Pym makes Stella move

Winemaker Stuart Pym has been appointed by Margaret River wine producer Stella Bella Wines to head up production at the mid-tier locally-owned company.

Taking the formal role of production manager and senior winemaker, Mr Pym has had a long relationship with the winery as one of seven founding shareholder in the business.

He has spent the past seven years at Devil’s Lair, which is a major Western Australian wine producer owned by Foster’s.

Before that, Mr Pym spent eight years as senior winemaker at Michael Wright’s Voyager Estate.

Stella Bella, which also has the Suckfizzle and Scuttlebutt labels, said Mr Pym’s appointment coincided with planned expansion of its Karridale production facility, the former Alexandra Bridge winery it bought from Australian Wine Holdings Ltd.

The company also plans to increase its vineyard assets in the Margaret River region.

Mr Pym disagrees with some assessments in the industry that WA is competing with New Zealand, believing semillon sauvignon blanc is a very different category to sauvignon blanc. Mr Pym believes that there could be substantial growth in semillon sauvignon blanc if Western Australia marketed it as a region-specific wine style.