Yangarra moves forward without Peter Fraser
Yangarra Estate has named its new leadership team in the wake of Peter Fraser's death — the winemaker and general manager who spent a quarter of a century shaping the McLaren Vale estate into one of the country's most respected homes for Rhône varieties, Grenache above all.
Guillaume Camougrand steps into the top winemaking and viticulture role. He's been at Yangarra since 2014, moved up to Assistant Winemaker in 2017, and has worked the full production cycle alongside both Fraser and Shelley Torresan — who is promoted to Senior Winemaker after 17 years at the estate. Cliff Wickman, who joined only last year but arrives with more than a decade of vineyard experience and a particular affinity for old bush vines, takes on the Vineyard Manager role overseeing the estate's 170 hectares, 87 of them under vine.
It's a promotion-from-within appointment rather than an outside hire, which says something in itself — Jackson Family Wines has opted for continuity of style and philosophy (understandably, and rightly) over a reset. Barbara Banke, the company's chairman and proprietor, framed it as a vote of confidence in the team Fraser built rather than a changing of direction, saying the trio "embody the dedication, craftsmanship and philosophy" he established.
Fraser led Yangarra from 2000 until his death in November 2025, and his imprint on the estate — and on Australian Grenache more broadly — is hard to overstate. There is now no question over whether Camougrand, Torresan and Wickman know the wines; between them they've made or grown nearly every vintage of the last decade.
