Winery Tour Up the Swan River

Bus ride out of Perth

Surprise! Chris bought us tickets for a day-long wine tasting trip in the Swan River wine county on Jan 14th. The itinerary was:

Get on bus in Perth
Taste wine at stop 1
Taste wine at stop 2
Taste wine and eat lunch at stop 3
Taste chocolate at stop 4
Taste wine at stop 5
Get on boat and go back to Perth along river

What We Learned About the Swan Wine Region

The region, which is just 30 miles inland of Perth on the alluvial plain of the Swan, began producing wine around the same time as our northern California vinyards in the 1800s. What we learned on the trip (though no one was so crass as to point this out to us) is that the wine region may be the oldest wine region in Western Australia, but it doesn't produce the best wines, unless you're fond of dry dry dry wines. Growers here have to harvest their grapes in early or mid summer before the grape juice boils on the vine. So there's not much sugar in the grapes...at all. We can now read between the lines on the websites when they say things like:

•  "The Swan Valley is especially known for its fortified wines, produced with help from the hot Perth Summer."
• "The region is of great historical significance to the development of the Australian wine industry."

but then don't say anything about the wines.

The region is of great historical significance because it led to a wine industry elsewhere that did produce great wines. The Margaret River is about 250 miles south of Perth and doesn't have Perth's hot summers. So they are able to harvest in the Fall when there is some sugar in the grapes.

Needless to say, the Swan River wineries only judge their wines against other Swan River wineries. So now we know what it means to be an award winning Swan River wine. Of all the wines, our favorite was a port which was quite tastey and unusual since it was so dry. "The Swan Valley is especially known for its fortified wines, produced with help from the hot Perth Summer."

What We Learned About Ourselves

Perky Chris in hat

At the first winery we are perky. Chris and his jaunty hat appear in this photo of a patio at the oldest operating cellar in the Swan River region. (Don't ask the name, I can't remember). The winery was built from the traditional limestone which is still commonly used for higher end new construction.

We tasted all of the wines that they offered and ended up buying the chili flavored olive oil at the olive oil bar.

At the second winery we are happy. It is a smaller family operation. Four more wines to taste and back on the bus.



At the third winery we are intimidated by the thought of more wine. The winery is Houghtons, one of the best known and oldest wineries in the Swan River region. We are encouraged to taste the wines and decide which one we want to have with lunch. Lunch is served at a long table in the cellar which is wonderfully cool (it ws a HOT day). The food is great, and oddly my choice of white wine (Houghtons Classic White) is much more enjoyable with lunch than Chris's bolder red wine. I can't even remember what his wine was...a mixture of something. They often mix a Swan River and Margaret River grapes to bring some depth to the wine.  

A still happy Chris


After a brief chocolate factory tasting (3 kinds of chocolate: dark, milk and white) and a free chocolate truffel, we go to the fourth winery. Chris is starting to get angry at the whole idea of wine tasting. What the hell are they thinking? How can they expect anyone to continue to enjoy this? Don't they know this can't be good for you? I put my head down and taste most of the wines anyway. Not that we can really taste anything. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is the best winery we've been to yet, but there is no way to figure that out.

We stumble onto a boat headed back to Perth. Here are some visible side effects of our trip:

This may look mild to you, but the next couple days were really a bear. Slow, dragging, headachy. This wine tasting stuff is best left to the professionals.

Karaoke singing boat crew entertained us all the way home. We were happy to see the CBD.