diff --git a/earthkit/data/readers/netcdf.py b/earthkit/data/readers/netcdf.py
index 0074ff27..b3ec3318 100644
--- a/earthkit/data/readers/netcdf.py
+++ b/earthkit/data/readers/netcdf.py
@@ -336,6 +336,14 @@ def __init__(self, ds, *args, **kwargs):
         self.ds = ds
         self._fields = None
         Index.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
+        # populate with in-built xarray methods:
+        for method in dir(ds):
+            if not method.startswith("_") and method not in dir(self):
+                try:
+                    setattr(self.__class__, method, classmethod(getattr(ds, method)))
+                except Exception:
+                    # Ignore incompatible methods
+                    pass
 
     @property
     def fields(self):
diff --git a/earthkit/data/wrappers/xarray.py b/earthkit/data/wrappers/xarray.py
index 4d088ead..107378c4 100644
--- a/earthkit/data/wrappers/xarray.py
+++ b/earthkit/data/wrappers/xarray.py
@@ -20,6 +20,14 @@ class XArrayDataArrayWrapper(Wrapper):
 
     def __init__(self, data):
         self.data = data
+        # populate with in-built xarray methods:
+        for method in dir(data):
+            if not method.startswith("_") and method not in dir(self):
+                try:
+                    setattr(self.__class__, method, classmethod(getattr(data, method)))
+                except Exception:
+                    # Ignore those that are incompatible
+                    pass
 
     # def axis(self, axis):
     #     """
@@ -138,10 +146,10 @@ def wrapper(data, *args, **kwargs):
     if isinstance(data, xr.Dataset):
         ds = data
     elif isinstance(data, xr.DataArray):
-        try:
-            ds = data.to_dataset()
-        except ValueError:
-            return XArrayDataArrayWrapper(data, *args, **kwargs)
+        # try:
+        #     ds = data.to_dataset()
+        # except ValueError:
+        return XArrayDataArrayWrapper(data, *args, **kwargs)
 
     if ds is not None:
         fs = netcdf.XArrayFieldList(ds, **kwargs)
diff --git a/tests/translators/test_translators.py b/tests/translators/test_translators.py
index f4a92501..81368174 100644
--- a/tests/translators/test_translators.py
+++ b/tests/translators/test_translators.py
@@ -150,7 +150,7 @@ def test_transform_from_grib_file():
 
 def test_transform_from_xarray_object():
     # transform grib-based data object
-    da = xr.DataArray([])
+    da = xr.DataArray([], name="a")
     ds = xr.Dataset({"a": da})
 
     # da to np.ndarray
diff --git a/tests/wrappers/test_xarray.py b/tests/wrappers/test_xarray.py
index fc8e7398..db928183 100644
--- a/tests/wrappers/test_xarray.py
+++ b/tests/wrappers/test_xarray.py
@@ -12,29 +12,42 @@
 
 import logging
 
+import numpy as np
+import xarray as xr
+
 from earthkit.data import from_object, wrappers
 from earthkit.data.wrappers import xarray as xr_wrapper
 
 LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
-def test_dataset_wrapper():
-    import xarray as xr
+TEST_DA = xr.DataArray(
+    np.arange(9).reshape(3, 3), name="test", coords={"x": [1, 2, 3], "y": [1, 2, 3]}
+)
+TEST_DS = TEST_DA.to_dataset()
 
-    _wrapper = xr_wrapper.wrapper(xr.Dataset())
+
+def test_dataset_wrapper():
+    _wrapper = xr_wrapper.wrapper(TEST_DS)
     assert isinstance(_wrapper, xr_wrapper.XArrayDatasetWrapper)
-    _wrapper = wrappers.get_wrapper(xr.Dataset())
+    _wrapper = wrappers.get_wrapper(TEST_DS)
     assert isinstance(_wrapper, xr_wrapper.XArrayDatasetWrapper)
-    _wrapper = from_object(xr.Dataset())
+    _wrapper = from_object(TEST_DS)
     assert isinstance(_wrapper, xr_wrapper.XArrayDatasetWrapper)
 
 
 def test_dataarray_wrapper():
-    import xarray as xr
-
-    _wrapper = xr_wrapper.wrapper(xr.DataArray())
+    _wrapper = xr_wrapper.wrapper(TEST_DA)
     assert isinstance(_wrapper, xr_wrapper.XArrayDataArrayWrapper)
-    _wrapper = wrappers.get_wrapper(xr.DataArray())
+    _wrapper = wrappers.get_wrapper(TEST_DA)
     assert isinstance(_wrapper, xr_wrapper.XArrayDataArrayWrapper)
-    _wrapper = from_object(xr.DataArray())
+    _wrapper = from_object(TEST_DA)
     assert isinstance(_wrapper, xr_wrapper.XArrayDataArrayWrapper)
+
+
+def test_inbuilt_xarray_methods():
+    _wrapper = from_object(TEST_DA)
+    assert _wrapper.mean().equals(TEST_DA.mean())
+
+    _wrapper = from_object(TEST_DS)
+    assert _wrapper.mean().equals(TEST_DS.mean())