Albany’s Wignalls Winery savours their Great Southern successes

When Dr Bill Wignall moved to Albany from Maitland in South Australia, he was more concerned with performing microsurgery on sick animals than soil composition or grape varieties.

But when the vet got the “shakes”, as his son Rob describes it, he had to stop operating and turned his hand to winemaking.

“He looked into all the theories behind winemaking and picked pinot noir and chardonnay, which back in 1981 were relatively unknown,” Rob Wignall says.

“What worked in his favour is that the growing conditions here are very similar to Burgundy in France.”

Dr Wignall planted his grapes on a property on the outskirts of town, that used to house part of Albany’s public rubbish tip, and watched them thrive.

Rob and his wife Claire took over the reins at Wignalls Winery in 2004 and continue the award-winning success that began with Dr Wignall 38 years ago.

“Now we’re up to more than 60 gold trophies for our wines and even took out the award for the best New World White Wine with our Chardonnay at the Japan International Wine Challenge in 2008,” Wignall said.

“That’s what we specialise in now. Realistically, we have three main wines — sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and the pinot noir.”

Wignalls will showcase some of its best wines at this year’s Albany Wine and Food Festival on at Taste Great Southern.

As well as wines from Western Australia’s Great Southern, the festival will host celebrity chefs Adam Liaw and Anna Gare who will cook with the best local produce on offer.

“The event is great. We’ve been involved for several years,” Wignall says. “It not only gives visitors a taste of the best food and drink you’ll find here but locals get the chance to try things they would otherwise never try.”

Clarissa Phillips visited Albany as a guest of Taste Great Southern.

See wignallswines.com.au and tastegreatsouthern.com.au.