Dr John Gladstones, senior agronomist from the Western Australian Department of Agriculture, identified the region around Pemberton - Manjimup as being particularly suitable for wine grape production in his land mark study "Viticulture and Environment" published in 1992. For those familiar with Dr Gladstones work, he identified the Pemberton region as being Burgundian in character and could best specialise in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The early work of scientist such as Dr Gladstones drew attention to the critical importance of site selection & climate.

During the early 1970's, Don and Sue Hancock, owners of Gloucester Ridge had witnessed at first hand the emergence of Margaret River as a wine region. This experience, coupled with the information from Gladstones work gave the Hancocks confidence that Pemberton had an enormous potential as a premium wine producing area.

In 1981 the Hancock family purchased the property now known as Gloucester Ridge on the outskirts of Pemberton. In 1985 they commenced planting what was to become the first commercial vineyard in the Pemberton Region. Planting material was acquired from Moss Wood in Margaret River (Pinot Noir and Chardonnay) and the vineyard was planted out at a 1.5m spacing with 3m between each row.

A site was chosen on a gently sloping hill facing North/West. This entire site was deep ripped and the vine cuttings were calloused over winter in order to be planted out mid September. The new vines were unirrigated for their first summer, and were hand hoed to keep down the weeds. There was a remarkable success rate of 96% possibly due to a very cool summer and late spring rains. The vines were up to the wire in their first year, then trained left and right in the second. The first crop was harvested in year three.

This first vintage at Gloucester Ridge was a very exciting time, with friends and neighbours helping out. 1998 saw Gloucester Ridge celebrate their tenth vintage and during that interval huge gains have been made.

In 1988 Gloucester Ridge produced 3 tonnes and in 1998, 37 tonnes off that original 6.5 hectares. Fruit now is also purchased from contract growers in the Pemberton Region and a small amount from further afield. By the year 1999 Gloucester Ridge was producing wine from 200 tonnes of fruit.