Adelaide Hills-based winery, Shaw + Smith, this year celebrates 30 vintages with a continued focus on trade wine education including workshops, masterclasses and scholarships, plus a roster of consumer events to mark their three-decade milestone.

Founded in 1989 by cousins Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw, Shaw + Smith has spent the last thirty years growing its wine brand recognised for cool-climate wines, as well as their well-established national and international trade education programme that will continue to develop in 2019. The programme has seen the inaugural Shaw + Smith Scholarship winners and top sommeliers from Singapore and Hong Kong, Dexter Foo and Alan Tse respectively, join the winery team at Shaw + Smith for the current vintage, gaining first-hand experience of a working winery, along with time in the vineyards and in-depth regional and varietal tastings.

Launched in 2018, the annual scholarship offers those working in the wine trade in Hong Kong and Singapore an opportunity to increase their knowledge, understanding and love of Australian wine. Members of the Shaw + Smith team will visit these regions in August for workshops with the wider trade.

Nationally, the Shaw + Smith team will be touring around the country to meet with Australian trade and consumers, providing educational workshops, masterclasses and tastings.

May will see the Pinot Noir trade workshops take place in capital cities and come July, Shaw + Smith will launch the 2019 vintage of their Sauvignon Blanc at their Yum Cha trade lunches, this year taking place in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, and London. A roster of consumer events will be released soon.

The Shaw + Smith team will continue their ongoing support for leading wine programmes and organisations in Australia, including the Len Evans’ Tutorial, at which Michael Hill Smith MW is a tutor, The Dan Pontifex Award, and Sommeliers Australia.

David LeMire MW, sales and marketing manager, said, “education has always been a priority for us at Shaw + Smith and this year, where we mark 30 vintages, we are really upping the ante with our Scholarship Programme, workshops and our annual Yum Cha, which is even heading to the UK for the first time.”

30 years on, Shaw + Smith’s focus continues to remain on producing high quality cool-climate wines that reflect their sites and climates, particularly their single vineyard wines from the Lenswood and Balhannah.