Article content Wynns senior winemaker Sue Hodder grew up in Alice Springs, a red earth, hot desert town in Central Australia that is as far from Australia’s most important vineyards as possible. As a child, she was always interested in the country’s call, where agriculture was essential to the land, so it’s no surprise, 31 years and 2,500 kilometres later, she fell in love with the Coonawarra region of South Australia, a cool, cigar-shaped strip of red dirt famous for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah and Hodder’s adopted home. In between, Hodder attended Adelaide’s Roseworthy Agricultural College, where she really caught the wine bug.
A Penfolds’ viticultural scholarship after graduation began her run of impressive achievements and explains a lot about her ultimate success in tending some of Australia’s most iconic vines. Before settling into Coonawarra (population 58), Hodder secured a working holiday in London’s original Oddbins wine shop and ended her two-year global travels with stops in Bordeaux, California and Margaret River, Western Australia. She arrived in Coonawarra shortly after and began work at the iconic Wynns Coonawarra Estate in 1993.
She became the senior winemaker at Wynns in 1998, long before women were even considered for such jobs, and has been a standard-bearer for Australian women in wine ever since. Hodder characteristically credits her crew for many of the improvements at Wynns. Famed viticulturist Allen Jenkins is responsible for the.