Virginia Willcock

The Path

Vintage is the part of cellar work where timing gets tested in real time. For Virginia Willcock, it is the point at which weather, fruit, instinct and judgment have to land together, and that is what has shaped her practice as general manager and chief winemaker at Vasse Felix in Margaret River, Australia. The work is anchored in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, two varieties that ask for precision without losing the room for interpretation.

The Work Today

At Vasse Felix, in Margaret River, Australia, the general manager and chief winemaker role has sat at the centre of Willcock’s work since 2006. In a region where vineyard and ocean influence are part of the brief, her focus on Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon gives the cellar work its clearest frame. These are wines that reward measured decisions, and Willcock’s approach is built around knowing when to step in and when to leave the season to show itself. Tom Cullity is one of the wines that marks this chapter. The first vintage was 2013, and a magnum presented for her 10th anniversary at the estate became the most poignant moment of her career. The bottle reads as a record of long work: years of decisions, memory and place gathered into one release. Heytesbury Chardonnay is the other defining wine. Known as a vertical tasting wine notable for its distinctive style, it is also the wine for which Willcock introduced the style now closely associated with it, giving that expression a fixed place in the estate’s identity. Her thinking also reaches beyond Margaret River. Nebbiolo, Piedmont, and the line about "funky, beautiful dirt and a truffle farm next door" point to a winemaker who reads place first and grape second, and who treats texture, terrain and suitability as part of the same question. The point is not sentiment; it is fit.

Signature

Virginia’s signature wines include Tom Cullity and Heytesbury Chardonnay.

In Their Words “I’d love to grow Nebbiolo and I don’t believe in making it in Australia, so I’d be very happy to work in the hills of Piedmont with some funky, beautiful dirt and a truffle farm next door.” “I love vintage. Always have and always will. It’s my favourite time of the year.”

Acclaim

Virginia’s honors include Winemaker of the Year.