Region & History

Before 1967, there wasn't a single commercial vineyard at Australia's southwestern tip. A single report changed that. In 1966, agricultural scientist John Gladstones compared the weather data of the Margaret River region with that of Bordeaux. Rainfall, hours of sunshine, and the length of the ripening season matched with striking precision. No one had put it to the test yet.

Perth cardiologist Tom Cullity took the bet. In 1967 he planted his first vines on a property he named Vasse Felix. Two years later, Bill Pannell followed with Moss Wood. In 1970 came Cape Mentelle from David Hohnen, and in 1971 the estate of Kevin and Diana Cullen, which still bears their name today. Four wineries in four years—a weather chart had become a region.

Leeuwin Estate started quite differently. Perth accountant Denis Horgan bought coastal farmland in 1969 together with his wife Tricia, without any thought of wine. In 1972, none other than Robert Mondavi, California's most influential winemaker, wanted to buy that very land, but the Horgans declined. Mondavi stayed involved anyway: for years afterward he visited the couple and helped them find the right people for vineyard and cellar, rather than making the wine himself.

Even so, years passed before the first truly convincing bottle appeared. The 1981 vintage of the Art Series Chardonnay scored so highly at an international blind tasting that the British magazine Decanter gave it an explicit recommendation. A wine from a region almost no one had heard of suddenly stood alongside Burgundian names on the very same list.

Official recognition came late: on October 30, 1996, Margaret River was entered into the Australian register as a Geographical Indication. It was one of only three Australian regions with firmly defined boundaries at the time, and today over two hundred wineries operate here. Together they produce barely three percent of Australia's grape harvest—but up to a fifth of what counts as Australia's finest wine.