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Stuart MacGill returns to his home of Perth and the oldest wine region in Western Australia. The Swan Valley is about a 30 minute drive northeast of Perth and home to several high profile wine dynasties like Houghtons and Lamonts.

Fortified wines made the region famous but a lot of newer wine makers have entered the picture and are doing some really exciting things. Stuart has been visiting the Swan Valley for years and has a lot of friends there. People like fellow test cricketer Simon Katich, whose father Vince is a wine grower and a major player in the region’s Croatian community. Wine writer Michael Zekulich has traced the region’s rich Croatian history from three original families who came from Kalgoorlie in March 1916 and brought with them garlic, olive oil and red wine for the table - all something of an oddity in those days.

One important member of the Croatian community is John Kosovich. His winery makes a small quantity of fortified and table wines that Stuart has been keen to try. John says the region is producing some of the worlds best fortified wines but at the moment people favour the lighter table wines and there needs to be a renaissance for fortifieds to lift again. John has passed the baton to his son Archie – who invites Stuart to compare one of their aged Verdelhos (1992) with a new release.

Houghton Wines is one of Australia’s oldest wineries and responsible for one of Australia’s largest selling, consistently popular whites – Houghton White Burgundy – first made in 1937 and now renamed Houghton White Classic. Stuart learns the secrets behind this great wine from Houghton winemaker Rob Bowen. In a tribute to their old master winemaker Jack Mann, Houghton’s has released the Wisdom range featuring some of his favourite sayings.

Houghton’s also owns the Moondah Brook label and in a lab on another part of the estate young-gun winemaker Courtney Treacher has an exacting task, to ensure the consistency of the Moondah Brook Verdelho from year to year. This isn’t easy when it’s sourced from several vineyards across WA. Stuart tries her bench blend to see how it shapes up against the 2008 Verdelho.

Myattsfield winery is the love-child of two winemakers, Rachael Robinson and Josh Davenport, who met and fell in love while working at Lamont Wines and now make wine together. Among other things, Stuart finds out what a flying winemaker can bring to a winery.

Jack Mann’s family continue to produce wines in the Swan Valley. His daughter Corin Lamont runs the Lamont Winery which has been going for about 30 years. Jack’s son Dorham also makes wine, this time under the Mann Label and explains how his father adored Cabernet Sauvignon above all other grape varieties for its wonderful refinement.

Right in the middle of the Swan Valley is the Sittella Winery Restaurant. To celebrate their 10th birthday chief winemaker Matt Bowness has produced two new sparkling wines – a Sparkling Shiraz and a Sparkling Chenin Blanc called Methode Champenoise. Matt’s convinced sparkling wine can be great with food and gets Stuart to sample both sparkling wines with the restaurant’s delicious, creamy seafood pie.

Millbrook Winery is located about an hour south of Swan Valley in the Perth hills. It’s a great looking winery with an award winning restaurant attached. The vineyard manager is John Fogarty. He explains to Stuart how they looked at regions around the world with similar climates and found they matched up quite closely with the Rhone Valley in France. So they planted that region’s white grape Viognier and a Shiraz Viognier blend. Viognier lends itself really well to the oily texture of salmon, chicken and all sorts of mixed platter foods because it’s aromatic, unoaked and full bodied.

The final winery on the Swan Valley tour is the Upper Reach Vineyard – located about as far up the Swan River as you can go. It’s run by Derek and Laura Pearse who met in a bottle shop in London and decided to return to Australia and set up in the wine business. Finding it difficult working as a couple, they’ve devised a way of maintaining some relationship stability by doing different roles within the winery: Derek is out in the vineyard and Laura mans the Cellar Door. Upper Reach produce a wine that is considered difficult to make: barrel-aged Chardonnay and it’s been a big success for them.