At a lunch at Table 7 in Dunedin last week, she had members of the trade spell-bound as she explained the history of Barossa winery Yalumba and how it resisted the corporate takeover in the late 1980s, followed by stories of meeting her hero Sam Neill, film star and owner of Two Paddocks in Central Otago.
It's a few years since her travels have brought her to Dunedin, but she's been everywhere else in the English-speaking world since, conducting tastings, educating consumers and trade about wine and food, and exploring food trends, films and letting everyone know on Twitter.
In New Zealand, she's conducting research on the side into lamingtons.
While here, she showed Yalumba's viognier wines, and its cabernet shiraz which the winery has been making since it was founded by Samuel Smith in 1849.
One hundred and sixty years later, it is still in family ownership, unlike many other formerly family-owned Australian wineries such as Penfolds, Hardy's, Seppelts and Orlando.
Yalumba was one of the first to plant viognier when there were only about 15ha left in the world, planted in the southern Rhone area in France.
She showed the fresh, lively Y series viognier 2012 (about $17), the more powerful, layered Eden Valley viognier 2012 (about $29) and intense but restrained and harmonious Virgilius 2010 ($54).
Viognier, with its layers of texture and complexity, demanded food, she said, pairing the Y series with chicken wrapped in bacon, the Eden Valley with lamb with a minestrone soup, and the Virgilius with pork fillet in a crust.
A creamy parfait was served with FSW Wrattonbully botrytised viognier 2011 ($33), a rich, intense textural wine with hints of apricots, honey and a hint of marmalade.
Ms Ferrari serves whites ice-cold, which I think dulls the flavour and aromas. Cupping the glass in my hands and swirling the wine released the wine's charm.
Following a taste of Janz ($27), Yalumba's sparkling wine from Tasmania, she presented several reds, including the simple Y Series Shiraz Viognier ($17); the densely flavoured Eden Valley Shiraz Viognier 2009 ($29) and the good value Scribbler Cabernet Shiraz 2010 ($25).
One of Yalumba's feature wines is the silky, inky dark Signature Barossa Cabernet Shiraz 2009 ($56) - this year, the signature is that of Clive Weston, head of Yalumba's New Zealand operations including Nautilus and Negociants.
Top of the range are the perfumed, rich, spicy but dry Octavius 2006 ($112), an old-vine shiraz from the Barossa, and the Reserve 2004 ($124), made from the 20 finest barrels of Barossa cabernet and shiraz, oozing blackcurrants and youthful at nine years old.
