South Australia's wine reputation has made its key regions familiar names in restaurants and stores across the world, but has also lured some international talent.

One-time New York sommelier Brad Hickey moved from the United States to McLaren Vale on Adelaide's southern outskirts, first to prune vines and later to establish his own winery.

He had been in New York since 1996 and found life becoming hectic and claustrophobic.

A decade or so later he was drawn to South Australia based on his fond memories of a previous visit to Australian shores.

"I felt like it was time for me to leave New York," he said.

"I was having open-field fantasies of being in a place where you could raise your arms and not whack somebody in the head."

He gave up his long working hours in New York in 2007 to turn his hand to pruning the vines of McLaren Vale's rolling hills.

Mr Hickey said a winter spent out in the rain helped him realise Australia did not have a hot climate all the time.

"To me it was a bit of a paradise, it seemed so ancient ... a bit untrodden," he said of the wine region.

"It seemed like something was being aligned for me, it was like an opportunity I couldn't resist."

He now has a wine label - Brash Higgins - and that name evolved from his earlier days of pruning.

"All the pruners I worked with when I first came over christened me Brash ... and Higgins was an alias I created in my own head to work illegally and actually get paid while I stayed and pruned," he smiled.

Mr Hickey met his now-partner Nicole and the wines that now bear the Brash Higgins name are hand-produced in metre-high containers.

Sorry, this video has expired Brad Hickey left hectic New York to later fall in love with making wine

"During fermentation my hands are on them [grapes] every day," he said.

"The philosophy behind it was trying to add something new, realising that I'd made a massive life change, come to Australia, a big adventure and the last thing I wanted to do was just sort of regurgitate a wine style, or make wines that everyone else had made before."

He said the wines he made often involved taking risks and they had tended to pay off, much as the risks had taken in his own life.

"I literally do wake up probably every day and remind myself that I am working for myself and that I have this great opportunity," he said.

"A lot of people would probably be really envious.

"It does feel like this is my calling."