Some aren't open to the public. Even with those eliminated from the list, we were left with a week to ten days' solid tasting. That's if we tried to visit them all. Experience suggested a couple of options when it came to sorting things out.
For a start, it made sense to head for those concerns that offer freight-free delivery to the east coast. A surprising number do, provided you're buying a dozen bottles, so that didn't help a great deal.
A better principle involved separating iconic establishments you felt obliged to visit from the rest. Then I could cast an eye around for the odd establishment that looked like it had something to offer in the way of quirky independent producer status.
The icons weren't too hard to figure - Cullen, Leeuwin Estate, Vasse Felix, Brookland Valley and Cape Mentelle were obvious must-visits.
I could've added Howard Park/Madfish and Xanadu to that list had I not suspected they'd attract numbers of coach-borne visitors.
Hughesy sees the presence of tour coaches as a definite minus when it comes to serious sampling.
Round the list off with half a dozen interesting establishments, and we'd have a doable list.
Being fresh on Day One, I figured, we could probably get around half of the dozen or so places I'd listed.