Fulfill Your Travel Fantasies through Tasting this Margaret River Australian Shiraz

I live in the Pacific Northwest, one of the most stunningly gorgeous places on earth. I am surrounded by pristine mountain ranges, bodies of water, nonstop greenery, and dramatic landscapes.

But, like most humans, the urge to blow the popsicle stand and pursue a change of scenery pops up every now and then. Especially during the colder, rainier, overcast months, and especially with spring break right around the corner. Cue wanderlust-inducing travel videos!

During the lockdown orders of the pandemic, after we would finish watching our online church service on YouTube, various other videos would automatically play as soon as our service was done. For some reason, this video played and it immediately captivated me (YouTube knows my heart!).

Who wouldn’t want to go here? Check this place out, it has everything! (drooling…)

Wow…. Now this is a place worth exploring – if not in person, then at the very least through the wines. Wine is such a great way to travel, am I right?

Margaret River is an Australian wine appellation world-renowned for incredible wines. Australia is famous for its powerhouse wines with full body, high alcohol, and gregarious tannins – thanks to all that sunshine and heat causing very juicy grapes with high sugar content. During fermentation, yeasts eat sugar and convert it to alcohol and carbon dioxide, so the higher the sugar content in the grapes, the higher the alcohol in the resulting wine. What makes Margaret River a little different is that while they still get lots of lovely warmth and sunshine, they are also right on the ocean and subject to cooling winds. This means the grapes stay a little more acidic and this yields wines with great acidity and structure to age well.

According to Totalwine.com,

“The same qualities that make Margaret River terrific beachfront property help to create outstanding wines. Margaret River wines benefit from the Mediterranean-style climate, with its consistent moderate temperatures and dry summers. The gravelly, sandy soils drain easily, and inland rolling hills and forests protect vineyards from strong ocean winds. The result is elegant and flavorful wines.”

I am working my way through the tail-end of the course The Everyday Guide to Wine (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). For the lecture on Australia and Tasmania, a recommended wine to taste was a Shiraz (just Australia’s way of saying Syrah, same grape) from Western Australia. Perfect opportunity to try a Margaret River wine!

The wine I opened is the Miles From Nowhere Shiraz. Here are the details and my impressions:

• $14.99 at Total Wine
• Year: 2020
• 14.5% ABV
• Medium-bodied, medium acidity, dense but silky, integrated tannins
• Aromas/Flavors: black cherry, black currant, blueberry, spices, pepper, eucalyptus, bubblegum, tea tree
• Very smooth
• Long finish

In sum, this is a good wine and I would drink it again, but I would like to explore some other producers from the area just to compare.

Here is a great video from Wine Folly with a few more interesting details on what makes this region special and some perspective on three additional wines. I have not taken this particular Margaret River wine course but I use the book Wine Folly: Magnum Edition all the time in my studies (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases). This course looks very cool. 🙂

How about you? Have you ever tried a wine from the Margaret River Wine Region? What would you recommend? I would love to hear your suggestions!

Happy taste bud travels! 🙂