It was a moment I’ll never forget. Soon after the Maxwell family purchased Fox Creek Wines, co-founder Helen Watts, 93, turned up at Maxwell’s cellar door to share memories of the business she and her late husband Dr Jim Watts built from the ground up.
When the former matriarch approached Mark Maxwell and his son Jeremy her eyes filled with tears.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she embraced Mark. “Thank you.”
When Dr Jim and Helen first saw the McLaren Vale property that would become Fox Creek, it was sheep and barley country. Not a vine in sight. At the time, Jim was still a professor and surgeon at Flinders Medical Centre, and was a man adored by patients and theatre staff alike. He was also, as Helen tells it, the kind of doctor who broke all the unspoken rules.
“He’d pull his chair right up next to patients and he’d say, ‘How are you today?’” she recalls.
“Doctors don’t usually do that. There’s always a big desk between them and you.”
Late-onset epilepsy forced Jim out of the operating theatre. He and Helen needed a future that could hold his energy and curiosity. The answer was farming.
Helen and Jim established Fox Creek in 1984.
“As soon as we saw it, we loved it,” she says.
Initially, the family grew grapes in the black clay soils previously planted with barley and sold fruit to other McLaren Vale wineries.
Their son Paul, fresh out of school, became a viticulturist by necessity and osmosis. A neighbour taught him the basics and as Fox Creek grew, there was always one non-negotiable:
“We only had one motto: excellence, nothing but excellence,” Helen says.
“Only the best goes into Fox Creek. We do not sell rubbish.”
The company’s name was thanks to Helen, who named it after the property’s winter creek and resident foxes who call it home.
“I was down by the creek one day, and I looked up and saw a fox,” she says.
“It kept looking back, like it was saying, ‘Come on, come on, it’s all right’.
“It was just after that, I said to Jim, ‘Well, we have to call it Fox Creek, don’t we?’”
The brand earned a following for its Reserve Shiraz and the Vixen Sparkling Shiraz (Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc).
It went on to bag a number of domestic and international wine awards and the flagship Fox Creek Reserve Shiraz is recognised in the ‘outstanding’ category of the coveted Langton’s wine classification system.
The wines won acclaim, including multiple McLaren Vale Wine Show Bushing Monarch honours, and the trophies sit in Helen’s house alongside something she values just as much: a wall of art from local exhibitions the family supported.
“It’s magic,” she says of one piece composed of countless miniature scenes.
“Each painting is brilliant.”
The land and wildlife gave Fox Creek its name, but people gave it its heart.
Family, staff and the now-famous Circle Club members are woven into its history.
Even Fox Creek’s dog, Shadow, became a local celebrity.
“Everybody used to come to see Shadow,” Helen says.
When Shadow died, her daughter Kristin wrote a piece for the local paper: ‘There is a cloud over the Vale today, Shadow has died.’
The children took on roles as the business grew.
“Kristin knew every one of our club members,” Helen says.
“She was just amazing, and she’d keep in touch with them.”
Meanwhile, Georgie transformed the cellar door and direct sales.
The ethos was simple.
“If you look after your staff, they look after you,” Helen says.
“If you look after your customers, they will look after you.”
Long-time club members talk about the way Helen greeted them at the door, found them seats, fed them, and welcomed them into the family.
Helen decided to sell the business shortly after her 86th birthday.
The company changed hands in 2020 but selling Fox Creek was not a gentle process for Helen.
In 2025, the business changed hands again when McLaren Vale’s Maxwell family took Fox Creek’s wine brand under their collective wing.
For Helen, this finally felt like closure.
It’s a new chapter she finally feels comfortable with.
The feeling was solidified after she gathered with the team in late November 2025, to hear the Maxwell family’s plans for the brand: to respect the Fox Creek style, listen to Circle Club members, and to evolve gently.
“It’s nice that it’s a family with the same creed that we have,” she says. “Your word is your bond.”
Her advice for them is clear.
“Do what you feel, but always remember: be par excellence and never above people’s head. Don’t get snobby. I hate snobs.”
Her motto?
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,’” she says.
“I’m not religious, but it’s true. It’s about looking after people and doing something you love.”
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