Drink To Get Drunk

I've been in Margaret River the last three days and although I was helping Michelle with her Film & Television Unit production - and the fact that her crew was made up of a bunch of morons - we did manage to have quite a bit of fun!
We came home with crazy amounts of wine and some other souvenirs from Cape Lavender. The country is beautiful and I really wish I could be driving down those roads whenever I felt like it and not have to depend on someone else to take me there. It's a great way to clear your head.

This project Michelle is working on involves real clients from the Wine Industry Association of Western Australia, which generally means it's a huge deal to get things right and do the best job possible! Unfortunately for her, she got stuck with several idiots who didn't have the basic sense and initiative to do things such as equipment checks and form submissions. I agreed to come along to help out and hopefully ease her worries, and I truly hope I did. Of course, getting a chance to return to Margaret River after nine years isn't too bad either! Anyway, back to the trip.

We left on Friday afternoon after picking up the film equipment from university and arrived at our free accommodation at about 10pm. Yup, the WIAWA arranged for us to stay at Juniper Estate in this really big place with four bedrooms and space for 10 people! Not too shabby:


The doorway:


The resident bee:


The living room:


The complimentary wine and the sweet note they left us:


Michelle very happy with the wine (obviously):

We had an early day the next day so we decided to sleep early.

We woke up the next morning and opened our back door to find Jeepers, the winemaker's dog, who came to play a round of fetch:


The huge sign at the Juniper vineyards we blatantly disregarded to take pictures with the grapes and vines:


Our first vineyard was Amberley Estate. It's a huge winery and they were well prepared to bring us around their facility to show us the ropes to winemaking.
They were just one of many vineyards in Margaret River who had a late picking because of the erratic weather this season.

Notice how they cover their vines with the netting? They do that so those pesky little birds don't get a chance to peck at the grapes and destroy the whole bunch. Ah yes, just one of the many things we learnt along the way:


The beautiful grapes the netting hides:


Some of their discarded oak barrels:


Amberley's lab for testing sugar levels, etc:


Some of their pumps; named according to their size for easier reference:




The very photogenic Amberley cellar. Of course, it's temperature controlled and therefore great to film in. And the place smelt incredible with remnants of freshley oaked chardonnay in the air:


An oak barrel with explanations of what all those symbols and words mean:


What natural cork really looks like:


The range of wines available for tasting. Amberley had some of the best wines I'd tasted on the entire trip. I love their chardonnay and dessert wine:


Michelle and crew filming a wine tasting demonstration at the cellar door:


After Amberley, we went off to Watershed to take some other shots of their vineyard. We were hoping to capture the sunset only to find out that the sun wouldn't set over the lake like we were informed. We made the most of our trip down by taking a tour of their premises, and filming their restaurant and the excellent view they had from the restaurant veranda:




The Watershed lab and the winemaker testing the sugar levels:


Michelle (Lee) and Michelle (Mok) filming wedding preparations at Watershed's restaurant:


We scooted off after Watershed and went to Prevelly to film the sunset. That's along the beautiful southern coast:


Christine (scriptwriter), me, and Michelle Lee (director of photography):


The coast:




Perfect for a spot of fishing:


Or for washing the dog:






The surreal sunset:




And our ongoing efforts to capture it:

After that, we went off to grab some grub and had yet another early night in preparation for our pre-dawn departure the next morning.

It was the second morning and we had to go to Ashbrook to film handpicking of Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Don't ask me what's the difference between Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay grapes because the viticulturalist baffled me with that one!

The vines ready to be picked into those black buckets:


Some red grapes nearby on other vines:


The pickers hard at work:


Michelle filming the tractor:




Me helping her carry the Sony DSR-500 simply because it weighs a bloody tonne! I think I could potentially pose as a great video journalist or paparazzi with this look:


The picking snips they use to cut the bunches of grapes off the vine:


The tool table and first aid kit. The chalk is used by the pickers to mark their buckets so they get paid for the correct number of buckets:


The bucket/ picking tally:


Some safety tips for the pickers:


Tony (the owner) and his helpers tallying the buckets for the pickers while tossing the grapes into the de-stemmer:


Freshly-squeezed Sauvignon Blanc juice:


Tony offering me a taste of the juice; it was incredibly sweet and light. Lovely!


The white grape skins and seeds from the press; obviously it misses one or two, but I suppose that's good for the cows that get to munch on this on the farms:


Tony in the back of the cellar labelling some of the bottled wines:


And me being an arse in the wine barrel. They're mostly great for growing small herb gardens:


Our KIA Carnival:


Me with the Ashbrook forklift. It had the coolest purring sound, not like those scary rumbling ones you'd expect:

Leaving Ashbrook , we made our way to our 4th vineyard, Clairault.

A big, fat kingfisher greeted us at the entrance:


And then, there was Jack Martin, the owner's friendly but women-shy dog:


Cute isn't he?


And he's famous enough to have a painting of him in the restaurant!

After a bit of filming in Clairault, where our camera batteries went dead, we went to Cape Lavender since we were still too early for our next appointment for our recce of Sandalford Wines.

Michelle and I by the pond at Cape Lavender:

We had to scurry off after a quick lunch and a spot of shopping at Cape Lavender soon after this shot.

At Sandalford, we met viticulturalist Peter and he showed us the slight differences between different grape species and how they can tell us which grape produces which wine (if that made sense):


Peter:

It was time to go home after Sandalford (but not before a short stopover for a few goodbyes and parting shots at Ashbrook).

Along the way, we met these fat pheasants;


This nicely canopied road;


And these sheep:




This guy was giving me hell lot of attitude!

Selected photos  Michelle Mok
Photos hosted by: www.flickr.com

We returned to Perth at about 7pm, tired but satisfied.
I'm in love with the beer I got from Cape Lavender!