Winery & Vintage Info
Woodlands vineyard was established in 1973 by David & Heather Watson and was one of the first five vineyards to be planted in the Margaret River Wine Region. David and Heather aimed to create wines to emulate the great vineyards of Bordeaux.
Woodlands produces wines from its two vineyards, both located in the Wilyabrup Valley. The original vineyard is located on Caves Rd, while the Woodlands Brook Vineyard is located just two kilometres away to the northeast. Woodlands Vineyard is dry grown and maintained by hand using traditional and biodynamic methods. Attention in the vineyard includes hand weeding, cane pruning, bunch thinning and hand picking.
The 2018 growing season which produced the Woodlands Wilyarup Chardonnay 2018 was a viticulturists dream. Near-perfect conditions persisted throughout the region from mid-December all the way through to the end of harvest. The resultant fruit produced wines of exceptional flavour, and robust acidity.
Once harvested, the fruit is hand sorted and whole bunch pressed. This process is very gentle and enhances clarity of the fruit and finesse to the finished wine. After being pressed, settled, and racked, the wine was fermented in French barrels without any additions. Following fermentation, some batches were transferred out of barrel to stainless steel for freshness, whilst the majority of the wine remained in barrel. After 8 months the two portions were then blended together before filtration and bottling.The Watson’s have always believed in Wilyabrup. Woodlands wines will only ever come from 100% Wilyabrup Valley fruit – not for any perception of quality, it is simply who we are. This is where they’re from, and that’s why Wilyabrup Valley is front and centre on the label.
