Swan Valley

In our continual bid to discover more of WA, Swan Valley was next on our list of places to visit. Better still, we had an offer of a driver (thanks Kendrick) and local guide (thanks Jeremy) to show us around on our day trip to the local wine region . . .

. . .less than an hour away, we all packed into Kendrick's Golf to make our first stop at the Sandalford vineyard to begin our day. An interesting winery with the main entrance to the tasting bar/cellar door at the side of the building. Although technically charging for tastings, our first 5 were free, so we had a sip but didn't find much to our liking. Lancaster was our next stop, a small boutique outfit which does not compete on the commercial market by only distributing from a tin shed. Literally a tin shed. The wine there was served with a selection of local gourmet cheese and crackers. They had a few interesting wines there, so we picked up a few bottles before moving on to Elmar's for lunch . . .

. . . a German restaurant, I was looking forward to finding a wide selection of kransky's for us to choose from. Not to be the case. Their claim to fame was a micro glass brewery used for their beer production. Unsure of what to select from their menu, we decided to share a tasting platter and some deep fried camembert to begin our meal. The description of their pork shank sounded quite enticing, so 2 of us decided to order them for our mains. There was no warning, or indication of size given on the menu for so we assumed it would be enough for one. We were wrong. Very wrong. The pork shank turned out be big enough to feed at least 2 or 3 people with left overs, and we had ordered 2 of them! So after carving off as much as possible to distribute to the others who had also ordered their own mains, we tried to work out what we could possibly do with all this left over meat. It seemed like such a waste to just leave it behind. So, falling back on our asian heritage, we decided to take it with us to make peas and ham soup for our entree at tonight's dinner!

Our next stop after our rather filling lunch was at a honey farm we passed earlier. Perhaps a generous title for this domestic operation, with just a friendly couple selling a number of different honeys out of their garage. With free tastings (no double dipping!) most of us decided on the Jarrah honey as the proprietor assured us that due to it's fructose(?) structure, it would not crystalize! Seeing oranges for sale, we picked up a crate of washington navel oranges weighing an outlandish 16 kilos for just $12, inspiring us (Jeremy) to envision crêpes suzette for tonight's dessert! The menu is growing!

The Black Swan Winery was nothing to write home about, although the open fire did give it a cozy feeling. Our final winery for the day however, Houghton's, had plenty to talk about. It does not seem possible to go out to eat or travel through Perth with Jeremy and/or Kendrick (especially Kendrick :) without bumping into somebody that they know. This time, it was much to our advantage as the lady on the other side of the counter was more than willing to lead us through the entire range from dry whites all the way through to the sweet sticky ports at the end. Better still, when we came to purchase, she gave us what must have been staff discount. Had we known she was going to be so generous, we could have bought a few more bottles, but probably better we limit our purchases as the boot of the Golf was quickly filling up from all of our stops.

No trip to the Swan Valley is complete without visiting the Margaret River Chocolate Factory to get our free samples! Perhaps a little misleading, the samples were limited to only chocolate buttons from their white, milk and dark chocolate stock. Armed with tissue in hand, we all had our fill of free chocolate, it was hard to believe how many people filled the store. Although the weather has been less than ideal, it's as if the entire Swan Valley is here with hardly any elbow room to move about.

Heading back to Perth, we stopped by one of those trucks which seemed to be scattered around Perth selling cheap frozen seafood to pick up our ingredients for tonight's dinner. Our original plans were to eat out, but Jeremy figured it would be just as easy to cook, and just as easy to invite over another 11 people to join us. So picking up more ingredients from the local supermarket and a bottle of Grand Marnier, we set about preparing for the evening meal at Kendrick's place under direction from head chef Tan.

The peas and ham soup was an outstanding success, followed by an angel hair marinara complete with mussels and finished off with crêpes suzette. Our guests brought along salad, cheese and fries to accompany our meal. There was plenty of wine and an eclectic mix of wine glasses from Kendrick's numerous wedding bonbonniere gifts to drink from!

It has been a fantastic day out. Unfortunately no photos to share as it was rather wet and overcast. So close to Perth, a great place to visit!