EXPERTISE YOU CAN TRUST
Dr Richard Smart founded Smart Viticultural Services in 1990. The business was renamed Smart Viticulture in 1997.
Smart Viticulture has consulted to over 300 clients in around 40 countries of the world, ranging in size from the largest vineyards and wineries to the smallest. Richard’s aim was to always provide advice on the world’s best viticultural practices. While his outlook is quintessentially New World , Richard was very well aware of the richness and heritage of Old World viticulture, and appreciated both points of view. His clients appreciate his contemporary, international perspective and find it of great commercial value.
However, there are affiliated activities which also contribute to the business of Smart Viticulture. These includes conducting canopy management workshops, and by now there have been over sixty of these conducted in most vineyard countries of the world. These are based on Dr Smart’s best-selling book “Sunlight into Wine”. In 1997 he presented joint seminars on canopy management in Australia with the Oregon vigneron Scott Henry, developer of the famous training system of the same name. He has also conducted seminars on Italian and Spanish grape varieties in Australia.
Dr Smart was frequently invited to speak at grape and wine conferences around the world. He had a reputation for presentations that were both engaging and humorous.
Dr Smart developed a method to study vineyard climates. This allows one to find the closest climate match of a grape producing region in the world to any one vineyard site. This is an invaluable guide to variety selection. As well, it can predict risk of frost, downy and powdery mildew, and botrytis.
Technical journalism is also an activity of Smart Viticulture. Richard wrote regular feature columns for the Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal (www.winetitles.com.au) and also the Californian magazine Practical Winery and Vineyard.(www.practicalwinery.com)
Specialities of Smart’s consulting advice included:
So-called “The Flying Vine Doctor”
Richard Smart has been involved with viticulture since 1966. He is very experienced as a viticulturist, from a teaching, research and consulting viewpoint.
He graduated from Sydney University with Honours in Agricultural Science in 1966 and, subsequently has earned another three degrees. His M.Sc (Hons) from Macquarie University in Sydney was awarded to a study of sunlight use by vineyards.
Dr Richard’s Ph. D from Cornell University in New York State was study under the famous Professor Nelson Shaulis of Geneva. In 1995 he was awarded a D. Sc. Agric. degree by the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, in recognition of research into canopy management effects on vineyard yield and quality.
Photo on right of “Dr. Richard Smart and his Professor and mentor
Nelson Shaulis of Cornell University.
Photo taken January 1988 in New Zealand”
Most of Richard’s career has been in viticultural research and teaching, at Griffith, NSW, at Roseworthy College in South Australia (including a period as Dean, Faculty of Oenology), and also as Government Viticultural Scientist in New Zealand. With his team of co-workers he helped lay the viticultural foundations for an emerging, quality-oriented and internationally competitive wine industry.
He has authored or co-authored over 380 publications, including the internationally acclaimed book “Sunlight into Wine” which is regarded globally as the reference on canopy management. Another significant achievement was as Viticultural Editor and principal contributor to the multi-award winning The Oxford Companion to Wine (1994, 1999, 2006, 2014 and 2023), edited by Jancis Robinson MW.
Research Driven Expertise
Every recommendation is backed by decades of research and practical vineyard experience.
Experience across New World and Old World wine regions provides balanced, practical solutions.
Recommendations are designed to improve vineyard productivity, fruit quality, and profitability.
Objective consulting focused entirely on achieving the best outcome for each vineyard.
Richard Smart has helped to popularise the role of viticulture in the wine business, in an industry where the limelight is invariably given to “winemakers”. Richard’s strong beliefs about winemaking in the vineyard have now become industry by-words, but this was not always the case. Feature articles about Richard and his views in global wine magazines like The Wine Spectator, Decanter, Wine and Spirit International as well as international newspaper wine columns have helped spread the message.
Since the mid 1980s Dr Smart has also been involved in international consulting, initially on behalf of the NZ Government as a supplement to research. Consulting has been a full time occupation since 1991, and he has consulted to over 300 clients worldwide. While many clients want to use Richard’s expertise in canopy management to improve wine quality and vineyard yield, complete viticultural advice has been given on a range of issues like choice of site, variety, rootstock, irrigation and nutrition management. Smart Viticulture also offers seminars on canopy management (over 50 have been conducted to date around the world!) as well as educational grape and wine tours and intensive viticultural training.
Dr Smart now lives in Victoria, Australia.
Awards to Dr Richard Smart
