New World Order

Jeremy Gordon, winemaker of Amelia Park in Western Australia’s Margaret River, shows how the region is dispelling old notions of Australian winemaking with ambrosias that offer elegance and complexity

- Lin Weiwen

Winemaker Jeremy Gordon tells me wine tourism is growing in Margaret River, but the region is “located so far on the other side of Australia that we sometimes get overlooked”. It is quite an amusing remark: If you are an international visitor heading Down Under from Asia, Perth in Western Australia offers the shortest flight time. Perhaps what Gordon meant was a sense of geographical isolation. After all, between Margaret River and Adelaide in South Australia (the next nearest destination city), you have a 2,000 km drive through a Mad Max world of dusty highways and creaky roadhouses.

It is this isolation that happens to be Margaret River’s biggest strength. Tucked in the southwestern tip of Western Australia and nestling right beside the Indian Ocean, the area has a maritime climate, allowing it to escape the extreme temperatures that often trouble inland wine regions like Barossa Valley and Yarra Valley.

“The beauty of being that close to the sea is it moderates the temperature,” says the 45-year-old Gordon, who runs Amelia Park winery. “The coastal breeze works like an air flow, blowing straight through the vineyards, drying out the [vine] canopies, and decreasing disease pressure. There is a lot of talk about global warming these days, but it doesn’t really affect us in Margaret River. We have had consistently good years.”