When Shavaughan Wells decided to become a winemaker she had the perfect mentor.

Her grandfather Syd Wells was an established winemaker who went on to manage Mildara Wines during the 1950s and '60s.

The renowned Roseworthy College-trained Wells puts her passion for winemaking down to her grandfather and the influence of experienced winemakers Caroline Dunn and Nigel Dolan.

The widely experienced Saltram senior winemaker cut her teeth at Mildara, Yellowglen, Yarra Ridge, St Hubert's and Wolf Blass before landing at Saltram, where she worked with the prodigiously talented Nigel Dolan.

Wells, who now shares the winemaking duties at Saltram with Richard Mattner, has helped catapult the winery back to its former glory with a string of outstanding wines and awards at major wine shows.

She was named winemaker of the most outstanding red wine at this year's Royal Adelaide Wine Show.

Among a brace of major trophies, the winery also picked up the coveted Outstanding Wine of Prevance for its superb Saltram No 1 Shiraz, named by Saltram's founder, English immigrant William Slater, who bottled his first Barossa shiraz in 1862.

Salter had purchased property in the Barossa in 1844, planting his first vines in 1859 around Saltram's ancestral homestead which he named Mamre Brook.

In more recent times Wells has released five wines from the outstanding 2012 vintage under the label of the Saltram Winemaker's Selection.

The wines include a fiano, semillon, shiraz, tempranillo and two new additions, a straight grenache and a sangiovese.