Geoffrey Dean: Western Australia faces up to local difficulties

Just as their South Australian counterparts had done in Adelaide, much of Western Australia's wine community descended on the WACA to see England enjoy the better of the first day of the Perth Test. More worrying for them than the current plight of the Australian cricket team, however, is the possibility that a new coal mine, only 15 km east of the town of Margaret River, will be opened up next year.

Complaints about the Australian cricket team and its selectors were decidedly vocal at most wineries I visited in the Margaret River region in the runup to the Test, but the threat posed by a potential new mine at Osmington is a far greater concern to WA's best known "appellation".

LD Operations, the company hoping to mine an extensive seam of very high quality anthracite coal in the area for the next 15-20 years, will now have their claim assessed by the Environmental Protection Authority. This government body will make a ruling by mid-March whether to refuse or grant the claim, or allow it with covenants and restrictions.

Worringly for winemakers and viticulturalists alike in the Margaret River region, the same company has an open-cast mine in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, whose dust has allegedly caused taint in some fruit as well as silicate poisoning in the vines. Although Osmington would be an underground mine, drilling through an aquifer will have to take place, with all the risks that that would entail.

"Giving this mine the go-ahead would be environmentally unacceptable, tainting the clean and green image of Margaret River, an important tourist destination," said Nick Power, the chief executive of the Margaret River Wine Industry Association, said.

Harpers has seen a copy Power's letter to the chairman on the EPA, in which he wrote that mining would lead to "a detrimental and irreversible impact on the wine industry and impinge greatly on our collective wine brand".

Significantly, perhaps, many politicians, lawyers and well-known sporting figures have holiday houses in the area. Their potential influence could be crucial in keeping Margaret River mine-free, as could agricultural interests, which bring in around £50m per annum to state coffers but are worried the mine could cause water degradation. Mining royalties would only be worth just over £4m per year.

One of Margaret River's best-known wineries, Cullen, has another more pressing concern. Construction on a beer brewery a few hundred metres from the cellar door has begun. Ironically, Cullens used to own the land where the building is taking place, having sold it recently to a third party who then sold it on. The brewery application was initially rejected but upheld on appeal.

Senior winemaker, Vanya Cullen, who has decided not to take the matter to the ultimate authority, the Supreme Court, is fearful that beer yeasts, one of which is brettanomyces, could blow into the winery. Cullens use wild, uninoculated yeasts but 'brett' is one that is particularly unwelcome.

Cullens continue to produce benchmark Aussie chardonnay, having sold out of it when I tasted. A couple of miles further up Caves Road from Cullens in the same prime Wilyabrup sub-region of Margaret River can be found a small winery that makes intensely flavoured chardonnay with fabulous length - Woodlands.

Run by two brothers, Stuart and Andrew Watson, Woodlands also produces the finest malbec in Australia I've been lucky enough to drink, as well as some of the best cabernet sauvignon.

Fraser Gallop, from admittedly much younger vines, are also causing waves with their cabernet, the 2009 winning best red wine of the 2010 Margaret River Show. Both Woodlands and Fraser Gallop are available in the UK, and represent Christmas value.

* Geoffrey Dean is a cricket reporter for The Times who is writing exclusively for Harpers Wine & Spirit from the Ashes on the cricket and his tour of Australia's wineries as part of his WSET Diploma.

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