Winemaker laps up life in the Capes

Craig Brent-White is a man of many talents.

Not only is he a winemaker and a furniture maker, he has worked as a barramundi fisherman, a Broome timber lugger and, later in life, a cruise ship captain just to name a few.

The Cape Naturaliste Vineyard owner first came to the South West region in the early 1960s to surf, later moving to the region in the 1970s.

"There weren't many people coming here to surf then," he said.

"I knew every car in WA with a roof rack. That's how many people surfed - not many."

Craig eventually trained as a master mariner, or master class one, with one of the oldest shipping companies in the world.

The title means he can captain any ship, of any size, in any ocean.

He also not only took the first large cruise ship into the Kimberley, but he played a direct role in getting cruise ships to sail into Busselton.

"I've been working with Carnival Australia," he said.

"I've been taking the super liners into the Kimberley so that was why I was able to come up with the proposal that they use Busselton as a port. I got the operations manager of Carnival Australia to come over here and I picked him up at the airport and said this is what I think you can do.

"Within six months, they had a worldwide release to say Busselton was going to be on their agenda."

Not content with doing anything on a small scale, Craig and partner Jennifer accepted the award for best red wine at the London International Wine and Spirit Competition in 2011.

The award, for the vineyard's 2009 Torpedo Rocks cabernet merlot, was a major coup for the South West business and one that hadn't been taken out by any other Australian vineyard before. "I didn't just plant the vineyard for something to do," Craig said.

"I planted it to try and get as good a product as I possibly could.

"I'm pretty proud of that as well."

Craig keeps himself busy these days overseeing renovations to his home, an 1860s-style stone cottage, while also continuing his travel to captain cruise ships.

He said he had always enjoyed working and learning as much as possible.

"You're lucky if you can do what you love," he said.

"And I'm not doing anything that I don't love."