Brash Higgins is the alias of Brad Hickey, a Chicago native whose wanderlust took him around the world, developing a love of wine and food. On returning to the United States, he ended up in New York. Following a stint as a food writer, he began crafting wine lists, eventually becoming the wine director for David Bouley’s Michelin-starred empire. Having spent years talking about and selling wine, the next step in the journey was to make it. This led him to leave the Big Apple to work a vintage in McLaren Vale, where the locals gave him his nickname in honour of his larger-than-life personality and big city ways. Here, the wanderer finally settled, marrying local vigneron Nicole Thorpe, with whom he developed his eponymous label using grapes grown on their own organic Omensetter Vineyard and fruit sourced from like-minded growers.