Although people immediately think of Margaret River when you mention Western Australia there are nine official wine growing districts including, Swan Valley, Perth Hills, Peel, Geographe, Margaret River, Pemberton, Manjimup, Blackwood & The Great Southern.

Margaret River is quite new, with some of Australia’s founding wineries having been set up in the Swan Valley some 140 years earlier in 1827. Wineries such as Houghton are household names in Australia, with their Houghton White Burgundy (classified as Houghton HWC in Waitrose here) one of the best selling commercial wine down under.

Perth is a great city, with plenty of great restaurants such as Fraser’s (www.frasersrestaurant.com) in the middle of Kings Park, which is a great place to hire bikes and spend half a day cycling round this wonderful park overlooking Perth. Perth to Margaret River takes about 3 ½ hours by car, and is a great drive. Before you leave Perth make sure you visit Fremantle, Rottnest Island and the coast going north from Fremantle up to Cottle Bay, with its great surf.