Virginia Willcock Chief-Winemaker @  Vasse Felix Esate

Virginia grew up in Perth and loved her fathers vineyard in Bindoon, located a bit further north of the Swan Valley. No wonder that she followed the suggestion to study study viticulture at Roseworthy University. Once finished, Virginia worked with Capel Vale and for four vintages as winemaker at Redgate in Margaret before gaining experiences of being a flying winemaker in Europe where she worked vintages in Albania, Northern Italy, Sicily and later in New Zealand.

Virginias focus is clearly on the varieties she believes have the potential to be world-class wines – chardonnay, cabernet and a blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc. She is using natural fermentation and extreme solid levels, and avoiding malolactic fermentation, to encourage natural acidity and give a minerally edge to the finish. Virginia believes that malbec and petit verdot have a part to play in Vasse Felix’s flagship cabernet, the Heytesbury.