Xanadu Wines Chief Winemaker Glenn Goodall is the recipient of the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year award.
On accepting the award Goodall stated, “I’m excited and feel very honored to receive the Halliday Winemaker of the Year award. I’ve been fortunate enough to lead the Xanadu team for many years, and winemaking is definitely a team sport. This award acknowledges everyone, including our growers, who have been involved in the Xanadu journey over the years, and I feel really proud to represent this group.”
The Kiwi was visiting Australia in 1989, when he was just 19, when he fell into wine as a way to fund a surfing holiday. As such, his first job in the industry came with Cassegrain Wines. Nine years later, Goodall had completed vintages in Bordeaux, South Africa, New Zealand and California, all while finishing his Bachelor of Agricultural Science, Oenology at the University of Adelaide (Roseworthy). In 1999, Goodall joined the team at Xanadu in Margaret River, becoming Senior Winemaker in 2006.
Now in his 24th year at Xanadu, the winemaker and his team have tallied up an unbelievable 339 gold medals and 127 trophies across regional and national wine shows. This includes the 2019 Xanadu Reserve Cabernet taking the Best Cabernet Sauvignon Trophy at the National Wine Show of Australia for the 8th consecutive year in a row.
“The variety and the vineyards should be the loudest voice in the glass, not the winemaker,” Goodall said. “Walking a lot of rows, in a lot of vineyards, is really important to identify the differences between, and often within, blocks. This unlocks good picking decisions and by keeping the winemaking pretty simple we can maintain the integrity of each different parcel of fruit, and that’s the key to retaining a nice spectrum of fruit profiles for when it comes to putting blends together.”
Xanadu, one of the first wineries established in Margaret River, the estate also helped define the standards for Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, became in 2012 the first winery in Western Australia to achieve certified status.
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