This winter as you curl up by the fire savouring your favourite Margaret River wine, chances are you'll be sipping the delightful culmination of two elements: tradition and the passion of youth.

Today Margaret River boasts a growing troupe of dynamic young winemakers, all of whom are surprising the wine world with a sophistication and innovation well beyond their years. A competitive yet tight fraternity, our ÒYoung GunsÓ are responsible for a steady stream of national and international wine awards.

Many have one thing in common: they studied their art at South Australia's venerable Roseworthy school and all have paid their dues in perfecting their skills, most having travelled widely, bringing back vital experience from vintages worked across the great wine regions of the world.

Combine this essential hands-on training with perhaps the world's best viticultural climate and soils, marry it with time-honoured wine-making technique and the creative energy of youth, and you have the makings of some superb wines. Pull one of our corks and proof's in the bottle.

In this edition of the newsletter we profile and mainly praise a selection of the new guard. The only problem was how to define who can be considered a youngster, and who can not. Needless to say, age can be a tricky issue, even among winemakers!

But lets be safe and say that today in Margaret River many of our best winemakers still haven't hit the golden 40, and therefore have many wonderful vintages ahead of them.

On the other hand, not all Margaret River's vignerons are "waiting for the grey", and some of our finest wines remain the work of the "oldtimers", who have helped guide the development of the next generation. (There, you see, we've been diplomatic.)

But here's to the promise of Margaret River's baby boomers and the knowledge that our wine future is in safe hands. Like their wines, they too will improve with age. -

Ron Macfarlane