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"We want to remain a boutique wine company which provides our customers with the best small-batch, hand-made wines that we can make!"
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The Willy Bay story started in 1998 when we commenced our search for suitable land for a vineyard We wanted to be able to control all inputs and reduce farming risk so we could get consistent product year after year. We looked at land in all the traditional grape growing regions in the South West, but ultimately chose Harvey in the Geographe Region because it had:
So we purchased part of a dairy farm at Ninth Street in Harvey (about 12 hectares) in 1998 and planted our first vines in 1999. We knew that if we could reduce the variables that go into growing good grapes, we could have greater control over grape quality and characteristics. For instance, we know, at any given time of day or night, exactly how much water is in the soil profile at various depths and we can manage this vital element such that the vine is never over stressed and never over watered. This control combined with the other elements we found at Harvey provides a low farming risk environment and allows us to have excellent vintages year after year instead of the ‘one in three’ that other more high risk regions seem to have. Although we had always intended to make our own wine, we were going to wait a few years and sell our fruit under contract to Hay Shed Hill Wines, which is where our first vintage went in 2001 without a hitch. The quality of our fruit was excellent and some of the wines made at Hay Shed Hill which contained our fruit went on to win gold medals. But then disaster struck. Hay Shed Hill went into receivership and our contract was not worth the paper it was printed on. So we hitched up our drawers and brought forward our plans to make wine under our own label and Willy Bay was born. Willy Bay is an imaginary name, but Geographe Bay - after which the Geographe wine region is named - certainly exists! The Geographe Region is so named because the vines growing in that region are affected by the cooling influences (sea breezes to the uninitiated) from Geographe Bay in the south west of Western Australia. And Willy Bay? Well, that’s just a great name for a wine company! Willy Bay is owned by the Edwards and Siciliano Families. Ian & June Edwards and their children Peter and Maddie in partnership with Vincent and Yvette Siciliano and their four(!) girls Georgia, Jessica, Hayley and Mischa. Our precious vines are molly-coddled by Michael Lowe who is ably supported by his wife, Trish. Michael and Trish live in Harvey and own an extensive vineyard supplying grapes to a major wine group. Our wines are made by Peter Stanlake, our very talented winemaker - at least that's what he tells us! Peter lives in Cowaramup (Cow Town) with his wife Sue and their two boys, Jerra and Tasman. We want to remain a boutique wine company which provides our customers with the best small-batch, hand-made wines that we can make! Currently our wine is made at other locations around Harvey. We plan to build our own winery in the near future and then develop a modern cellar door outlet, and other tourist related facilities. Stay tuned! |
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