The wine: Stormflower 2017 Shiraz
The place: Stormflower Cellar Door, Margaret River, Western Australia
The price: ~30 AUD
In December of 2019 I visited one of my best friends in Margaret River, the ultimate winter wine paradise. While the vineyards in the Northern Hemisphere are dormant, muddy, and gloomy during the month of December, vines in Australia boast a lush canopy with little green berries on their way to veraison. Margaret River is on the west coast of the continent and is one of the world’s best kept secrets. It is a truly magical place where amazing wines can be tasted and discovered only 10 minutes inland from the beautiful Indian Ocean beaches. Not to mention, there are rolling hills and mountains that have breathtaking views of vines to the coast line. The Stormflower tasting room, and specifically this wine, capture Margaret River’s beauty and poise perfectly. This wine was not your typical Australian shiraz – it was actually closer to a Rhône-style – and had a lighter, smoother body compared to the more bold, tannic mouthfeel of most Australian shiraz wines which is why it stood out to me on this trip.
Stormflower came recommended to us by several cellar door employees at other wineries and was situated in a secret garden getaway, and had a beautiful wooden tasting bar inside the cellar door cottage. Every single wine was delicious – from the 2018 Sparkling Silver Lining to the 2017 Cabernet Shiraz. Stormflower is not as well known as other tasting rooms in Margaret River (Cullen, Voyager, etc.), however it is extremely authentic and homey with spectacular wines that make it definitely worth the visit. Combined with the great hospitality that we had here, this was hands down one of my favorite cellar doors in the Margaret River wine region.
More photos from dreamy Margaret River…
The Younger Wine 