La Madrina

Former overseer of Qantas’ Sommelier in the Sky programme, WSET educator Gill Gordon-Smith has been involved in education and mentoring programmes, receiving the Woman of Inspiration Award from Women in Wine in ‘20. Yet it was Gill’s role as a Vinitaly Academy Educator that facilitated her love of things Italian. Gill pined for mid-weighted, savoury and eminently drinkable Italianate expressions when home in McLaren Vale. An Italian Wine Scholar, Gill crafts wines that shimmer with an energy as effusive as her own. Fall from Grace was the first incarnation, sharing the name of the iconoclastic wine store she owned and ran for many years. Today, her succinct swag of minimalist expressions fall under the banner of La Madrina, each a textural potpourri of restrained fruit bound by a herbal sash. -NED GOODWIN MW