Wines in Harvey

Everyone knows of the Swan Valley and Margaret River along with Denmark, Pemberton and Frankland River. But who knows about Harvey?

Harvey is a small town about 40 kilometres north east of Bunbury. I’ve been told by those who live there that it’s about a 1 hour drive south from Perth. Last week, I went to a wine tasting organised by the Wines of Western Australia . Set at The George on St George’s Terrace, the wines were from all over WA including Margaret River and Harvey. Starting at 5:30pm in a room at the back of the bar, it was soon full of consumers ready to taste the wines on offer. At tastings like these I prefer to arrive on time, if not a little early so I can have the chance to speak to the winemakers about their wines, the vinification and viticulture techniques before everyone else shows up!

I tried the 5 wines from the range of Fifth Estate Wines; 2011 Sparkling Shiraz, 2011 Chardonnay, 2013 Rosé, 2009 Shiraz and 2012 Tempranillo. The wines ranged between $25 to $15 per bottle. For the cost overall they were fruit driven, pleasant and great for a summer evening.

Then I tasted a wide range of wines from Harvey Bridge River Estate. The brands are Billy Goat Hill, Fishbone, Joseph River, Harvey and Stone Gully. I couldn’t taste the whole range but what I did try were interesting and was good value for money.

Other wines I tried were from WA and although they too were fruit driven and good value, I focused more on those from Harvey as I was less familiar with them. When I studied my WSET Diploma back in 2004 we did study WA but we only really covered the Swan Valley as well as Margaret River. It wasn’t possible to go into detail of all the different wine regions. For a two year course, there’s lots of work to get through. Perhaps now things have changed, as they always do and more and more unknown producers are being studied by the thousands of students who take the exam every year.