Well, to make a very good violin or a very good wine, it's absolutely necessary with lots of knowledge and lots of precision. With only inspiration you'll not produce anything above miserable. But to reach a level beyond "very good", once you have the necessary knowledge, precision and experience, that's where inspiration and new ideas come in handy. Luckily, there have been luthiers and winemakers in the past who have expanded the frontiers, creating instruments with new possibilities for musical expression, or new styles of wine.
Today, luthiers and winemakers have access to a vast amount of information about different styles of violins/wines, and the methods of production used today, as well as historically. So we have more spices in the spice rack than previous generations. We only have master the way of combining them to get those really delicious textures of sound or taste that can make people experience moments of bliss.
During some periods I've made great efforts to solve different problems, like getting a better sound and response when playing in high positions. I've studied the way the violin vibrates in different frequency ranges, and tried to control these vibrations by controlling the flexibility of different areas of the violin top and back. I've thought about the influence of the bassbar, varnish and so on. Then, suddenly there's a breakthrough without even the feeling of effort. I think that's when intuition has done it's job, combining all the information and experience at hand in a smarter way than logical thinking was able to do. We all know the experience of desperately trying to remember a name, and then when we forget about it and relax, it suddenly appears in our consciousness.
So, the answer is: both knowledge and intuition is needed to reach the really high levels of artisanry, and to expand the frontiers. In winemaking, violinmaking, architecture...you name it. Of course, we all knew that, didn't we?
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