Mount Barker, Western Australia

As one of the five sub-regions of the Great Southern, Mount Barker has some of the oldest vines in the district and is considered the birthplace of that vast wine region. Its rippling terrain is prime territory to grow much of Mount Barker’s award-winning wines, including cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. The vines experience warm days and cooling nights due to the climate of the region, and although often low yielding, they produce high-quality grapes. This creates elegant and complex fruit, which shows fine tannins and incredible length. Other key varietals of the area include pinot noir, chardonnay and riesling. 

Together with a premium wine region, Mount Barker is home to other agricultural pursuits such as apple orchards, wheat and livestock. Step out onto the summit of the area at the Mount Bark Lookout for incredible valley views across the south coast, or travel to nearby Porongurup National Park for extended dramatic outlooks of thick forestry and granite rock formations. Visitors from Perth can travel to Albany via a one-hour flight or prolong the adventure with a four-hour drive direct to Mount Barker.

James Halliday on Mount Barker

Mount Barker is not only the senior subregion of the Great Southern, but was the first to be declared in Australia. If this were not enough, it was also here the first vines in the Great Southern region were planted. It is large-scale, gently undulating, largely open grazing country, with widely scattered vineyards separated by large distances. But there is a feeling of ‘oneness’ akin to that of a micro-terroir of France, a hundredth of the size of Mount Barker.