This immediate contrast of organised vineyards, imposing forests and rolling farmland has become an indelible part of the visual language of Margaret River. Yet in a relatively short time frame some paddocks have been filled to the forest boundary with precisely trellised vines, and streams corralled to provide water to support this viticutural endeavour. This wild landscape was tamed with great difficulty by these 20 th century settlement groups, who were blissfully unaware that their hard-earned pasture held the potential to become world-class Chardonnay terroir.

Nestled between the localities of Witchcliffe, Rosa Glen and Forest Grove are narrow gravel roads bearing the names of early farming families, which snake through dense eucalypt forest. Turning east off the Bussell Highway towards the Allingham vineyard marks one of those transitions in a wine country experience, where the glamour of high-profile estates and their imposing cellar doors is left behind, and the reality of the grape farming enterprise and its relationship with the natural environment becomes the focus of attention and admiration.

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