The Vininspo! podcast is on holiday. Here instead is a spoken version of a relatively recent story you might have missed.

This is the story of Sarah Fagan, chief winemaker at TarraWarra in the Yarra Valley.

All the context is in the story (which you can read here if you’d prefer). Speaking of context, the story came about because I was invited to TarraWarra in October 2024 to taste its latest releases and also to taste from barrel the various components that would go on to make the ’24 wines—the first TarraWarra wines authored by Sarah. I wanted to make the trip not for the wines but for Sarah—the wines from this new era were in desperate need of context.

Additional motivation comes from the fact that Sarah Fagan appears to be an interesting archetype. Her move to TarraWarra followed 20 years of making wine for the vast De Bortoli wine business. Millions of hectolitres of wine pumped out by countless minions over a couple of decades are going to efface individual details. So, who is that person behind it all?

I wanted to find out.

A sort of amusing aside: I judged at Melbourne Royal Wine Show in 2021, with Covid restrictions in place, i.e. weird conditions. The first person I bumped into in the lobby on the way to the judging venue on day one was Sarah Fagan and… I didn’t really know who she was. Turned out she was my panel chair that day and, of course, everyone knew her.

So, again, a good reason for you to get up to speed.

In the meantime, thanks for tuning in to Vininspo!—I look forward to bringing you more podcast episodes when I return from a short break.

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