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It may be half a world apart, but Western Australian wines are reminiscent of Bordeaux
Morrisons The Best Western Australia Cabernet, Australia 2018 (£7.25, Morrisons) If your familiarity with Western Australia is based on the hard-drinking lives of ornery fishermen as depicted in the novels of Tim Winton or the moustachioed toughness of West Australian cricket, it can come as a shock to learn the wine region with which it is most frequently compared is Bordeaux. OK, so the vineyards of Margaret River or Frankland River may not be punctuated by 18th-century châteaux and the history of winemaking in the state is a matter of decades rather than centuries old. But particularly in Margaret River the mild, maritime climate, where the Indian Ocean breeze plays the same role as the Atlantic in Bordeaux, there’s an affinity of style in wines that balance crunchy cassis and freshness, such as Morrisons’s nifty cabernet.
Xanadu Margaret River Cabernet, Australia 2018 (£10, Marks & Spencer) Just as it is in Bordeaux, cabernet sauvignon is the recipe for many of the finest wines in Margaret River, which is by far the biggest and most productive Western Australian region. The style is not uniform, any more than it is in the great French region. But there does tend to be a common thread running through all my favourite Margaret River wines; a seam of freshness, occasionally a touch of leafiness, and a consistent purity of ripe blackcurrant fruit that is different from Bordeaux in being a touch more intense or more vividly juicy. The immense growth in the region in the past couple of decades means there’s some good value to be had, too, in sumptuous wines such as M&S’s Xanadu, which is down from £12 until the end of month. Continue reading...