Vasse Felix mainstay Virginia Willcock wins prestigious Halliday honour as national Winemaker of the Year

Celebrated Vasse Felix chief winemaker Virginia Willcock has added another career accolade to her bow, coming in as Australia’s winemaker of the year in the Halliday awards. Willcock scored the honour during the annual celebration of all things Australian wine, coinciding with the yearly release of storied vigneron James Halliday’s industry bible, at Melbourne’s Ormond House. The winemaker has previously been named winemaker of the year for Australian Women of Wine and – perhaps most prestigiously – in 2021 was identified by the UK’s Decanter magazine as one of the world’s leading female winemakers. Halliday’s judging team also gave Willcock the chardonnay and best white wine of the year for the Vasse Felix Heytesbury chardonnay 2023. In accepting the honours, Willcock said working hard in the wine industry was a given. “You give your life to it because you believe in it,” she said. “This is possibly the greatest moment of my life. What drives me, and all of us at Vasse Felix, is a deep love for Margaret River – its soils, its vines, its people. “From the microbes and fungi that sustain the vineyard to the joy on someone’s face when they drink a glass of wine, it’s all connection. That’s why we do this.” Jane Faulkner from the Halliday Wine Companion said the honours were a result of the winemaker’s unparalleled dedication. “Virginia has never lost sight of why she became a winemaker,” the judge said. “Her parents owned a small vineyard and, as a teenager, Virginia witnessed the joy of growing grapes and turning them into something more beautiful. “It became her calling. Passionate is a word too often brandished glibly about those in wine, but with Virginia, it’s palpable.” Faulkner also praised Willcock for 20 years of leading excellence at Vasse Felix and was noted as at “the top of her game” and an asset to the wider wine region. There were also other notable achievements from the region celebrated this year. Remi Guise claimed the award for his chenin blanc in the other whites & blends category for the Tripe.Iscariot Kroos chenin blanc 2023, while the winning cabernet sauvignon went to the Devil’s Lair cabernet sauvignon 2023. Margaret River Wine Association chief Amanda Whiteland saluted all the achievements from the Halliday awards and said Willcock’s honour was “very well deserved”. “Virginia is a fantastic global ambassador for Vasse Felix and Margaret River,” she said.