20th Vintage Articles

Shaw + Smith celabrates its 20th Vintage

Hard to believe but 2009 is our 20th vintage at Shaw + Smith. In 1990 Bob Hawke was in The Lodge, Margaret Thatcher in Number 10 and George Bush Senior was in the White House. The Oils had just released Blue Sky Mining and Alan Border was our Aussie Cricket Captain.

In our first vintage we sourced grapes from Geoff Hardy's Adelaide Hills Vineyard and Gregg Trott gave us some tank space at Wirra Wirra. What an exciting 20 years it has been. We now have vineyards at both Woodside and Balhannah, a wonderful winery and tasting facility at the latter site and export to 21 countries.

Our goal has always been the same - to make exciting modern cool climate wines that rank amongst Australia's best. Sauvignon Blanc has been the back bone of the business but in recent years both our M3 Chardonnay and Shiraz are rated highly both domestically and internationally.

It will be fascinating to see what the next 20 years hold.

Michael Hill Smith