Barrecas Winery: Point 172, April 2^nd 2007 (Click for pictures)

We were making our way up the Southwestern Highway (Hwy 1) back toward Perth. There was a lot of road work going on just south of Donnybrook and we were in the middle of it when Cheryl said “Did you see that sign? It said Barrecas Winery.” I had missed it but replied “We have to stop there.” So we turned around when we could and made our way back through the construction to a gate that said “Sweetwater”. There was a vineyard to the left of the road and an olive orchard to the right. In the valley behind the Cellar Door (tasting room) was a large reservoir pond with cattle grazing on the hills beyond it. All of it, as it turned out was part of the 400 acre Barreca holdings which extended to the other side beyond the road construction.

A young woman came out to greet us and we explained who we were and why we had stopped there. She was excited to meet some Barrecas from anywhere who were not part of her family. She went to the main house and brought back her father, Tony, who with her brother Fil (Filipo) had started the commercial vineyard a little over 10 years ago. We sat down to talk in their tasting room. Soon we were pulling out pictures of our place back home and comparing grape growing experiences. They have 80 acres of grapes. Most were contracted out to another winery until this year. But the big winery kept offering a lower and lower price. So Tony had an attorney take them to court and got out of his contract. By selling his grapes at the market rate, he made an additional $40,000 this year. His daughter, Iolanda is the wine maker. Last year, her brother Fil took her 2005 Barbera to Italy for an International wine competition. It took second place in the world! Pretty good for a young woman from rural Western Australia. Fillipo Barreca, Tony’s father, grew both wine and table grapes all of his life. He is now 96 and lives in Donnybrook. Iolanda is married and has a young daughter, Lily. She still tends the wine making and the Cellar Door.

Tony and Fil tend the grapes. It takes two months of long days for the two of them to prune them. They trellis them to facilitate mechanical harvest. Most of the crop is Shiraz. But they also grow Malbec, Cabernet, Merlot, Barbera, Viognier and Sangiovese. There are also some table grapes that they pick by hand and are sold locally. They harvest the olives, and bottle their own oil, when they can get around to it. The trees were still loaded while we were there. They also get large marrons from their pond. Think of a crayfish the size of a lobster and that’s a marron. Their prize Murray Gray bull was in a paddock out back and their cattle on the hill across the pond. Fil also had a couple of horses, his “passion” (one Quarter horse, one retired Thoroughbred racer) for recreation. We saw all of these on an impromptu tour that Tony took us on in his around-the-farm jeep.

We tasted several of Iolanda’s wines. They were out of their prize-winning Barbera L. We did buy 3 bottles each of her Shiraz-Merlot and Shiraz-Malbec and some olive oil. The wines are wonderful, and almost 16% alcohol. We are bringing some back to the States with us. All of this extra activity put us behind schedule. We pulled off the road at a rest stop on Highway 107 just as the sun went down over the Indian Ocean. Night falls quickly here and Cheryl made a salad for dinner that we ate just as the full moon came up.