Gourmet Traveller WINE Winemaker of the year 2010 finalist: Virginia Willcock, Vasse Felix
From the perils of flying winemaking in southern Europe to the heights of excellence in Margaret River, this winemaker’s work is defined by a steely determination to succeed.
At 1am on a moonless night in 1994, Virginia Willcock waited in her truck in a car park just past the Macedonian border to conclude an arrangement to buy some grapes to ship back to Albania. It was the low point of a frustrating month spent working as a flying winemaker for Kym Milne, who heads up UK-based International Wine Services.
Willcock regards it as a turning point that made her more determined to succeed, and took her back to the 1995 vintage at Cape Mentelle, which began her love affair with Margaret River cabernet. Her return to Europe to work again with Milne in Trentino, Sicily, Abruzzo and Puglia, taught her the importance of organisation, developing operating systems, careful communication and attention to detail.
It was these qualities that attracted those who headhunted her in 2006 for her present job as chief winemaker at Vasse Felix.
Willcock grew up in Perth and loved the vineyard her father bought in Bindoon, north of the Swan Valley, to grow shiraz and grenache for family and friends. She felt betrayed when he sold it without due consultation, though her faith was restored when he suggested she study viticulture at Roseworthy.
She took time off before finishing her course to get some practical experience: working with Allan Johnson (now of Palliser) at Capel Vale. Four vintages as winemaker at Redgate in Margaret were followed by the experience of being a flying winemaker in Europe, then working vintage at Cape Mentelle and Cloudy Bay (1996).
Having bought a block of land in Margaret River with her partner, winemaker and restaurateur Mike Gadd, a more settled approach to life was called for. Setting up Selwyn’s 1500-tonne winery at Jindong proved a lively challenge for three years before it was sold to Evans & Tate. She stayed on for three more years as senior winemaker. Former Selwyn Wines owner Mike Calneggia started Australian Wine Holdings in 2003 and Willcock took on the senior winemaker role, until Vasse Felix came calling.
Her collaboration with Paul Holmes à Court, now sole owner, has revitalised Margaret River’s first vineyard and winery: its wines have never been better. The focus is clearly on the varieties they believe have the potential to be world-class wines – chardonnay, cabernet and a blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc. Sourcing of the cabernet is Wilyabrup-focused for the opulence and deep flavours that it can consistently produce, while Karridale has become important for sauvignon blanc (and semillon) because of the pungency it adds to the blend.
Sustainability is the foundation on which Vasse Felix’s approach to viticulture is built. Willcock is looking to express her views on winemaking with cutting-edge chardonnay and cabernet. 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. She believes malbec and petit verdot, have a part to play in Vasse Felix’s flagship cabernet, the Heytesbury. She notes that the winery’s founder Tom Cullity planted malbec although he rarely talked about it.
TEXT PETER FORRESTAL PHOTOGRAPH VASSE FELIX
This article is from the June/July 2010 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.