Sam Vinciullo grew up in Perth, trained in Adelaide, and then spent a decade chasing great farming from Australia to California to Sicily. It was on Mount Etna, working alongside Frank Cornelissen, that the pieces clicked into place: the connection between volcanic soil, patient farming, and wine of rare purity. He came home to Margaret River in 2015 and has not looked back.
Backstory
Sam graduated from wine school in Adelaide in 2005 and immediately began traveling, working harvests in Australia, California, and across Europe. His transformative experience came in 2010 on Mount Etna, where the relationship between terroir and minimal winemaking became clear. He returned to Western Australia for the 2015 harvest and produced his first wines under the Sam Vinciullo label. In 2017 he took over a 6.5-hectare leased property in Cowaramup, where he has farmed organically ever since.
The Region
Margaret River occupies a narrow peninsula in the far southwest of Western Australia, cooled by the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean in equal measure. The region is best known for Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, but its loamy, gravelly soils and maritime climate suit a much wider range of varieties. Sam is the only producer in the region who refuses to machine-harvest, filter, or add sulfites.
Vineyards & Farming
Sam farms around Cowaramup, about 15 minutes north of the Margaret River township, on own-rooted vines aged between 21 and 35 years. The vineyard carries Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Shiraz. No herbicides or systemic chemicals are used. All grapes are picked by hand and transported by bucket to preserve whole clusters.
Winemaking
Sam's winemaking is as radical as his farming. All whites are fermented on skins for varying periods, sometimes approaching a month. No temperature control is applied to ferments. There is no pumping, no fining, no filtration. No sulfur is added at any stage. No oak is used for any wine. Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeasts throughout.
The Wines
Sam produces a small, rotating range of reds and whites that reflect exactly what happened in the vineyard that year. Labels are loose and unpretentious — "Red," "White," field-blend bottlings — but the wines themselves are precise and deeply site-specific, arguably among the most authentic expressions of Margaret River's potential.
