth season cycle, webasically keep in like a wheel,
so every two months is aseasonal change.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Kneel down and smell the earth on a biodynamic
vineyard.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, there's a nice big fat, juicy wounded
Speaker 1 (02:03):
best though Peter Forester is a wine critic and
the coauthor of the way.
It was a book that details theearly days of the Margaret River
wine region.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Pedro does a bit of a buzzword in the wine industry
that a lot of us don't reallyunderstand, but it relates to
what we're talking about in thispodcast.
And the word is terroir.
Can you explain this very fancyterm to us?
Yeah, look a French word thatessentially is all of the
influences on a wine.
You know, the most obvious oneis the place that it comes from.
(02:35):
So in Margaret Rhythm you got ahuge difference in temperature
even from yelling up in thenorth to Kara down the south.
Then you've got all of thefactors that influence that.
Let's talk a little bit moreabout John Gladstones cause he
was a scientist who used to godown to the region quite a bit.
Remarkable man and a greatobserver of nature.
(02:57):
Talks about remembering.
He was a youngster smelling theorchard fruit at Alexander
Bridge.
You said the perfume I've neverexperienced anywhere else.
And so he then you know, studiedthe situation and wrote a couple
of papers, you know, 50 yearsdown the track.
(03:18):
He's been proven to beabsolutely spot on.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Let's look even further back to the days when
the earth was forming.
Jane Hottie is someone who'sdeeply connected to the region
and its environment so much sohe's built up a hiking business
in Margaret River called Cape toCape explorer tours.
He's really good at explainingthe regions ancient geology and
how it links to excellentwinemaking, but before getting
(03:45):
into the nitty gritty, Jane tookme out to a sandy stretch on the
Cape to Cape track for a rummagein the Bush
Speaker 5 (03:52):
guys.
Well, there's all kinds ofthings I want to track as you
bumbling along.
This one, he is called[inaudible], but we're down the,
I believe Courtney Bane and it'sactually really ripe and looking
good.
You can try this one.
Here you go.
Give it a bit of squeeze.
How would you describe thesmell?
I call it native.
I'm rosemary.
It's not really that riser.
You can't cook with it now.
(04:12):
You're an interesting character.
You've got this crazy head ofhair, the tight curls to go in
every direction.
You've got your proper hikingshirt on, but you're wearing
boardies at the same time.
Is this your usual uniform?
Yeah, it's a, I carry with me,you know, I went to uni and did
a couple of different thingsthere and thought I'd end up in
a suit in an office somewhere.
I really thought that I did workexperience once and I was like,
(04:33):
Whoa, I think I'm cut out forthis.
And, and to be loading it aroundthe beach with wild hair doing
in shorts permanently is justthe best thing that ever
happened to me.
I cause of things.
There's other like this is theum, just beautiful little salt
Bush and just smell souplifting.
You know,
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Jane and I took a break on the sand in a sheltered
spot and he tells me what's sospecial about the Cape to Cape.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Well, the[inaudible] track is definitely one of the
jewels in the crown of thematter.
We have a region 124 kilometerlong coastal track II traverses
a really diverse landscapebetween Cape naturalist in the
north all the way down to CapeLewin in the south.
And both of these capes have gota lighthouse on them.
So it's like a lighthouse.
The lighthouse hike, is it just,yeah, so much diversity on the,
(05:25):
on the track.
Yeah.
It's not just on the cliffs.
It's not just in the forest, notjust on the beach.
Every step is different in everykilometer is a completely
different ecosystem.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (05:38):
it is part of a biodiversity hotspot, one of 34
35 or internationally recognizedbiodiversity hotspots.
And everywhere you go there'sjust wildlife, you know, you'll
hear the birds, you'll see thebeds and it's, there's just so
much out and about.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
How did you get so hooked on it?
Oh, I was so
Speaker 5 (05:58):
lucky.
I was born in, in Margaret River, apparently conceived on the
beach and a, which is way TMI,but I from a very young age
would, would head down the beachoriginally fishing.
And then later on I got intosurfing and also into free
diving.
And I was just always on thecoast exploring.
And it was just my freedom.
(06:19):
It was just my happy place, youknow, I was, and, and in being
able to share that it, it's soincredible.
And even like I've now gosurfing with my daughters all
the time down the coast and wewere hiking back along these
tracks like we were sitting nowand have a stop midway and we
might be eating some Bush foodlying around.
And I just kind of close my eyesand just think disadvantage as
(06:39):
good as it gets.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Let's talk about what makes up this coastline cause
it's incredibly old and it'sreally diverse, surprising
geology.
How do you explain it to people?
Speaker 5 (06:50):
What happened about 350 million years ago was that
all of the continents cametogether and the continent of
India actually slammed into theWest Australian coast.
It was the only bit that itcollided with.
And the only bit that was leftwas this 124 kilometer edge.
(07:10):
So the Cape, the Cape itself,essentially you're walking on
the backbone of an ancientmountain ridge, which is part of
India.
And what sort of rock do youfind along the way?
Well, originally it was graniteand granite is an igneous rock.
So it, it regionally was liedown as um, you know, lava that
cooled very slowly under thesurface.
But when it had this collision,there was this tearing and
(07:34):
upward push and movement and allthis heat.
And that was a metamorphic,right?
And it made the granite, itboth, it all out of the surface.
So it looks so different.
It's so dramatic.
It's not like big black, oldlie.
Dan, granted this stuff's gottexture and it's got all these
oranges and reds and all thesecourts banning through it and
you can see what's happening.
(08:00):
How old is that?
Granite?
So the granite, it's not superduper old, it's like half a
billion years old.
But overlaying that reallyinteresting is a another rock
and it's Aioli and Kel, KarenKnight or Tamala Limestone.
And that I always was the greatgarner wind and the wind blew
the sand up on top of thegranite.
And in true calcification, itactually all got glued together
(08:22):
like some mint.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So then if you paint us a picture of what you can see
as you hike along the[inaudible]track, what does it look like?
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Top deck chocolate.
It's amazing because it's these,these combination of these two
rocks give us so many amazingelements of the Margaret River
region because they're toocrackly and uneven and too
broken up in that tiering tocreate a flat reef to surf on.
But the limestone sits inbetween or that gets cut off to
(08:50):
form wave cut platforms and isperfect for surfing the caves.
They all have a base granite butthen they're in the limestone.
The limestone is like a spongeand it lets the Kerry trees grow
because they need more waterthan we've got here from the
rainfall and obviously the wine,you know like this combination
of rocks and the proximity tothe ocean and the ladder.
(09:13):
Riddick gravel is this perfectdry and low nutrient environment
that produces ultimately highquality wine.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Once I had all the background, it was time to hit
the track again.
Speaker 7 (09:28):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (09:28):
the uh, you can see the purple flower of the Ska
volar at its amount event aswell.
And this Kavala here is, it'sreally interesting, you know,
like this coastal heath, youfeel that it's like, oh, it's
all sticky.
If you have sticky that is,yeah.
It's like, it's like a piece ofsticky tape.
Literally almost.
It's kind of that, thatstickiness.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
What do you think that could be?
I have absolutely no idea.
It's actually the plant suncreamsticky high spooky.
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
You get quite a few frogs on the track as well.
One of my favorites, themotorbike frog.
Nice.
And all this.
Speaker 8 (10:02):
Uh,
Speaker 5 (10:03):
bye.
My mom, my mom
Speaker 8 (10:07):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (10:09):
and they'll actually call back to you and it's really
cool because he's got the littlefrogs and the little frauds are
scared of the motorbike frozehis motor fire frogs, the big
gray ones.
They eat little frogs.
So if you hear the little frogslike, um, the quacking frog and
I got this right.
If you hear those guys and youdo a motorbike frog, all the
cracking frogs stop.
(10:33):
Yeah.
There's a couple of other coolones.
One you've heard of and it's atnight.
It's called the moaning frogs.
Speaker 9 (10:41):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (10:47):
and the other one's a band j frog as well.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Well cool.
Speaker 9 (10:52):
Oh cool.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
That's pretty cool.
Tell you, there's often a lot offrogs out here, particularly
after kind of after rain and inthe wetter areas,
Speaker 4 (11:02):
and is it like anywhere?
If you've got frogs, that meansyou've got a healthy ecosystem.
Yeah.
Frogs are a really goodindicator when she loads the
frogs.
It's really cool.
Folks are also important toMargaret Rivers, aboriginal
people that were Dandy or saltwater people, cultural
custodians.
Zach web grew up with both anindigenous education about his
land and teachings about thewine industry with his family
(11:22):
having faith in each camp.
He took me to a local Billabongto share his connection to
country.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
If we just go for a walk, just down here, we got
down towards near the swamp andnear the waterways and you start
to hear a lot of the frogs andthat[inaudible] will start to
indicate the freshness of thewater.
So I say I demerara Komara[inaudible] ancestors, ancient
(11:49):
ones as spirits.
I say mirror mural
Speaker 10 (11:53):
eyes Genung c but yeah,
Speaker 11 (11:57):
country[inaudible] beautiful country.
So we basically say that if wecome to a water edge and if we
don't hear any one way of quiteyet, no talking of the frogs,
it's why[inaudible] bad watermake you sick.
But if we hear the frogs, weknow that water is fresh to
(12:19):
drink.
Speaker 8 (12:28):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (12:28):
the Noga people of southwest, Western Australia,
they also have a calendar thathas not four but six seasons.
Speaker 8 (12:42):
[inaudible]
Speaker 10 (12:42):
the four seasons of autumn, summer, winter, spring
don't really come from here andnot really relevant.
They are from England?
Speaker 8 (12:50):
No,
Speaker 10 (12:50):
and he are the sixth season cycle.
We basically keep in like awheel.
So every two months is aseasonal change.
So we as aboriginal people don'tjust go, oh, it's the first of
this month.
It's spring time.
These flowers must be the spring.
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (13:12):
Wow.
Speaker 10 (13:13):
It's to do with what their cycle is.
I was actually talking to alocal winemaker just the other
day and he was saying he willpick the grapes when he starts
to see the kangaroos jumping thefences into his paddocks and
when you see certain birds comeon to his property, he said that
(13:34):
that has been the bestproduction time that the most
tastiest of his wine has comeout.
Does that make sense to you?
It totally does.
Yep.
So when he started to talk aboutsome of the stuff, I was like,
wow, that's exactly how we lookat country too and encouraged
him to keep looking like thatand that's what we encourage a
lot of people to do, to have alook at their surroundings and
(13:56):
really listen to what thecountry's saying while she
speaks
Speaker 1 (14:01):
is Zach's role as a cultural educator with the
underlap association.
He shows people that we can allhave a connection to country.
Speaker 13 (14:11):
I guess the belonging and the connection to
country that we all have isabout the sense of place and
that feeling that we belong.
I liken it to when a lot ofpeople go out on country, they
love to go for walks, uh,through the bush, whether it's
by the river or the oceanitself.
They like to walk on country andexperienced that feeling.
(14:34):
And when they get to places,they feel as though they're
connected or belongs to thatarea, whether you're an
indigenous person or not.
And I like to say to people,that is the connection that we
all as human beings have to theland and to the country.
And it's about listening whenthe country is telling you that
you have that connection
Speaker 8 (15:02):
[inaudible]
Speaker 13 (15:03):
so sometimes you might go to a place when, uh,
it's not feeling that well.
You feel bad and you shouldn'tbe there.
I say to a lot of people willheed that warning cause as
aboriginal people, that's whatwe do as well.
We listened to the country andif the country is telling us not
to be there, there could be aword younger or young era, bad
spirits.
(15:26):
And just to make sure thatyou're feeling it with inside
you.
So that connection to country wehave as aboriginal people is
just listening to the[inaudible]or the[inaudible], the mother
and the country and listening towhat she has to say.
This river here is verysignificant.
(15:47):
The Margaret River or the word[inaudible] billion known to our
people as it's a song line or astory about our grandfather
where rich and our grandmotherMilian and the story of how they
came together and when they weremarried.
So when they're quite a mart,when the hearts became a family
can, can you tell us more aboutthe songlines and what they are
(16:08):
for those who don't know andwhere they cover in Margaret
River?
Well the songlines arethroughout country and the song
lines a written within countrythat we see today.
These are what I would liken toon your Tom, Tom or your gps
when using your car, it's yourfinal destination and the song
line is the route that you aretaking within your car to get
(16:32):
there.
Our people are sun song linesand told the stories and
significance of certain placesand areas so that we get a
visual understanding in our mindof what the country looks like
and our traditional boundaries.
So lack from one or up, you'regoing to sing that warning
peppermint tree, the Goannasflicks Yasser and from where
(16:54):
nine we're gonna talk about howI yoga women will make from a
warning that will make our[inaudible], which is their low
digging stick.
And from that Webinar they willgo to places such as one or up
the place of the women's lawdigging stick.
So it will connect those treesto the country, to the land, to
the rivers, to the next songline or the next place.
(17:16):
And by doing that, oh the wifeas children you require no
technology to tell you where youare or where you belong in the
world.
Zach's family straddles twocultures.
One side's aboriginal and theother side is from wine making
stock.
My grandfather came from over inMelbourne on my mom's side.
She was born near mill juror.
(17:37):
My grandfather was actuallyasked to come over to Western
Australia here and to show themhow to start a vineyard.
My mother came over and mygrandmother and family
subsequently to school with mydad's sisters, met up with my
family and I'm a product of thatever since I was a young little
coroner.
I remember while they pickinggrapes in the vineyards, I'd be
(18:00):
there eating.
That'd be telling me, donate toomany cause you're going to get a
corporate mandate, a sick bellysoon.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Zach never felt compelled to work in the wine
industry.
His father's side, theindigenous side inspired him to
look after the earth indifferent ways.
Speaker 13 (18:15):
I had growing up with my family on country as
well.
We used to get taken out by mygreat grandmother and
great-grandfather's out oncountry all the time.
Collecting things like um,Bartee, witchetty grubs and all
the foods, so like Bushmedicines and Tacos.
I guess that was one of themajor factors that drove me
(18:35):
following my career path towardsrangering and looking after
country
Speaker 4 (18:40):
before I left him, he showed me how to make bird calls
using a peppermint tree leaf.
Between his palms picking
Speaker 13 (18:47):
the nice fresh shoe.
You're looking for the fairysort of relief when the core
Bartee when the magpies theycall out to mum and dad for
food.
Speaker 14 (19:01):
[inaudible]
Speaker 13 (19:02):
so you get that a also we get a lot of the ducks
throughout the swamp periods.
They go,
Speaker 6 (19:08):
Huh, Huh, Huh, Huh, Huh, Huh.
Speaker 13 (19:14):
We all say sound out some of the cockatoos like
Speaker 14 (19:24):
woo.
Speaker 15 (19:27):
Wow.
Speaker 13 (19:28):
Alright.
We do a correct, which is thatred towel or that cockatoo.
But also if you listen to it godude
Speaker 16 (19:34):
did, did, did you did, did, which is a dared or
the 28 parrot.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
What are we smelling and tasting?
Yeah, Kevin.
I from 2017 so this is someblind corner, the one that gets
Ben Gould.
It's beautifully made wine.
There's a purity quite Suki.
It's, yeah, it's a good drink.
The blind corner is a biodynamicwine.
Are you hearing about many otherwineries going towards greener
(20:05):
practices?
Look, I mean certainly placeslike vast feelings and voyage
around changing the way thatthey operate.
Vanya colon believes that, um,since they've adopted biodynamic
practices that they want a muchbetter, you know, she notes that
(20:26):
are they, the gripes brought inmore quickly?
I think it's probably easy toargue that people who live in
Margaret River generally arereally quite connected to the
environment and interested inits preservation.
Would you say that's the case?
Yeah, I think for a lot ofpeople that's the sort of reason
that they've gone to MargaretRiver in the first place.
It is somewhere where you dofeel close to the earth, close
(20:50):
to the ocean, and that does tendto reflect not just better
culture, but out of wide rangeof farming practice.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
This is
Speaker 4 (21:01):
north of Margaret River, just out of yelling up.
Ben Gould tends to a biodynamicvineyard and winery.
So we're with Ben good at blindcorner.
He's connection to the country,inspired him to find a way to
grow grapes without hurting theearth, which is a concept he
first came across in France.
Speaker 11 (21:18):
Well, it's been a slow burn for me.
So I've been in vineyards andwineries now for 20 years and
sort of conventional vineyards,conventional wineries sort of
added everything to wine,sprayed everything in the
vineyard and thought that couldbe a better way when traveling
with my wife, we spent sixmonths in a builder's van doing
every surf break and wine regionin western Europe.
(21:38):
And along the way we saw placeslike[inaudible], which is quite
famous that the man namedNicholas Scholly, he's sort of
the grandfather of biodynamicsand his vineyard was alive.
You know, the, the wines he wasmaking were zero sulfur and the,
when you walk through thevineyards there's birds and
butterflies and no disease andyou know, the soils were healthy
and everything just looked magicand thought, okay, this is
(22:01):
interesting.
So when we came home to startour own place on a small plot of
land, we wanted to build a houseand have a family and didn't
want to keep sort of running outand eating dirt and eating
something that could potentiallybe dangerous or bad.
And so then how did the switchhappen?
Slowly?
Uh, we just cut out allchemicals pretty much straight
(22:23):
away and I'd read a lot aboutbiodynamics and was sort of
sitting there going, okay, Idon't understand any of this.
And then I read something thatsaid the best thing to do is
start.
So I went, okay, well we'llstart with a little bit and see
how we go.
Now we have 24 hectors ofcertified organic and biodynamic
vineyards.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
We're standing in one of them right now.
Yes.
The vines are going artist'sside, like a row of Corduroy and
there's some beautiful dirtunderneath our feet where you've
just planned.
What have you planted?
Speaker 11 (22:49):
Oh, in the mid rise we've just put some six strains
of Clovis in Fitch, peas, Rye,grass.
Some are nitrogen fixing and wewant to outcompete some things
we don't like in the vineyard toinstead of resorting to sort of
spraying them out.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
The Sun setting right now and the beautiful tall trees
that are so characteristic ofMargaret River are just fading
into a silhouette at our backs.
Shall we kneel down and have alook at this stuff that you've
put so much effort into?
Speaker 11 (23:15):
Let's have a look.
I brought a shovel with me.
We're just going to digunderneath one of these vines
now.
These are some old SauvignonBlanc, Brian's, so it's quite a
sandy site here with fairlyclose to the coast, about four
kilometers from the ocean and wespent a lot of time spreading
compounds to try to build up thesoil and build out the microbes
(23:37):
in the soil because that's whattransports a lot of the micro
nutrients to the roots of theplant.
And of course that troubles upin the PSAP and ends up in the
grapes, which ends up in yourglass of wine.
You don't have a bit of a look.
All right, there's a nice bigfat juicy womb there just
underneath that, the small root[inaudible].
Speaker 4 (23:56):
So where's my good soil health?
I imagine
Speaker 11 (23:59):
that's right.
That's it.
It's a nice environment for themto be in.
They can create all sorts ofgood conditions for the vines,
but also the soil to to thrive.
What we're trying to build is apretty balanced biome in here.
So, you know, lots of beneficialyeast and bacteria that can sort
of transport the flavors and thenutrients that the bonds need.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So if we had a microscope and we zoomed in on
this beautiful day that you'vejust pulled out and I've got
running through my fingers, whatwould we see here?
Speaker 11 (24:28):
Well, we'd hope to see lots of little wiggly
things.
Things like, you know,nematodes, geese, bacteria,
Speaker 4 (24:34):
so much of Margaret River, like anyone region really
in the world.
It's built on soil.
If we pick it up, you know, arethere characteristics and even
smells that we'll get the beemountain.
Oh, get out sweat.
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (24:47):
Even though this looks quite lonely and, and
Sandy, there's a very stronggravel smell coming through,
which is always indicative to meof Margaret River or some sort
of smell of gravel in theeucalypts and the ocean.
And then, yeah, you feel likeyou're home.
It's nice and pliable as well.
(25:07):
Isaiah, this Nicko l a winerycat.
So she lives in the winery, butshe's decided to follow us out
here, I guess.
That's quite funny.
Hello?
So she lives in the winery.
She's air organic pest control.
What does she pick up a well, wedon't have a mice, a mouse
problem anymore around thewinery, which is fantastic and
(25:28):
she's got a bit of a soft spotfor cockroaches so we don't have
those anymore either.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Adhering to biodynamic principles and
traditional wine makingpractices means a fair bit more
work.
But Ben has found a cleversolution to that.
Speaker 11 (25:41):
All of our red grapes, all our red wine here,
we all foot crush soeverything's foot trashed and
hand plunged basket pressed.
All Walton entered.
So very, very old school winemaking.
We used to, in the early daysbefore staff, we'd be looking
down the barrel of 12 to 14hours of foot crushing by
myself.
So I came up with the idea ofhaving a barbecue, getting a few
(26:02):
friends around and uh, itquickly would solve the problem
for me.
I'd just be running aroundfeeding people wine and, and
drinks and uh, it would save mea lot of work.
It was hard sometimes to getpeople to, to get in, but, but
once people get in, they don'twant to get out, which also
causes an issue.
I'm like, no, that's enough nowI don't want it to too crushed.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
How have drinkers started to respond to the
biodynamic organic thing?
Like do people seek it out now?
Is it becoming well known?
Is there a trend towardschoosing that wine over
otherwise?
Speaker 11 (26:31):
Well, I think so.
We've seen it.
We've been lucky enough to sellout every year and the trend of
wineries going more organic.
I mean anything you read in thepaper at the moment, you know
you're showing how much of thegrowth of organic wine is
happening.
There's always been a bit of asubculture and it's just growing
and growing
Speaker 3 (26:48):
[inaudible]
Speaker 11 (26:49):
and people want to know where this stuff comes from
and what's sprayed on it and whyand you know, so yes, it's
certainly growing
Speaker 3 (26:56):
[inaudible]
Speaker 11 (26:56):
there's now currently an organic trial,
which has just started down herefor wine lovers who want to
visit the organic wineries.
Currently, there's only five ofus, but you can pick them up at
the tourist bureau and uh, comeand say hello and say I had a
Nicco
Speaker 7 (27:12):
[inaudible]
Speaker 3 (27:14):
let's see, what have we got this time?
This particular wine is from MrBarbel.
One of the bright young guns,Ron Shirati, he calls it Vino
Rosso, a blend of doe, cabernetfranc and mural on it.
(27:34):
Should we try?
Nice.
I liked it a lot.
Good.
Very smooth but kind of, um,spicy and a little bit sexy.
Ooh, wow.
What do you say to that?
Whoa man.
(27:54):
Look, try, get signed.
[inaudible] revealing as, asthat, but it's got a lovely, um,
intensity.
Um, the best one, Margaret,about a world class wines and
you could take that to a dinnerparty in Paris, put it on the
table and the people would say,you know, it would be very
(28:15):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (28:15):
one.
Why large red in the moon on theglitter stuff that's above you
on the phone.
You're listening to localmusician Claire Warnock and her
track one won by the Cullen.
One Song Soundtrack.
Additional music by Josh Hogan,Ned Beckley and the new towns is
(28:36):
bone dry.
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.
It's been scripted, recorded andpresented by me.
Flu Manger from White NoiseMedia, sound design by Tom Allen
from barking wolf and producedby Sophie Mathewson.
(29:00):
Sorry, one one.
[inaudible] special thanks tothe underlap association, her
reminders that while visitingthis beautiful part of the
world, you walk softly oncountry for inspiration,
planning your trip to thisbeautiful part of the world.
Was it Margaret river.com.
Welcome to one on earth.
This podcast takes you behindthe scenes of the Margaret River
wine making region in WesternAustralia, the very place named
best in Asia Pacific by travelauthority, lonely planet.
It's produced for you by yourMargaret River region and the
Margaret River Wine Association.
My name is Flo Bainer.
(00:21):
I'm a food and travel journalistand I'll be taking you through
this gorgeous spot, tasting thewine, meeting the people, and
breathing in the around
Speaker 2 (00:31):
far, what do we got here?
This is a Dick Woods, one of thesuperstars of Margaret River at
the moment.
Very much the expression of justwant it like in that little part
of yelling up what you find inthis characteristic.
A cabernet has abusiveness tothem.
It's structured, it's quitetight bodied, dried her
(00:55):
characters, perhaps even someblack Holland, especially
towards the yelling up intowards the northern end of
Margaret River.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Margaret River is almost too good to be true.
It's essentially a peninsulathat sticks out the side of
Western Australia, edged byocean speed with masses of tall
trees and rode with vineyardsthat produce a huge amount of
Australia's highest level one.
One of the reasons it's able todo that is it's magical
environment and that's somethingwe're going to learn a bit about
(01:24):
in this podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Everywhere you go, there's just wildlife, you know,
you'll hear the birds, you'llsee the birds.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
In a moment we'll pull on our hiking boots and
explore the regions June's as wehear how natural elements
combined to create perfectconditions for wine making.
This drained low nutrientenvironment that produces
ultimately high quality wine.
A little later we'll meet a winddandy man who's going to walk us
through the deep connection thathe's got for country
Speaker 2 (01:49):
here.
The sixth season cycle, webasically keep in like a wheel,
so every two months is aseasonal change.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Kneel down and smell the earth on a biodynamic
vineyard.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, there's a nice big fat, juicy wounded
Speaker 1 (02:03):
best though Peter Forester is a wine critic and
the coauthor of the way.
It was a book that details theearly days of the Margaret River
wine region.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Pedro does a bit of a buzzword in the wine industry
that a lot of us don't reallyunderstand, but it relates to
what we're talking about in thispodcast.
And the word is terroir.
Can you explain this very fancyterm to us?
Yeah, look a French word thatessentially is all of the
influences on a wine.
You know, the most obvious oneis the place that it comes from.
(02:35):
So in Margaret Rhythm you got ahuge difference in temperature
even from yelling up in thenorth to Kara down the south.
Then you've got all of thefactors that influence that.
Let's talk a little bit moreabout John Gladstones cause he
was a scientist who used to godown to the region quite a bit.
Remarkable man and a greatobserver of nature.
(02:57):
Talks about remembering.
He was a youngster smelling theorchard fruit at Alexander
Bridge.
You said the perfume I've neverexperienced anywhere else.
And so he then you know, studiedthe situation and wrote a couple
of papers, you know, 50 yearsdown the track.
(03:18):
He's been proven to beabsolutely spot on.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Let's look even further back to the days when
the earth was forming.
Jane Hottie is someone who'sdeeply connected to the region
and its environment so much sohe's built up a hiking business
in Margaret River called Cape toCape explorer tours.
He's really good at explainingthe regions ancient geology and
how it links to excellentwinemaking, but before getting
(03:45):
into the nitty gritty, Jane tookme out to a sandy stretch on the
Cape to Cape track for a rummagein the Bush
Speaker 5 (03:52):
guys.
Well, there's all kinds ofthings I want to track as you
bumbling along.
This one, he is called[inaudible], but we're down the,
I believe Courtney Bane and it'sactually really ripe and looking
good.
You can try this one.
Here you go.
Give it a bit of squeeze.
How would you describe thesmell?
I call it native.
I'm rosemary.
It's not really that riser.
You can't cook with it now.
(04:12):
You're an interesting character.
You've got this crazy head ofhair, the tight curls to go in
every direction.
You've got your proper hikingshirt on, but you're wearing
boardies at the same time.
Is this your usual uniform?
Yeah, it's a, I carry with me,you know, I went to uni and did
a couple of different thingsthere and thought I'd end up in
a suit in an office somewhere.
I really thought that I did workexperience once and I was like,
(04:33):
Whoa, I think I'm cut out forthis.
And, and to be loading it aroundthe beach with wild hair doing
in shorts permanently is justthe best thing that ever
happened to me.
I cause of things.
There's other like this is theum, just beautiful little salt
Bush and just smell souplifting.
You know,
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Jane and I took a break on the sand in a sheltered
spot and he tells me what's sospecial about the Cape to Cape.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
Well, the[inaudible] track is definitely one of the
jewels in the crown of thematter.
We have a region 124 kilometerlong coastal track II traverses
a really diverse landscapebetween Cape naturalist in the
north all the way down to CapeLewin in the south.
And both of these capes have gota lighthouse on them.
So it's like a lighthouse.
The lighthouse hike, is it just,yeah, so much diversity on the,
(05:25):
on the track.
Yeah.
It's not just on the cliffs.
It's not just in the forest, notjust on the beach.
Every step is different in everykilometer is a completely
different ecosystem.
Speaker 6 (05:37):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (05:38):
it is part of a biodiversity hotspot, one of 34
35 or internationally recognizedbiodiversity hotspots.
And everywhere you go there'sjust wildlife, you know, you'll
hear the birds, you'll see thebeds and it's, there's just so
much out and about.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
How did you get so hooked on it?
Oh, I was so
Speaker 5 (05:58):
lucky.
I was born in, in Margaret River, apparently conceived on the
beach and a, which is way TMI,but I from a very young age
would, would head down the beachoriginally fishing.
And then later on I got intosurfing and also into free
diving.
And I was just always on thecoast exploring.
And it was just my freedom.
(06:19):
It was just my happy place, youknow, I was, and, and in being
able to share that it, it's soincredible.
And even like I've now gosurfing with my daughters all
the time down the coast and wewere hiking back along these
tracks like we were sitting nowand have a stop midway and we
might be eating some Bush foodlying around.
And I just kind of close my eyesand just think disadvantage as
(06:39):
good as it gets.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Let's talk about what makes up this coastline cause
it's incredibly old and it'sreally diverse, surprising
geology.
How do you explain it to people?
Speaker 5 (06:50):
What happened about 350 million years ago was that
all of the continents cametogether and the continent of
India actually slammed into theWest Australian coast.
It was the only bit that itcollided with.
And the only bit that was leftwas this 124 kilometer edge.
(07:10):
So the Cape, the Cape itself,essentially you're walking on
the backbone of an ancientmountain ridge, which is part of
India.
And what sort of rock do youfind along the way?
Well, originally it was graniteand granite is an igneous rock.
So it, it regionally was liedown as um, you know, lava that
cooled very slowly under thesurface.
But when it had this collision,there was this tearing and
(07:34):
upward push and movement and allthis heat.
And that was a metamorphic,right?
And it made the granite, itboth, it all out of the surface.
So it looks so different.
It's so dramatic.
It's not like big black, oldlie.
Dan, granted this stuff's gottexture and it's got all these
oranges and reds and all thesecourts banning through it and
you can see what's happening.
(08:00):
How old is that?
Granite?
So the granite, it's not superduper old, it's like half a
billion years old.
But overlaying that reallyinteresting is a another rock
and it's Aioli and Kel, KarenKnight or Tamala Limestone.
And that I always was the greatgarner wind and the wind blew
the sand up on top of thegranite.
And in true calcification, itactually all got glued together
(08:22):
like some mint.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So then if you paint us a picture of what you can see
as you hike along the[inaudible]track, what does it look like?
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Top deck chocolate.
It's amazing because it's these,these combination of these two
rocks give us so many amazingelements of the Margaret River
region because they're toocrackly and uneven and too
broken up in that tiering tocreate a flat reef to surf on.
But the limestone sits inbetween or that gets cut off to
(08:50):
form wave cut platforms and isperfect for surfing the caves.
They all have a base granite butthen they're in the limestone.
The limestone is like a spongeand it lets the Kerry trees grow
because they need more waterthan we've got here from the
rainfall and obviously the wine,you know like this combination
of rocks and the proximity tothe ocean and the ladder.
(09:13):
Riddick gravel is this perfectdry and low nutrient environment
that produces ultimately highquality wine.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Once I had all the background, it was time to hit
the track again.
Speaker 7 (09:28):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (09:28):
the uh, you can see the purple flower of the Ska
volar at its amount event aswell.
And this Kavala here is, it'sreally interesting, you know,
like this coastal heath, youfeel that it's like, oh, it's
all sticky.
If you have sticky that is,yeah.
It's like, it's like a piece ofsticky tape.
Literally almost.
It's kind of that, thatstickiness.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
What do you think that could be?
I have absolutely no idea.
It's actually the plant suncreamsticky high spooky.
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
You get quite a few frogs on the track as well.
One of my favorites, themotorbike frog.
Nice.
And all this.
Speaker 8 (10:02):
Uh,
Speaker 5 (10:03):
bye.
My mom, my mom
Speaker 8 (10:07):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (10:09):
and they'll actually call back to you and it's really
cool because he's got the littlefrogs and the little frauds are
scared of the motorbike frozehis motor fire frogs, the big
gray ones.
They eat little frogs.
So if you hear the little frogslike, um, the quacking frog and
I got this right.
If you hear those guys and youdo a motorbike frog, all the
cracking frogs stop.
(10:33):
Yeah.
There's a couple of other coolones.
One you've heard of and it's atnight.
It's called the moaning frogs.
Speaker 9 (10:41):
[inaudible]
Speaker 5 (10:47):
and the other one's a band j frog as well.
Speaker 4 (10:50):
Well cool.
Speaker 9 (10:52):
Oh cool.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
That's pretty cool.
Tell you, there's often a lot offrogs out here, particularly
after kind of after rain and inthe wetter areas,
Speaker 4 (11:02):
and is it like anywhere?
If you've got frogs, that meansyou've got a healthy ecosystem.
Yeah.
Frogs are a really goodindicator when she loads the
frogs.
It's really cool.
Folks are also important toMargaret Rivers, aboriginal
people that were Dandy or saltwater people, cultural
custodians.
Zach web grew up with both anindigenous education about his
land and teachings about thewine industry with his family
(11:22):
having faith in each camp.
He took me to a local Billabongto share his connection to
country.
Speaker 5 (11:29):
If we just go for a walk, just down here, we got
down towards near the swamp andnear the waterways and you start
to hear a lot of the frogs andthat[inaudible] will start to
indicate the freshness of thewater.
So I say I demerara Komara[inaudible] ancestors, ancient
(11:49):
ones as spirits.
I say mirror mural
Speaker 10 (11:53):
eyes Genung c but yeah,
Speaker 11 (11:57):
country[inaudible] beautiful country.
So we basically say that if wecome to a water edge and if we
don't hear any one way of quiteyet, no talking of the frogs,
it's why[inaudible] bad watermake you sick.
But if we hear the frogs, weknow that water is fresh to
(12:19):
drink.
Speaker 8 (12:28):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (12:28):
the Noga people of southwest, Western Australia,
they also have a calendar thathas not four but six seasons.
Speaker 8 (12:42):
[inaudible]
Speaker 10 (12:42):
the four seasons of autumn, summer, winter, spring
don't really come from here andnot really relevant.
They are from England?
Speaker 8 (12:50):
No,
Speaker 10 (12:50):
and he are the sixth season cycle.
We basically keep in like awheel.
So every two months is aseasonal change.
So we as aboriginal people don'tjust go, oh, it's the first of
this month.
It's spring time.
These flowers must be the spring.
Yeah.
Speaker 12 (13:12):
Wow.
Speaker 10 (13:13):
It's to do with what their cycle is.
I was actually talking to alocal winemaker just the other
day and he was saying he willpick the grapes when he starts
to see the kangaroos jumping thefences into his paddocks and
when you see certain birds comeon to his property, he said that
(13:34):
that has been the bestproduction time that the most
tastiest of his wine has comeout.
Does that make sense to you?
It totally does.
Yep.
So when he started to talk aboutsome of the stuff, I was like,
wow, that's exactly how we lookat country too and encouraged
him to keep looking like thatand that's what we encourage a
lot of people to do, to have alook at their surroundings and
(13:56):
really listen to what thecountry's saying while she
speaks
Speaker 1 (14:01):
is Zach's role as a cultural educator with the
underlap association.
He shows people that we can allhave a connection to country.
Speaker 13 (14:11):
I guess the belonging and the connection to
country that we all have isabout the sense of place and
that feeling that we belong.
I liken it to when a lot ofpeople go out on country, they
love to go for walks, uh,through the bush, whether it's
by the river or the oceanitself.
They like to walk on country andexperienced that feeling.
(14:34):
And when they get to places,they feel as though they're
connected or belongs to thatarea, whether you're an
indigenous person or not.
And I like to say to people,that is the connection that we
all as human beings have to theland and to the country.
And it's about listening whenthe country is telling you that
you have that connection
Speaker 8 (15:02):
[inaudible]
Speaker 13 (15:03):
so sometimes you might go to a place when, uh,
it's not feeling that well.
You feel bad and you shouldn'tbe there.
I say to a lot of people willheed that warning cause as
aboriginal people, that's whatwe do as well.
We listened to the country andif the country is telling us not
to be there, there could be aword younger or young era, bad
spirits.
(15:26):
And just to make sure thatyou're feeling it with inside
you.
So that connection to country wehave as aboriginal people is
just listening to the[inaudible]or the[inaudible], the mother
and the country and listening towhat she has to say.
This river here is verysignificant.
(15:47):
The Margaret River or the word[inaudible] billion known to our
people as it's a song line or astory about our grandfather
where rich and our grandmotherMilian and the story of how they
came together and when they weremarried.
So when they're quite a mart,when the hearts became a family
can, can you tell us more aboutthe songlines and what they are
(16:08):
for those who don't know andwhere they cover in Margaret
River?
Well the songlines arethroughout country and the song
lines a written within countrythat we see today.
These are what I would liken toon your Tom, Tom or your gps
when using your car, it's yourfinal destination and the song
line is the route that you aretaking within your car to get
(16:32):
there.
Our people are sun song linesand told the stories and
significance of certain placesand areas so that we get a
visual understanding in our mindof what the country looks like
and our traditional boundaries.
So lack from one or up, you'regoing to sing that warning
peppermint tree, the Goannasflicks Yasser and from where
(16:54):
nine we're gonna talk about howI yoga women will make from a
warning that will make our[inaudible], which is their low
digging stick.
And from that Webinar they willgo to places such as one or up
the place of the women's lawdigging stick.
So it will connect those treesto the country, to the land, to
the rivers, to the next songline or the next place.
(17:16):
And by doing that, oh the wifeas children you require no
technology to tell you where youare or where you belong in the
world.
Zach's family straddles twocultures.
One side's aboriginal and theother side is from wine making
stock.
My grandfather came from over inMelbourne on my mom's side.
She was born near mill juror.
(17:37):
My grandfather was actuallyasked to come over to Western
Australia here and to show themhow to start a vineyard.
My mother came over and mygrandmother and family
subsequently to school with mydad's sisters, met up with my
family and I'm a product of thatever since I was a young little
coroner.
I remember while they pickinggrapes in the vineyards, I'd be
(18:00):
there eating.
That'd be telling me, donate toomany cause you're going to get a
corporate mandate, a sick bellysoon.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Zach never felt compelled to work in the wine
industry.
His father's side, theindigenous side inspired him to
look after the earth indifferent ways.
Speaker 13 (18:15):
I had growing up with my family on country as
well.
We used to get taken out by mygreat grandmother and
great-grandfather's out oncountry all the time.
Collecting things like um,Bartee, witchetty grubs and all
the foods, so like Bushmedicines and Tacos.
I guess that was one of themajor factors that drove me
(18:35):
following my career path towardsrangering and looking after
country
Speaker 4 (18:40):
before I left him, he showed me how to make bird calls
using a peppermint tree leaf.
Between his palms picking
Speaker 13 (18:47):
the nice fresh shoe.
You're looking for the fairysort of relief when the core
Bartee when the magpies theycall out to mum and dad for
food.
Speaker 14 (19:01):
[inaudible]
Speaker 13 (19:02):
so you get that a also we get a lot of the ducks
throughout the swamp periods.
They go,
Speaker 6 (19:08):
Huh, Huh, Huh, Huh, Huh, Huh.
Speaker 13 (19:14):
We all say sound out some of the cockatoos like
Speaker 14 (19:24):
woo.
Speaker 15 (19:27):
Wow.
Speaker 13 (19:28):
Alright.
We do a correct, which is thatred towel or that cockatoo.
But also if you listen to it godude
Speaker 16 (19:34):
did, did, did you did, did, which is a dared or
the 28 parrot.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
What are we smelling and tasting?
Yeah, Kevin.
I from 2017 so this is someblind corner, the one that gets
Ben Gould.
It's beautifully made wine.
There's a purity quite Suki.
It's, yeah, it's a good drink.
The blind corner is a biodynamicwine.
Are you hearing about many otherwineries going towards greener
(20:05):
practices?
Look, I mean certainly placeslike vast feelings and voyage
around changing the way thatthey operate.
Vanya colon believes that, um,since they've adopted biodynamic
practices that they want a muchbetter, you know, she notes that
(20:26):
are they, the gripes brought inmore quickly?
I think it's probably easy toargue that people who live in
Margaret River generally arereally quite connected to the
environment and interested inits preservation.
Would you say that's the case?
Yeah, I think for a lot ofpeople that's the sort of reason
that they've gone to MargaretRiver in the first place.
It is somewhere where you dofeel close to the earth, close
(20:50):
to the ocean, and that does tendto reflect not just better
culture, but out of wide rangeof farming practice.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
This is
Speaker 4 (21:01):
north of Margaret River, just out of yelling up.
Ben Gould tends to a biodynamicvineyard and winery.
So we're with Ben good at blindcorner.
He's connection to the country,inspired him to find a way to
grow grapes without hurting theearth, which is a concept he
first came across in France.
Speaker 11 (21:18):
Well, it's been a slow burn for me.
So I've been in vineyards andwineries now for 20 years and
sort of conventional vineyards,conventional wineries sort of
added everything to wine,sprayed everything in the
vineyard and thought that couldbe a better way when traveling
with my wife, we spent sixmonths in a builder's van doing
every surf break and wine regionin western Europe.
(21:38):
And along the way we saw placeslike[inaudible], which is quite
famous that the man namedNicholas Scholly, he's sort of
the grandfather of biodynamicsand his vineyard was alive.
You know, the, the wines he wasmaking were zero sulfur and the,
when you walk through thevineyards there's birds and
butterflies and no disease andyou know, the soils were healthy
and everything just looked magicand thought, okay, this is
(22:01):
interesting.
So when we came home to startour own place on a small plot of
land, we wanted to build a houseand have a family and didn't
want to keep sort of running outand eating dirt and eating
something that could potentiallybe dangerous or bad.
And so then how did the switchhappen?
Slowly?
Uh, we just cut out allchemicals pretty much straight
(22:23):
away and I'd read a lot aboutbiodynamics and was sort of
sitting there going, okay, Idon't understand any of this.
And then I read something thatsaid the best thing to do is
start.
So I went, okay, well we'llstart with a little bit and see
how we go.
Now we have 24 hectors ofcertified organic and biodynamic
vineyards.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
We're standing in one of them right now.
Yes.
The vines are going artist'sside, like a row of Corduroy and
there's some beautiful dirtunderneath our feet where you've
just planned.
What have you planted?
Speaker 11 (22:49):
Oh, in the mid rise we've just put some six strains
of Clovis in Fitch, peas, Rye,grass.
Some are nitrogen fixing and wewant to outcompete some things
we don't like in the vineyard toinstead of resorting to sort of
spraying them out.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
The Sun setting right now and the beautiful tall trees
that are so characteristic ofMargaret River are just fading
into a silhouette at our backs.
Shall we kneel down and have alook at this stuff that you've
put so much effort into?
Speaker 11 (23:15):
Let's have a look.
I brought a shovel with me.
We're just going to digunderneath one of these vines
now.
These are some old SauvignonBlanc, Brian's, so it's quite a
sandy site here with fairlyclose to the coast, about four
kilometers from the ocean and wespent a lot of time spreading
compounds to try to build up thesoil and build out the microbes
(23:37):
in the soil because that's whattransports a lot of the micro
nutrients to the roots of theplant.
And of course that troubles upin the PSAP and ends up in the
grapes, which ends up in yourglass of wine.
You don't have a bit of a look.
All right, there's a nice bigfat juicy womb there just
underneath that, the small root[inaudible].
Speaker 4 (23:56):
So where's my good soil health?
I imagine
Speaker 11 (23:59):
that's right.
That's it.
It's a nice environment for themto be in.
They can create all sorts ofgood conditions for the vines,
but also the soil to to thrive.
What we're trying to build is apretty balanced biome in here.
So, you know, lots of beneficialyeast and bacteria that can sort
of transport the flavors and thenutrients that the bonds need.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So if we had a microscope and we zoomed in on
this beautiful day that you'vejust pulled out and I've got
running through my fingers, whatwould we see here?
Speaker 11 (24:28):
Well, we'd hope to see lots of little wiggly
things.
Things like, you know,nematodes, geese, bacteria,
Speaker 4 (24:34):
so much of Margaret River, like anyone region really
in the world.
It's built on soil.
If we pick it up, you know, arethere characteristics and even
smells that we'll get the beemountain.
Oh, get out sweat.
Yeah.
Speaker 11 (24:47):
Even though this looks quite lonely and, and
Sandy, there's a very stronggravel smell coming through,
which is always indicative to meof Margaret River or some sort
of smell of gravel in theeucalypts and the ocean.
And then, yeah, you feel likeyou're home.
It's nice and pliable as well.
(25:07):
Isaiah, this Nicko l a winerycat.
So she lives in the winery, butshe's decided to follow us out
here, I guess.
That's quite funny.
Hello?
So she lives in the winery.
She's air organic pest control.
What does she pick up a well, wedon't have a mice, a mouse
problem anymore around thewinery, which is fantastic and
(25:28):
she's got a bit of a soft spotfor cockroaches so we don't have
those anymore either.
Speaker 4 (25:34):
Adhering to biodynamic principles and
traditional wine makingpractices means a fair bit more
work.
But Ben has found a cleversolution to that.
Speaker 11 (25:41):
All of our red grapes, all our red wine here,
we all foot crush soeverything's foot trashed and
hand plunged basket pressed.
All Walton entered.
So very, very old school winemaking.
We used to, in the early daysbefore staff, we'd be looking
down the barrel of 12 to 14hours of foot crushing by
myself.
So I came up with the idea ofhaving a barbecue, getting a few
(26:02):
friends around and uh, itquickly would solve the problem
for me.
I'd just be running aroundfeeding people wine and, and
drinks and uh, it would save mea lot of work.
It was hard sometimes to getpeople to, to get in, but, but
once people get in, they don'twant to get out, which also
causes an issue.
I'm like, no, that's enough nowI don't want it to too crushed.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
How have drinkers started to respond to the
biodynamic organic thing?
Like do people seek it out now?
Is it becoming well known?
Is there a trend towardschoosing that wine over
otherwise?
Speaker 11 (26:31):
Well, I think so.
We've seen it.
We've been lucky enough to sellout every year and the trend of
wineries going more organic.
I mean anything you read in thepaper at the moment, you know
you're showing how much of thegrowth of organic wine is
happening.
There's always been a bit of asubculture and it's just growing
and growing
Speaker 3 (26:48):
[inaudible]
Speaker 11 (26:49):
and people want to know where this stuff comes from
and what's sprayed on it and whyand you know, so yes, it's
certainly growing
Speaker 3 (26:56):
[inaudible]
Speaker 11 (26:56):
there's now currently an organic trial,
which has just started down herefor wine lovers who want to
visit the organic wineries.
Currently, there's only five ofus, but you can pick them up at
the tourist bureau and uh, comeand say hello and say I had a
Nicco
Speaker 7 (27:12):
[inaudible]
Speaker 3 (27:14):
let's see, what have we got this time?
This particular wine is from MrBarbel.
One of the bright young guns,Ron Shirati, he calls it Vino
Rosso, a blend of doe, cabernetfranc and mural on it.
(27:34):
Should we try?
Nice.
I liked it a lot.
Good.
Very smooth but kind of, um,spicy and a little bit sexy.
Ooh, wow.
What do you say to that?
Whoa man.
(27:54):
Look, try, get signed.
[inaudible] revealing as, asthat, but it's got a lovely, um,
intensity.
Um, the best one, Margaret,about a world class wines and
you could take that to a dinnerparty in Paris, put it on the
table and the people would say,you know, it would be very
(28:15):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (28:15):
one.
Why large red in the moon on theglitter stuff that's above you
on the phone.
You're listening to localmusician Claire Warnock and her
track one won by the Cullen.
One Song Soundtrack.
Additional music by Josh Hogan,Ned Beckley and the new towns is
(28:36):
bone dry.
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.
It's been scripted, recorded andpresented by me.
Flu Manger from White NoiseMedia, sound design by Tom Allen
from barking wolf and producedby Sophie Mathewson.
(29:00):
Sorry, one one.
[inaudible] special thanks tothe underlap association, her
reminders that while visitingthis beautiful part of the
world, you walk softly oncountry for inspiration,
planning your trip to thisbeautiful part of the world.
Was it Margaret river.com.
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