I found out by text: "Our bloody funny buddy Simon Burnell was found dead this morning after a windsurfing incident." The message was from Virginia Willcock, chief winemaker and general manager of Vasse Felix. This was on March 23, 2015.

For five years Burnell was winemaker at Willow Bridge Estate in the Geographe region, which begins (depending on which way you're travelling) at Busselton, to the north of its more famous neighbour, Margaret River. I'd been meaning to call Burnell, who I first encountered when he was part of the winemaking team at Cape Mentelle, since tasting a fabulous little white of his in a blind line-up, a cracker of a 2014 Willow Bridge Estate Dragonfly Chenin Blanc ($20).