I first heard Ginny Willcock speak about wine in Adelaide back in 2013 when I attended Savour Australia as a freelance journalist for Business Insider. This event courted wine-buyers, writers and opinion-shapers from across the globe in an attempt to reset the image of Australian wine. On an afternoon where delegates were assigned breakout sessions, I ended up in a fancy Cabernet Sauvignon tasting fronted by Gin, with Sue Hodder of Wynns also on the panel. Sue was great value, too, but Gin blew me over like a gust of fresh air. We were there, after all, because the world’s affection for Aussie wine had dimmed, and its essential, endearing Aussieness had retreated into itself. When Ginny spoke, that essential, endearing Aussieness came rollicking back like a wave rolling in from the Indian Ocean.

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The fact that we were discussing Cabernet—that most refined and distinguished of noble red grapes—with unfettered, infectious enthusiasm rather than the pomp and guff ordinarily de rigueur in these soulless dissections, heightened the effect. And Gin’s wines are immaculate. Like her, they are also brimming with energy, personality and emotion.

Gin is chief winemaker at Vasse Felix, where she began working back in 2006. During that time, she’s won countless awards, including being crowned 2026 Winemaker of the Year by Halliday Wine Companion. Vasse Felix was the first estate to be planted in Margaret River, back in 1967, by Dr Tom Cullity. The Holmes à Court family now owns it, and Gin speaks warmly about her partnership with Vasse Felix owner and chief executive Paul Holmes à Court. Bart Molony, chief viticulturist and 2025 Halliday Wine Companion Viticulturist of the Year, has been at Gin’s side throughout her tenure.

Heytesbury is the name of Vasse Felix’s pinnacle Chardonnay, while the Tom Cullity bottling, initially aired as an idea before Cullity’s death in 2008, became the estate’s top Cabernet cuvée from the oldest vines from the 2013 vintage. Idée Fixe is the name of this group’s traditional-method sparkling wine project.

Going back in time, Ginny mentions the family farm in Bindoon, which is slightly inland, some 75km north of Perth. She also mentions her sister, Cath Willcock, a very dear friend of Vininspo! and founder of wine distributor IMBIBO. From her study days, she gives a nod to Pat Iland, a former lecturer in chemistry and viticulture at Roseworthy Agricultural College. Her friendship with Stephen Pannell, my guest on episode 30 of the podcast, has also been pivotal. Peter Leske’s name is dropped in reference to the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), and the late Bryce Rankine, author of the influential work Making Good Wine, is also mentioned. Capel Vale, where she got work experience, is in WA’s Geographe region.

In Margaret River phase one, the following characters appear: Mark Messenger, who was a long-serving winemaker at Juniper Estate; Clive Otto, formerly of Vasse Felix and Fraser Gallop; Conor Lagan, then of Xanadu; Bill Ullinger of Redgate Wines; and Gin’s husband Mike Gadd, then of Cullen in Wilyabrup.

Kym Milne MW—I hope a future podcast guest—set Gin up with the ill-fated vintage in Albania and subsequent Italian jobs in Trento (Trentino-Alto Adige), Trapani (Sicily) and at Farnese in Abruzzo. Other jobs followed at Cloudy Bay (Marlborough, NZ), Cape Mentelle, and Evans & Tate (Margaret River), and at the contract winemaking facility run by Mike Calneggia.

In present-day Margaret River, the following get a shout-out: Tim Shand (Voyager, episode 15), Julian Langworthy (Nocturne/Deep Woods, episode 28), Jo Perry (Dormilona), Dylan Arvidson (LS Merchants) and Jacopo ‘Japo’ Dalli Cani (McHenry Hohnen). Vanessa Carson (Lenton Brae) was the friend who accompanied Ginny to Spain, where the latter’s epiphany occurred at the Roda winery in Rioja.

On a slightly different note, Gin talks about the Gin Gin clone of Chardonnay, for which Margaret River is known. It is particular to Margaret River, and appears to have an aroma and structure profile of its own, accentuated perhaps by the ripening conditions (although these vary considerably across the region) and by its susceptibility to millerandage (aka ‘hen and chicken’), whereby bunches have an excessively high proportion of small, seedless berries in among their plump, juicy, seeded berries. And finally, Gin’s joke about being the monks of Margaret River is an allusion to the monks of Burgundy, who observed the quality of grapes grown in different plots that subsequently became classified as, in ascending order, village, premier cru and grand cru.

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