By Fergal Gleeson
Brown Hill Estate
A visit to Brown Hill Estate’s cellar door, located within its winery, allows you to see the winemaking process firsthand. Owned and operated by the Bailey family, they will guide you through a tasting of the three ranges made from only estate-grown grapes.
Visitors are served by Gwen, Jim or Nathan Bailey. It’s a family affair. Nathan makes the wine and Jim and Gwen planted the first grapes so you will be able to ask any question about the growing of the grapes through to the making of the wine. The Cellar Door is open 7 days a week from 10-5pm.
Their wines have collected significant awards over the years including ‘Best in Show’ for the 2014 Perseverance Cabernet Merlot at the 2018 Decanter World Wines Awards. They have previously been awarded ‘Small Producer of the Year’ by The West Australian Wine Guide.
Glenarty Road
Glenarty Road is a sustainable farming and winemaking venture based in Karridale. It’s run by husband and wife team Ben and Sasha McDonald. Ben does the farming and Sasha the winemaking.
They are both passionate about ecological farming. “My family have been farming for five generations,” says Ben McDonald “and I want us to be farming for at least another five!”
“We have designed our gardens to have both form and function with bay leaf hedges, rosemary hedges, olives, coffee, green tea, to be able to use in the kitchen and cellar door,” Sasha says. “Our veggie patch also supplies a large amount of the kitchens needs. You can’t get much fresher than that!”
On the farm they utilise ducks, chickens and guinea fowl (you will see them roaming round the farm) for pest control, taking care of snails, grasshoppers and weevils.
Glenarty Road and Kerfuffle represent their premium and everyday ranges. They cover some of the classic Margaret River white and red varietals, Rosé and less common styles such as a Savagnin and a fortified Sauvignon Blanc.
But wine is only part of the story for visitors to Glenarty Road. The restaurant, the farm and a plethora of animals make Glenarty Road, uniquely family friendly.
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From Your Margaret River Region Magazine
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