We had two good reasons for booking a full-day tour: Roy was sick up and fed of driving, and I was sorrowful about having been driven past so many vineyards without stopping at a single cellar door.

Glenn, our guide for the day and also the driver of the 13-seater bus, arrived bright and early at our motel on a cloudy, cool morning that blossomed into the most perfect blue-sky day. And, with a total of nine stops between the 10am hotel pickup and 5.30pm drop-off times, our $115 each (including lunch) was good value.

#1 At Watershed Winery, just down the road from Margaret River Town, we tasted a teaspoonful each of a long list of wines – none stood out particularly for us, but then 10.05am might not be the ideal time for wine, especially on an empty stomach. It has gorgeous grounds and a lovely visitor centre, though, and is famous for its cabernet sauvignon.

Established as recently as 2001, the wine-growing is all computerised; for example, rainfall sensors indicate how much irrigation is required. Harvesting usually takes place at the end of January, we were told – but this past 2016 winter was long, so they’re looking at mid-February, when the sugars in the grapes have had time to develop.

# 2 Voyager’s lovely Cape-Dutch architecture was directly inspired by somewhere like Boschendal Estate, in South Africa’s Cape winelands, and comes complete with slave bell.

Its 30-metre flagpole is the highest of any privately owned flagpole in the country; any higher, we’re told, and it would have to be registered for aircraft clearance. (This was Roy’s and my second visit to Voyager; we had lunch here ten years ago while on a similar day tour, and I remember that lunch being jolly good.)

This time, the experienced and knowledgeable Mark introduced us to the four wines on the tasting list, starting with a most palatable chenin blanc– and then threw in another couple, just because we’re such lovely people.

Finally, a walk around Voyager’s exquisite rose garden – how I wished my mother were there to see it! – and through the formal double garden, apparently done in the Dutch style.

#3  I think we’ve been to Leeuwin before, but Roy doesn’t. We went straight to our alfresco lunch table, as we’d run out of time for wine-tasting, having stayed too long at Voyager. The choice was pasta, fish or a Black Angus sirloin that was beautifully aged and perfectly presented, washed down with a glass of either shiraz or chardonnay.

You overlook a grassy  amphitheatre where James Taylor will be performing soon; fellow tour-goers Robbie and John tell us that the likes of Shirley Bassey, Queen and Dame Kiri te Kanawa have performed here in the past.

#4 Acres of grazing deer are a hint that you’re approaching Margaret River Venison Company – just north of Margaret River, you turn left along Carter Road.

Here you can taste various processed meat products made from venison, beef, goat and lamb, including chorizo and biltong, plus cheese, crafts and more. I succumbed to a venison tasting vacu-pak ($12.50).

#5 They’re generous with the tasting buffet at Olio Bello – not only different olive oils, but a wide variety of pesto, tapenade-style dips and other products. The generosity does encourage you to buy: I chose a delicious black olive tapenade and a red pesto, $7 each.

#6 Bettenay’s Wine and Nougat – why wine and nougat? (On the other hand, why not?)

#7 This is the original branch of Margaret River Chocolate Company, and it’s just like the outlet in the Swan Valley; there’s another in Murray Street in the city of Perth, too. Free tastings of the chocolate pellets imported from Belgium make it a popular choice for many, but I find it all a bit too much.

#8 We’re on the home straight now, and the folk at Margaret River Dairy Company look as though they, too, have just about had enough for the day.

#9 Saving the best for last, Glenn drives us through Cowamarup – a town festooned with dozens of life-sized faux Friesland cows – to Adinfern wine estate.

In her very engaging presentation, Jan explains that the place was originally a dairy farm and then a sheep farm, before her husband Merv retrained at the age of 50, some years ago, in viticulture and then in wine-making. We left with a bottle of Merv’s delicious white port ($30).