Margaret River – blessed since 2007

‘This is a beautiful time in our future history.’ This was Virginia Willcock’s slightly puzzling introduction to a recent presentation of her trophy-winning wines from one of Australia’s greatest fine-wine regions, Margaret River. Both Vasse Felix’s enthusiastic winemaker and Keith and Clare Mugford of one of the regions’s superstars Moss Wood trekked to London recently, presumably benefiting from the fact that southern hemisphere vineyards are relatively quiet in September. Virginia’s favourite word is clearly ‘beautiful’, a word she sprinkles liberally in her description of her beloved Cabernet Sauvignon. Keith’s favourite words are more profane and perhaps more stereotypically Australian. The...