This was our last visit to a winery here in Margaret River on this trip to Western Australia, and perhaps it was time to pull up stumps for this year. We have had a good run!!

In total we have visited 13 wineries in Margaret River and 2 in the Ferguson Valley in the last 7 days. And, we have sampled and sipped wines provided by our son from at least another half dozen wineries. You can see that Mick and I take our hobby very seriously.

The weather was the best so far during our stay in Busselton, hot even, as we headed off for Aravina Estate. Not only is it a winery, but is also a brewery, restaurant and wedding venue.

The gardens and surrounds were stunning, and it was easy to see why this would be a great spot for a wedding.

It was actually quite a walk to get to the cellar door, and it even seemed longer returning to the car when carrying a box of wine! Perhaps they need to think about that.

What was wonderful about our visit here today was the chance to go behind the scenes and meet the winemaker (Ryan) and some of his team. Ryan is a friend of our son’s, and he treated us to samples of his wines that are still in the barrels, almost ready for bottling.

I caught this snap of Mick as he was enjoying a sample of the straight Grenache.

You can see how happy he looks in this photo.

Ryan makes an amazing Merlot, which we have tried before, but the one we tasted this morning, that will be bottled soon, is amazing and we are going to keep an eye out for it when it is released.

Aravina Estate also has a collection of vintage cars and vintage surfboards.

I remember my parents telling me that their first car was an Oldsmobile – but I’m pretty sure it did not look like this one.

Mick’s eyes lit up when he saw the old Holden behind this convertible.

This car was almost an exact replica of the car his parents owned when we first started going out in 1972, minus the surfboard racks of course. It was known as DFF, as opposed to their second car which was CHT, (based on their number plates).

We left Aravina with some of their top wines to try this evening with the McHenry Hohnen Rolling Stone.

The Cabernet Sauvignon was voted this best wine of the night from these four.

This wine had us a bit confused. I did not try this at the McHenry Hohnen tasting and when I did tonight I got a bit of a surprise. It tasted a little like a port wine, which it’s not, but it certainly had a sweet edge to it. We all agreed it was an interesting and complex wine, but you need to share this bottle with a few other people.

Mick cooked us slow-cooked lamb shoulder which I matched with Greek lemon-style potatoes and Greek salad. It was our last evening in Busselton. We head to Perth tomorrow before flying out for Brisbane on Saturday.