Why would a passionate surfer, living a stone’s throw from his favourite beach, choose to move an hour inland and into the hills? He must have rocks in his head….
Exactly. In the southwest of Western Australia, the best vineyard sites are on pockets of land with soils rich in ‘laterite’ gravels. These marble-sized balls full of iron and aluminium-oxides have been weathered from a mass of granite over the past 2500 million years (or so). Such gravels help provide the vines with best balance between drainage and nutrition and maybe just a little of that indefinable magic that the best vineyards give to their wines to make them so ponderous.
At Willow Bridge the entire estate sits on a thick, even bed of the stuff – a beautiful sight to a winemaker. So while they have panoramic views back to the coast from here in the Gravel-Pit Shiraz block, Simon is as happy as a vineyard in gravel, while Dudley the dog is content chasing the ducks on the dam instead of seagulls at the beach.