Best Pub Restaurant List: Settler's Tavern, Margaret River

The Settler’s Tavern wine list is a personality packed tome that proudly displays the wares of much of its winemaking clientele as well as offering an eclectic look at the wider winemaking world.

“We love being able to list our mate’s wines,” says publican and list custodian Karen Gough. “It’s nice to suggest a wine for someone and then point out the person who made it across the bar.”

Margaret River listings are the ideal blend of the must-have big names and the lesser lights that might otherwise be missed by most visitors.

But even more admirably the Settler’s never comes close to falling into the trap of blinkered parochialism that blights many wine-region lists. The list traipses all over the winemaking world in search of thrills and there’s clearly an intention to support those who take the winemaking path less travelled. That’s why you’ll find wines from the likes of Timo Mayer, Kerri Thompson, Gary Mills, Bill Downie, Larry Cherubino and Peter Schell on the list, highlighted in the Winemakers Under the Radar section, a spot clearly reserved for those who share Gough’s approach to wine.

Halves are also major focus. “I love the opportunity halves give you to take a chance and try something you might not otherwise,” says Gough, who notes the biggest-selling half bottle of recent months has been a pinot noir from Oregon.

Oregon pinot and post-surf schnitzel. That sounds alright to me. NICK RYAN 

Settler's Tavern, 114 Bussell Hwy, Margaret River, WA, (08) 9757 2398.

PHOTOGRAPHY SETTLER'S TAVERN