AUSTRALIA
Chief Winemaker at Vasse Felix
As the Chief Winemaker behind some of Australia’s most critically acclaimed wines, Virginia leads the winemaking team at Margaret River’s founding wine estate, Vasse Felix. The 2026 vintage marks Virginia’s 20th year at Vasse Felix, having joined the estate as Chief Winemaker in October 2006.
Virginia’s winemaking philosophy is shaped by her deep fascination with Margaret River’s unique natural beauty and the connection, from soil to vine to fungi to people, and the thousands of years of community and culture built around sharing wine on this earth. It is this enduring relationship between wine, environment, family, fun and shared experience that continues to inspire her work.
With an unending fascination with natural fermentation creating wine and the role microbiology plays in grapes and vineyards, Virginia has driven the revolutionary development of winemaking style at Vasse Felix, creating more environmentally expressive wines. Her pioneering work with the use of wild-yeast fermentation in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon has influenced producers across Australia and helped define the estate’s signature style.
A respected authority on Margaret River winemaking, Virginia was awarded the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year, following recognition as a finalist for the 2025 award. She was also named Winemaker of the Year in the ASVO (Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology) Award for Excellence in 2024.
Chardonnay is the sexiest wine on earth and New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on earth containing joyful human beings making great wine. If we can get all this together in one place…. where else would you rather be? Only curious minds will be there including the presenters, and only dynamic discussions and delicious Chardonnays will be shared.
