Visit to Warner Glen Estate, Margaret River - May 2011

The vineyard is managed by Lawson Armstrong who uses minimal intervention and plenty of care to grow the fruit which now supports the Frog Belly and Warner Glen Estate ranges. A serious and admirable side to the business relates to the environment and conservation activities to protect the endangered White Bellied Frog (known as Geocrinia alba).

Inspiration for the Frog Belly range has come from this little creature whose natural habitat falls along the creek line of the Warner Glen Estate vineyard. To preserve the frog a reserve has been fenced off which covers up to 10 acres of natural bush. Sales of Frog Belly wines will assist with on-going protection and maintenance of this reserve, so when you buy a bottle from the range you experience a nice wine from the Margaret River and contribute to this worthwhile cause.

At the end of May we were invited to Margaret River by Travis French, owner of Warner Glen Estate, to visit the vineyards, meet his team and sample some of the yet to be released vintages in tank and barrel. Both Kathryn and I were quite excited about this visit as two years prior we had visited the region with the purpose of sourcing a winery to distribute and had returned empty handed. So this visit was the first time back since then and almost 12 months after we had started working with Warner Glen Estate.

We were collected from the airport by Justin Bird (brand manager for Warner Glen Estate) on Thursday 21^st May and headed straight for Margaret River. En-route we picked up Natasha Biggins who forms part of the sales force in WA along with Kate Bailey. Time was against us so it was straight to the vineyard before the sun disappeared for the day.

It was great to have a 3 hour trip with these guys as it gave us the opportunity to find out how well the brands (Frog Belly and Warner Glen Estate) are doing in the WA market and what sort of marketing activities are offered to customers to further promote the wines.

We arrived at the vineyard to the sun setting over the vines, a slight spattering of rain and heckles from the group about ‘bringing the Melbourne cold wet weather with us’! We met up with Lawson Armstrong (Viticulturalist) and his family who live on the property and had a relaxed evening over a few glasses of wine and BBQ.

As we were all staying at Adamson’s Riverside Motel in the heart of Margaret River town ship a few of us settled on a cleansing run in the morning before breakfast. Alas the rain came down overnight, with force and continued well into the next day so the run was postponed. Instead we all met for a hearty breakfast the next day before heading to Naturaliste Vintners (state of the art contract winemaking facility) where all the Warner Glen Estate wines are made.

We were met by an enthusiastic Bruce Dukes (Director of Naturaliste Vintners and senior winemaker) who took us on a brief tour of the facility, ending in the barrel room. Before me lay a horizontal row of wonderful barrels, which included different coopers and different selections of oak. In the barrels was some of the 2011 vintage of PBF (part barrel fermented) Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, and the journey we were taken on was simply fascinating.

Over a series of tastings we sampled different expressions of this wine from different barrels and were given a ‘snapshot’ of what Bruce had to work with in terms of blending the final wine. The opportunity to take part in this tasting was fantastic and has made me appreciate even more the reasoning behind the style of wine and how wonderful this product really is. Do I have your attention yet? Are you curious to buy a bottle? You should be, but you will have to wait a while for the 2011 as we are currently selling through the 2009 (which is definitely worthy of its $27 price tag).

In addition we worked our way through a range of other wines - all works in progress as they were from the 2011 vintage recently harvested. The wines included the Frog Belly Semillon Sauvignon Blanc; Frog Belly Rose; Warner Glen Estate Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 and Merlot 2010 (in which there were 14 barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon and 2 barrels of Merlot to be blended further down the track).

By the end of the tasting session all we could think about was food, so we headed to The Berry Farm (a key tourist attraction in the region), where we enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the Cottage Café (www.theberryfarm.com.au). From there we headed back to the vineyards to have a brief wander amongst the vines, foiled somewhat by the very cold windy weather and intermittent showers. We did manage to get a few photos but not as many as we were hoping for. To see the photos on the Warner Glen Estate portfolio page just scroll down to the Gallery at the bottom of the page.

By the time we returned to our accommodation there was not much time before we had to be out the door and at ‘Must Margaret River’ for dinner. Travis had arranged for us to partake in a vertical tasting of the Warner Glen Estate Chardonnay, including the 2008, 2009, 2010 (yet to be released) and ‘The Pick’ Reserve Chardonnay 2009 (which was recently awarded 5 stars in Winestate).

The food at the venue was very good, and despite it being super busy (noisy and hot), the opportunity to compare and contrast such wonderful Chardonnay put a big smile on my face. The feeling must have been contagious because since returning to Melbourne several clients have purchased ‘The Pick’, making it the first time this wine will be available in Victoria!

The return to Perth the next day was an early one, but by travelling back with Travis and Kate, we had the opportunity for new conversation and agreeing on more positive activity for the Melbourne market. Despite the visit being very brief, both Kathryn and I had a wonderful time and are grateful for the friendly and generous hospitality that was extended.

We have returned to launch a promotion for the brand which will run until the end of August (win a 5 star Broome Getaway). All you have to do is purchase a bottle from either the Warner Glen Estate or Frog Belly range, retain your receipt for proof of purchase and enter your details online. See our stockist details page for retailers and if you don’t see your local independent retailer on the list ask them to get it in and send me an email so I can follow up. Simple as that!