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After a long break (far too long), we are thrilled to welcome the new collection from Bruce Dukes (owner / winemaker at Margaret River sensation Domaine Naturaliste).
Erin Larkin provides the perfect introduction to those who are unfamiliar to Domaine Naturaliste wines...
“Bruce Dukes is wholly talented. His winemaking style is one of fresh, pure fruit over obvious or intrusive winemaking artifact, and the wines routinely possess a polish and eminent drinkability.”
Bruce Dukes
Owner / Winemaker
"To me wine making is about attention to detail and there are so many little variables in wine making, you've gotta have every step in the sequence in place and done to the best of our human abilities to give the greatest chance of success in the wine"
The Whites
“I love the fact that they all have bespoke personalities, they know who they are, and how they fit in our cultural mix. The wine's personality is that of the terroir, with the winemaking fine-tuned to allow an unencumbered translation. Discovery Chardonnay speaks of the purity and texture, via cradling fermentation and maturation in seasoned oak, Floris speaks of white Jasmine like floral perfumes, and the conversation of Artus is centred around texture, mineral, stone fruit and brioche. Purus is a new development (the inaugural 2020 release received 98-points from Halliday) and conveys a translation of pristine flavours, textures and the climate of southern Margaret River Chardonnay into wine."
The Reds
“The long and gentle growing season of Margaret River suits the biology of the Cabernet vine. This plant needs the long season to accumulate its flavours, perfumes and physiologically ripen its tannins. We have success in agriculture when the crop suits the growing environment and can be translated into a food with minimal guidance. This is the case with Margaret River Cabernet.
The Discovery Cabernet Sauvignon is a very pure translation of fruit to wine. Like the Discovery Chardonnay, it is matured in seasoned oak, although for 12 months as the Cabernet tannins need a little longer to achieve harmony. Discovery Cabernet speaks of vibrant fruit perfumes and svelte fruit tannins (sans oak tannins), which seems to translate to accessibility in youth.
Rebus Cabernet’s namesake reflects the complexities and interests of a Rebus picture puzzle. Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon can enjoy a long life, so I am always contemplating the details of this wine. Rebus is the integration of pristine Margaret River Cabernet grown in around 40% new oak. Rebus, and my style in general favours tannin ripeness, freshness, fragrance and texture over overt power.
Morus Cabernet Sauvignon expresses a distinctive character of mulberry perfumes and flavours. These mulberry characters are very attractive and unique to fruit and wine of my region. Morus is the genus of the mulberry tree, hence the name indicates the personality of the wine. The Morus fruit is quite concentrated, so it typically needs 14 to 18 months maturation in around 55 to 60% new, traditional 225L casks, to achieve its harmony for bottling”
Q: Nothing is more difficult than simplicity with many winemakers falling at this hurdle. Do you tinker in the winery or are you a completely ‘hands off – let the grapes speak for themselves’ winemaker?
Bruce: “I seek to understand winegrowing, particularly the nuances of the fruit, so that I can assist with its journey to wine by working with the inherent strengths of its personality. The grapes need to be listened to and understood, so they can then speak for themselves. To me, part of the wine is the human interaction. It is all about balance and respect. I quite often reassure myself by saying, trust the fruit, trust the microbiology! A vine, uncared for by the human hand, will grow like a creeper, and have its fruit turn to vinegar, so a degree of nurturing is needed.”
Q: In a blind tasting of Australian Chardonnay – Would you be able to easily identify the tell-tale characteristics of a Margaret River wine within a line-up of wines from Mornington Peninsula, Geelong and the Yarra Valley? What revealing features would help you during the blind tasting?
Bruce: “Australian Chardonnays have enjoyed a lovely evolution over the last three decades, with winemakers seeming to value subtlety and purity, over overtness. Some of the signatures of Margaret River Chardonnay are a textural presence, elements of grapefruit, white peach, succulence and mineral. Most Margaret River Chardonnays are made from our local and highly prized Gin Gin clone, which seems to lead to a distinctiveness in our wines. You can taste the textural elements from the juice stage. Generally, these personality traits can be used to identify Margaret River.”
Q: Do you believe there is the ‘perfect’ vineyard location in the Margaret River? Or, and to add a little complexity, is the winemaker as important to the land and vines themselves?
Bruce: “Perfection is a difficult concept for me to grasp. I believe perfection is similar in concept to infinity. There are many lovely vineyards in my area. My interpretation of wine is that it is a holistic result of numerous interacting influences, and yet they cannot be individually quantified – the vine, the land and the winemaker are all intrinsically linked. This is one of the reasons why I love working with vines.”
Q: Australia’s wine craft has changed considerably over the past few decades. Many advances have had an indisputably positive outcome. Where do you personally see the Aussie winemaking scene heading?
Bruce: I am loving being an Aussie wine consumer at the moment. I am enjoying a depth and richness of different styles from across the country. The grass is green in my own back yard. The Aussie winemaking scene is heading to showcase regionality, all the way from the very eastern Coal River in Tasmania to Margaret River on the west coast. We have some amazing sites and stories captured over this 3000km as the crow flies. I am enjoying these bespoke and personality driven wines!
Q: Also, as a winemaker with an extensive experience rooted deeply in the Margaret River. Have you seen an evolution of the wines and styles which emerge from the region?
Bruce: I have seen a huge and what I consider to be a positive evolution in Margaret River over the last 30 years. As a young region, dating back to 1967, we are now seeing many vineyards enter the prime of their lives at 20-54 years. These mainly own rooted vines do not have to compete with phylloxera, and our set of natural conditions corresponds to low disease pressures.
The grapevine canopy management work of Dr Richard Smart in the mid 1980s created much awareness on how to optimise our farming systems to achieve ripe tannins and improve flavours and fruit health from the vineyard. Aussies love adapting to agricultural innovation. I believe that sustainability philosophies, including picking on flavours and acid balances for the whites have also been driving our styles to greater levels of refinement and excitement.
Q: Stylistically, we have observed a major shift in Australian wines from showcasing rich and often highly extracted styles to incredibly refined styles. Consumers all over the world had largely embraced the Aussie drive for producing bright, highly fruited wines. We now have an emergence of ‘cool-climate’ regions and an effort to introduce more balance and refreshing acidity even in the warm parts of the country. Nevertheless, there is certainly a group of people who miss the flamboyant style that Australia is fully capable of producing (a number of our own customers included). Has producing rich styles become recognised as an outdated approach? Is it frowned upon nowadays?
Bruce: A strength of the Aussie wine industry is the production freedoms we enjoy and the geographic diversity of our growing regions, which flows onto style diversity. It’s not one size fits all! My preferences are generally toward the cooler climate styles. However, every now and then a richly flavoured and flamboyant wine is a perfect match with richly flavoured and flamboyant food. Stilton and Port seems to ring a bell.
Q: It is inspiring to see that Aussie winemakers benefit from extraordinary freedom and an open-minded approach where new and progressive practices are welcome and often experimented with. Personally, what developments excite you the most and which do you see as a short-term fashion?
Bruce: The freedoms of farming and winemaking in Australia have enabled a rapid learning curve. Trialling, succeeding or failing and retooling is an approach which I enjoy. I am most excited by refinement of the basics, for example; I have a collection of five different Cabernet Sauvignon clones at my Wilyabrup vineyard. These selections have only recently become available, mainly due to our strict quarantine regimes. My journey is to better understand how these cultivars perform in my soil. Aussies are quite a collaborative race, and when you throw wine into the mix, the information exchanges, usually matched with nice foods are rewarding. I think a short term trend in wine may be wines in which the winemaker’s “fashion requirements” are deemed of greater importance than the fruit and place. I strive for my point of difference to be greatness in my wines, not that my wines are different.
Q: In your opinion, is Australia the best place in the world to make wine? If so, what makes it superior? What challenges lay ahead for Aussie winemakers?
Bruce: My life is a celebration of wine and the culture which it embraces. I love winegrowing in Margaret River and it is an awesome cultural fit for me and my family. I could not think of a better place for what I or my family want in life. My 17 year old son, Oscar, could not survive if we moved away from his favourite surf breaks like “Three Bears,” “Shallows” or “Rocky Point” which surround Cape Naturaliste.
Aside from the gift of Margaret River wine, we enjoy some awesome Australian coastal foods like olives, tomatoes, beef, lamb, and seafood; it’s nice to be able to swim in the pristine Indian Ocean, surf the powerful waves, explore the subterranean limestone caves and wander through ancient forests. Communication is the challenge for Aussie winemakers. For many years, some loud voices communicated simple fruity sunshine; a message that suited these few. It takes a long time to turn this ship around, but those who do explore, find treasure. The reality is that most of the smaller passion-fuelled winemakers like me have continued with making soulful and delicious wines which speak of their variety, site, and culture.
Launch offer prices end Wednesday 1st March at 9.00am
2021 Domaine Naturaliste Discovery
Sauvignon Blanc Semillon
Bruce Dukes, Chief Winemaker “Margaret River Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon are captured to highlight their attractiveness in its youth. This is a complex layered and blended white. Sauvignon offering lifted fragrances of gooseberry and lychee, with Semillon offering fig, white grapefruit and a mineral component. The barrel fermentation introduces exotic spice and textural harmonization.”
96 points - Top Gold, Margaret River, “Texture and detail, intrigue and complexity. A wine that builds in the glass.”
£16.50 per bottle
Launch Price £14.85 per bottle
Also available under bond - £121.75 per case (12x75cl)
2021 Domaine Naturaliste Discovery Chardonnay
Bruce Dukes, Chief Winemaker “A verve expression of our cool climate Chardonnay from the pristine south of Margaret River. Chardonnay is harvested at moderate ripeness to retain freshness and natural balance. The embodiment of spring, perfume, texture, delicacy and personality.”
James Suckling “Aromas of crushed stones, lemon peel, sliced pink grapefruit and subtle ground spice. Medium-bodied with a lot of pleasant white tea character. Jasmine and leafy herbs come through. Drink now.”
£16.50 per bottle
Launch Price £14.85 per bottle
Also available under bond - £121.75 per case (12x75cl)
2019 Domaine Naturaliste Discovery
Cabernet Sauvignon
Bruce Jukes, Chief Winemaker “A classic and unhindered expression of Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon, sculpted tannins and lifted red berry perfumes. Maturation in seasoned French oak allows the wine to soften without the addition of additional oak tannin from new barrels. The result is a paragon of personality, fruit purity and approachability. Aromas of cassis, red cherries and bright red fruit underpinned by a seamless palate of raspberries, plum skin, bright red fruits and silky, textured and soft tannin on the finish.”
£16.50 per bottle
Launch Price £14.85 per bottle
Also available under bond - £121.75 per case (12x75cl)
2021 Domaine Naturaliste Floris Chardonnay
Bruce Dukes, Chief Winemaker “Floris is a modern and engaging expression of our local clone into wine. This style is a coevolution of Modern Australian food and wine culture, which has great emphasis on balance, freshness and hedonistic pleasure. Floris exhibits delicate textures and floral notes reminiscent of white jasmine flowers.”
96 points - James Halliday “This has the same back label fruit description of white grapefruit and nectarine as its Artus Chardonnay sibling, but that is where the similarity ends. This is all about purity and finesse, the fruit flavours strung on a necklace of diamonds, oak incidental.”
Decanter ”Toasty brioche, buttercups, wild herbs, pears, apples and stone fruit on a perfumed nose. Clear, focused and linear. A feeling of latent power; seamless integration and long finish. Truly well-balanced” Jones, Knock and Sewell."
£20.95 per bottle
Launch Price £18.95 per bottle
Also available under bond - £162.75 per case (12x75cl)
2021 Domaine Naturaliste Artus Chardonnay
Bruce Dukes, Chief Winemaker “Artus is an artistic translation of our local Gin Gin clone into wine. It is a provocative, complex and textural wine exuding the seductive spirit of “old world” chardonnay. The vines have been managed to allow only dappled light into the fruiting zone. This promotes flavor development, low tannins and bright levels of natural acidity. The fruit is farmed in the cool southern end of Margaret River. The tiny 100g Gin Gin clusters are hand harvested at first light to preserve freshness of fruit.
Gold, Margaret River Wine Show 2022
James Halliday “A wine from the big end of town, built on a scaffold of French oak barrel fermentation and stiletto acidity. Grapefruit and nectarine fill in the masonry. It is layered and balanced.”
Ray Jordan “..butterscotch aromas with ripe stone fruit adds so much to the nose and palate. It is a highly textured wine with a dry savoury minerality providing a beautiful finish. A little gunsmoke brings a subtle new dimension. Cellar 9 years.”
Cassandra Charlick, WinePilot “.. It’s confident and gorgeous – the epitome of a femme fatale resplendent with curves, shoulder pads, heels and red lippy. This wine knows what it is and is unashamed in flaunting all that it has going for it. There are so many reasons to applaud, not least the length that rivals that of Elton John’s farewell tour: it goes on and on, and for good reason. Every sip leaves you aching for more.”
£33.95 per bottle
Launch Price £31.50 per bottle
Also available under bond - £144.15 per case (6x75cl)
2017 Domaine Naturaliste Morus Cabernet Sauvignon
Bruce Dukes, Chief Winemaker “Our finest cuvee of Cabernet Sauvignon from the heart of Margaret River. The gravelly soils of the vineyard are flanked by the dominant native hard wood trees named Jarrah. Jarrah trees have become a favourable and exact biological indicator that the site is ideally matched to Cabernet Sauvignon. Fruit expression from this site includes violets, cassis and mulberry. Indeed, mulberry is a very attractive fruit character which is a unique part of the terroir expression of Margaret River Cabernet and our local heritage clone. This cuvee is named to reflect this unique mulberry character; Morus australis being the genus and species name for the mulberry tree.”
James Suckling and Top 100 Australian Wines 2020 “Wow. This has a regal feel from the outset with cedary oak and fresh aromas of spiced blue plums, blackberries and blueberries. Hints of tobacco and slate here, too. The palate is so polished and lively with blackcurrants and blackberries on offer. It holds very fresh, long and even. There’s great potential here. Drink over the next decade or more.”
Erin Larkin, Halliday. “Cassis, mulberry, salted black licorice and Szchuan peppercorns. Very long, very dense and lots going on. In his wisdom, my uncle once told me “the secret to a good party is too loud, too busy and too dark.” This wine has all the makings of a great party – everything crammed into the bottle with the endurance to go long.”
£41.50 per bottle
Launch Price £37.95 per bottle
Also available under bond - £176.35 per case (6x75cl)
2021 Domaine Naturaliste Purus Chardonnay
Bruce Dukes, Chief Winemaker “Purus is a translation of pristine flavours, textures and climate of southern Margaret River Chardonnay into wine. The vines have been carefully managed to allow only dappled light into the fruiting zone. This promotes flavour development, low tannins and bright levels of natural acidity. The fruit is sourced from select parcels of Dijon clones grown in the cool southern end of Margaret River. The compact bunches of perfectly solarized berries are hand harvested at first light to preserve freshness of fruit. Pure perfumes of white pear, jasmine flower and wet granite are elegantly suspended above a palate carved from grapefruit pith and white nectarine flesh. Lashings of focused white fruit tannin and porcelain texture and length culminate in a sheer wall of quenching minerality and bristling tension.”
97 points – Gold Award, James Halliday “The glittering green hue is a pointer to what is to come. Complex barrel ferment aromas bring crushed cashew and a funky wreath of blanched almonds into play. It is the brightest and quicksilver-lightest on its feet of the three chardonnay siblings, with fantastic length and perfect balance”
£33.95 per bottle
Launch Price £31.50 per bottle
Also available under bond - £144.15 per case (6x75cl)
2021 Domaine Naturaliste
Rebus Cabernet Sauvignon
96+ Points - Stuart McCloskey “The bouquet is brimming with freshness and brooding with cedar, graphite, violets, liquorice and dark fruits with juniper, cassis, plum and damson being the main contenders. The flavours expand and draw you in with aeration (I suggest 2-3 hours in a decanter). The palate is medium bodied, the tannins svelte and the acidity providing freshness. There is an effortless quality to this Margaret River Cabernet which provides bags of flavour and wonderful length. Lots of finesse. Remarkably unforced and will suit fans of young Pauillac (those fans will pick up the lead pencil character). Drink now to 2025. Served using Zalto Bordeaux glassware.”
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