The report of Dr John Gladstones in 1965 stimulated a great interest in planting particularly Cabernet Sauvignon in Margaret River, recommending the area around what is now known as Wilyabrup as his preferred region for this variety. In his letter of 23 June 1966, Dr John Gladstones wrote “Overall the evidence seems to me to point to the area along the coast road or slightly east of it (in any case not less than say, 1-2 miles from the sea) from immediately west of Cowaramup northwards as far as perhaps Yallingup. Within this area soils would be the critical factor, and almost certainly the best would be in the southern part, west and northwest of Cowaramup.  That then would be my pick: somewhere in the drainage areas of either Wilyabrup Brook or Big Brook.”

In his conceptual plan for separating the Margaret River wine region into different sub-regions, Dr John Gladstones thus defines the Wilyabrup sub-region in Margaret River as consisting of the combined drainage basins of the Wilyabrup and Cowaramup brooks, which drain westwards to the Indian Ocean.

Wilyabrup was the first site of the earliest modern commercial plantings in Margaret River. The first trial in 1966 was undertaken on a quarter acre of land and this was followed by commercial plantings in the following year. Wilyabrup, which remains the major and most intensely planted part of the Margaret River region, was thus the first sub-region, whose wines highlighted the quality of its styles from young vines and now from fully mature vines.  These wines have fully borne out the predictions that, based on climate, the Bordeaux grape varieties were particularly well suited to the Wilyabrup sub-region.