Sometimes things fall into place, other times a little force is needed
I keep thinking that you fell in my hands, I can't recall if I pushed or pleaded
It was definitely a memorable experience being able to go
shark cage diving with winemaker Tom Berry and get to taste wine in the cage
while we saw two five meter great whites pass us
Now the mood has changed a bit from pristine blue waters to an arid desert here
where I've literally got about five flies on my face right now
and I'm wearing my jacket to keep the heat of the sun off my back
Now we're about to head into the Nolabor, an area that was once crossed in the 1840s
by Edward John Eyre, a spot that he called the blot on the face of nature
an area that one only comes across in the bad dreams
and we're about to take off and cover some ground to get to Marder River
an area that produces some great cabs, saavons, saavons on Blanc and western Australia
It was a long couple of days crossing the Nolabor desert
It feels great to finally have made it to the other side and seen the ocean again
and now I'm in Esperance, Western Australia where I've hopped in a Cessna
and I've gone off to Middle Island where there's rumored to be treasure buried
from a pirate called Blackjack Anderson
However, the treasure wasn't what brought me there
It was a lake called Lake Hillier that has a certain kind of algae which makes it pink
So I brought a bottle of pink wine and had a bit of a wine tasting
Now I'm off to Marder River, one of the surf capitals of the world
to meet up with a professional surfer as well as a winemaker from Adams & Tay
My grommet hood, you know, I started surfing at eight years old
Once I was bitten by surf and mate that was it
All the other sports were out the door
I moved down here about age 16, once I was 17
Once I finished school, went straight from school pretty well on the world tour
Didn't look back till I retired
I did great surfing professionally at 24
I had a good time in those eight years on the world tour, I tell you
I went into coaching and mate it just went from strength to strength
Dino, he was a great kid and he wasn't the most elite surfer at that stage
But he had promised and showed a lot of true grit to get there
He's worked on it, now he's this sensation, you know
If it wasn't for him pushing me into solid waves around here
I wouldn't be doing it today, so yeah, I definitely got to thank him for that
Everyone knows him around this area pretty well
His surf school has definitely grown huge
He's such an atheistic, good bloke and the girl mates just love him
He's always getting stuck into him, he's always just getting him out there
Regardless of the weather or the conditions
Josh was heading out and had done a bit of a surf this morning
I was going to jump in but I just really didn't feel like the waves were big enough for me this morning
And I could, you know, Margaret River is known for having 10 foot breaks or 30 feet from point to top
And that's what I'm really after, I don't really need to go on this small stuff
Being able to be here at Margaret River was something that I have spent probably five years waiting to happen
And, you know, the wine has drawn me here
The idea of the surf culture drew me here
It was all like Queenstown in New Zealand where it was adventure sports and wine
To see these two concepts and these two hobbies
Mix in the town of Margaret River in an area that is so beautiful on the Indian Ocean
Just makes me want to stay here
We're all in a mingle and, you know, it's good to come out here and drink some wine and, you know, get amongst it
I started surfing when I was about seven years old
Myself and my brothers and Perth
And there was a reason why I moved down to Margaret River was that the surfing and the wine industry is the second reason
The Evans and Tate is a huge supporter of the region
We're the biggest producer in Margaret River and in Western Australia
You see that through a cello door, it's the people who come here and just get excited when they see the wines and the property for the first time, especially
A lot of people spend a lot more time here than they anticipated
It's a very young region, the first very small plantings were in 1967
But what it's done in that time is quite phenomenal in terms of, especially, cabinet serving young wines and chardonnay
Receiving international awards at international wine shows
The cello system is something that we use in the vineyard to support the vine
And present the fruit and manage the shoots of the vine in a certain way to get certain flavours
Also enabling it easier to prune the vines and pick the grapes so you don't have to bend over and obviously get a bit of back strain, etc
So, a number of reasons
We've got our Seville Young Blanc vines here that we planted in 1974
So some of the earliest plantings in the region
And you see it's about a month into Budbest, so some nice short fresh shoots
And looking like a pretty good crop on there for the next vintage
And Matt, what sort of trellis is this?
It's a lyre trellis, so the trunks are split vertically, then split horizontally as well
And do you have any other types of trellises on the estate?
Yeah, we've got two more, we've got a Scott Henry, so a single trunk and split vertically
And then a VSP, a vertical shoot position trellis which the majority of the other property is on
And the majority of the region is on
Now, when I arrived at Evans and Tate, I didn't take a close enough look at the vineyard
Because when I did, I was astonished to see that Matt was using three different trellis systems
All of them that looked differently, that presented the fruit differently
And that in the beginning of the lives of those vines were trained differently as well
Now, trellising is a branch of viticulture that in order to understand the full scope of it
You would need to know the number of trellis systems that are out there
The positive and negative aspects of each
And the reasons that a viticulturist would choose one system over another to use in his vineyard today
Despite the vast amount of knowledge, I was excited to get a quick lesson on three systems in Matt's vineyard
Alright, well, what do you reckon? We hit the road and go down the forest and get into some caves
Some caves? Have you been in the caves?
I have, not for a long time though, so let's do it
The wine tourism experience is so much more than what most people see it to be
Tasting wine and using big words at cellar doors
For me, it's going off and travelling the world's wine region
Seeing the extreme natural beauty that's out there
And, of course, going on a few adventures while learning a bit about wine on the down time
To come back to wine tourism after my journey around this country really does hit home
As this is the reason that I started this show
My journey around Australia has been intense
Starting in the Strathwogi wine regions, learning to pair wild food and game with Matt Fowles
And shooting rabbits in the Chardonnay vineyards, so much fun
Heading down to Yarra Valley and going kayaking, surfing, visiting Seal Island and learning about small batch wine making
Taking off to Sydney and going to Hunter Valley where we went on hot air balloons
Checked out the soils and the conditions and the hunter
And then, of course, ended it in a fighter jet for our own top gun experience
Now, doing my very first sky dive over the Australian capital of Canberra
And looking a little bit at vineyard selection from New Heights
Just before we went down to Adelaide, the spot where I learned about wine
And I got to meet up with a guy, Matt Moran, who inspired me to do this show
We went off to Kangaroo Island, caught up with False Cape Vineyard's winemaker Greg Follett
And we all went underwater and caught and harvested our own food
And then got to cook it up back at a nice resort on the area
Finally, it wasn't done before we went down to Tasmania, the true adventurous area of Australia
And we got to go fly fishing with a sparkling wine producer and learned all about sparkling wine outside of Champagne
I couldn't quite end the experience without something truly adventurous
The world's largest abseil
Not going to lie, probably the scariest thing I've done in my life
I thought that I was done, but I had to come back to Australia
And I did the world's first shark cage wine tasting with a five meter great white
Two feet from my face with a winemaker
Not only one winemaker, the youngest top winemaker of the year, Tom Berry from Jim Berry Wines
And we got to learn all about the minerals and the soils in the one top white wine producing region
Finally, sitting on the Indian Ocean, looking at probably the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen
After checking out some trellis systems, the caves and catching up with one of Australia's top surfers, Josh Palmatier
This series has been intense
And even though I'm on the Indian Ocean and there's so much going on in the vineyards
It's a bit cold and it leads me to think what's going on in the middle of winter at a winery and a vineyard
And I might check it out somewhere that's a bit closer to home this time
The United States of America, an area that houses some of the top wine producing regions in this world
As well as a few of the mountain ranges that receive the heaviest snowfall out there
Tom, follow me this year as I hang out with some of the top athletes and winemakers here to see what keeps them so busy during the winter months
