This review covers in summary form the highlights of this career, which to date has spanned some 64 years involvement in the Australian and International grape and wine industries. It is primarily involved with viticultural research developments, but also with extension especially to grower communities and of promotion and advice to the wine sector. These three principal activities are presented initially against the background of the career development of Dr Smart.
This review will emphasize the close connections between Smart’s professional career and the grape and wine industries of Australia, New Zealand and the USA, and to a lesser extent internationally. These arise because of Smart’s training and experience in Australia, a lengthy working period of around 10 years in New Zealand, and his PhD training and ongoing contact with USA including industry personnel and scientific contact. Further, this review will emphasize Smart’s belief in extending results of research and best practice viticulture using industry trade magazines which are most effective in reaching producers; this has been a major activity.
Smarts professional career can be described in seven distinct stages. These are:
Studying Agricultural Science for four years at Sydney University, specialization in agronomy, graduating with second class Honours.
Smart’s professional career began as a Viticultural Scientist at Griffith, NSW,1966 to 1971, working for NSW Department of Agriculture. His early research was on irrigation and sunlight use by vineyards. These latter studies led to a Masters first Class Honours degree from Macquarie University awarded in 1971.
Cornell University in upstate New York was chosen by Smart for PhD studies to have Professor Nelson Shaulis as his primary supervisor. Nelson Shaulis is generally regarded as the “father of canopy management”; he was among the first to recognize that within-canopy shade was the principal reason for limiting grapevine yield and fruit composition in vigorous vineyards. Smarts’ PhD studies involved studies of Concord canopy microclimate with different training systems at Hector NY. This period also allowed Richard’s exposure to Eastern USA viticulture, quite unique in the world, and allowed development of an interest and skills in climatology and its measurement. This period also enabled Smart to develop contacts with scientific colleagues at University of California and elsewhere.
Dr Smart was involved in the planning and teaching of a new three-year Applied Science Degree course for viticulture and oenology, which at that time was one of the more detailed courses in viticulture available in Australia. It replaced Australia’s oldest winemaking qualification at Roseworthy. This period also included administration, as Head of the Department of Viticulture, and as Dean of the Faculty of Oenology. For the last few years Dr Smart was Senior Research Fellow, and established and managed a micro vinification research facility, conducting research into vineyard factors affecting wine quality.
This was likely the most productive research and extension period of Richard Smart’s career, supporting this small country to develop an international reputation as a distinguished quality wine producer. His appointment as National Viticultural Scientist meant responsibilities for overseeing viticultural technical development throughout the country. The research covered several areas, including studies of canopy microclimate, vine physiology and grapevine training systems. Further, there were significant programs in vine improvement including clonal selection, virus indexing and elimination programs along with ampelography studies.
Dr Smart founded the New Zealand Society for Viticulture and Oenology and was Chairman and key organizer for the Second International Conference on Cool Climate Viticulture and Oenology, held in Auckland,1988. During the period 1982-1990 Smart travelled extensively overseas participating in scientific and industry conferences, and latterly performing consulting on behalf of the NZ Government. This was also an active period of research publishing.
During 2002 and 2003 Dr Smart spent three months teaching undergraduate students at University of California Cal Poly, in San Luis Obispo, California. Since moving to Tasmania in 2003 he was granted an Honorary Research Associate position at the University of Tasmania. This involved supervision of two PhD students who were located at Tamar Ridge Estate where Dr Smart was consulting. Dr Smart was instrumental in attracting State and Federal Government funding to grape and wine research in Tasmania, and was involved in both viticulture and winemaking research and development of a micro-vinification facility and research publication.
Based on recognized expertise in canopy management and general viticulture, Dr Smart developed an international consultancy business which has included clients in over 30 different countries. These countries are in Asia, in Eastern and Western Europe, North and South America, South Africa, and in Australia and New Zealand. Conducted under the business name Smart Viticulture, activities extended to all aspects of viticulture consultancy and the conduct of educational tours. This consultancy work was conducted initially in Port Macquarie, NSW, then subsequently from Launceston, Tasmania, from Truro, Cornwall UK and most recently from Glenroy, Melbourne, Victoria. While living in Cornwall from about 2010 to 2019 Smart taught students at Bordeaux University for two, two-week periods around 2011-2012.
Several summary papers on canopy management were published in this period, and Smart developed interest in mitigating climate change by the sector and the global threat of Grapevine Trunk Disease (GTD). More recently around 2023-2024 Smart also developed and trialed a vineyard design to improve efficiency of sunlight use to maximise productivity and wine quality. A novel wine processing technique named ACE was developed in Tasmania around 2010 to help improve table wine quality, found useful against climate change impact. Industry concern was also raised about health aspects of wine consumption relevant to the future of the global wine sector.
This section will begin by highlighting principal achievements through research publications in scientific journals. Those selected for mention will reflect novelty at the time. Not all scientific publications will be mentioned.
When last listed in 2006 this list contained some 225 entries, and, likely to the present, there may be more than 280 written. These articles varied in length from 1,000 to 2,000 words typically accompanied by the author’s photographs. Richard Smart has spent much of his professional career writing articles for industry members, especially grape growers, often based on learning during consultant visits to vineyards. Also included were more occasional articles offering viewpoints to oenologists and industry sectors. This is an indication of Smart’s strong personal belief that “Science is created to be applied”.
While such publications are not normally assessed as part of a scientist’s resume, I summarize mine here as I believe they have contributed along with other forms of communications to help modernize the grape and wine sectors where I have had influence. I have written more such articles later in my career than earlier, is this a presumption of wisdom, or perhaps of wider experience than most?
Most of these publications are in Australian journals, now owned by Winetitles of Adelaide. The Australian (and more recently New Zealand) Grapegrower and Winemaker is published monthly and was widely used. With Roseworthy colleague Peter Dry we initiated a monthly column called Grapegrowing with Peter Dry and Richard Smart for which we shared writing. This began with issue 201 in 1980 and and ended in 1986 with issue 274. Smart wrote approximately 35 of these over a wide range of topics.
Another long running series of bi-monthly articles was written by Smart for the Californian monthly publication Practical Winery and Vineyard edited by Don Neel. The series was titled Smart Thinking on Viticulture. The first was published Jan/Feb of 1993, and the final in October 2015.some 118 articles. The last column is attached in recent publications. There were other occasional articles requested by commercial publications (i.e Canopy magazine) and some for-wine consumers (i.e J. Wine Research). Smart was flattered to be invited to contribute to the final issue of the Californian magazine Wines and Vines after 100 years of publication. His 2019 article was entitled “Reflections from a 50-year Vineyard Meander” and listed major developments in viticultural science and grape growing in this period.
These popular articles are not individually listed nor grouped by content; however they do represent a commitment to producer education and knowledge sharing by Smart.
While at Roseworthy College Smart conceived the idea of “Double Pruning”, based on his knowledge of vine yield formation physiology. He proposed that a severe spring pruning following bunch primordia initiation would allow the following seasons’ crop to develop prematurely, and hence ripen later in the growing season during cooler growing conditions to improve wine quality. The process was termed “Roseworthy Double Pruning” and was promoted by Smart and Dry in trade journals and scientific publications. There was limited commercial uptake of this concept in Australia because of extra cost and reduced yield; some overseas researchers have followed this advice although credit was not always given to the origin of the practice.
During the period consulting at Tamar Ridge during the early 2000’s Smart and colleague Angela Sparrow developed a new table wine processing technique to improve wine quality by increasing constituent extraction from grape skins during fermentation. This led to several scientific publications and presentations at conferences by Sparrow and Smart, and eight articles in Australian and overseas trade publications over the period 2014 to 2020. Significant among these were articles showing that energy and capital costs could be saved by halving fermentation time in specialized red fermenters, and that red wine quality could be improved leading to a medal awarded at the SIMEI Italy wine Exhibition.
These concepts have been proven by independent researchers, and Smart is now engaged with the company Vingenious in commercializing the ACE process.
Since moving to Melbourne in late 2019, Smart has re-engaged with the Australian grape and wine sector, based on his international consulting experience and industry contacts. There have been several important industry-wide themes which he has promoted, especially in Australian wine trade journals. One of the most significant was that of Grapevine Trunk Disease (GTD), caused by some 6 or so fungi and mostly spread during nursery propagation. These diseases are now globally widespread but not always recognized and treated as such, in fact they continue to be mistaken for winter damage in Eastern America and Canada and as a result are often untreated. A similar situation exists in the vineyards of Bordeaux where the failure of growers and some professionals to recognize GTD symptoms has led to a lack of appropriate preventative wound protection as has been found most useful elsewhere.
A second important issue for Smart was that of climate change, and the lack of awareness of the grape and wine sector to become involved in mitigation activities. Particularly reprehensible is the almost universal failure of the sector to capture fermentation carbon dioxide (CO2) thus adding to atmospheric CO2 levels causing climate change. These same wineries at the same time are purchasing and also releasing the same gas for sparging tanks!
The third and most recent issue promoted by Smart to wine industry readers is that of health effects of alcohol. Smart has been affected by five oral cancers over 45 years which he believes (based on medical research results) may be due to frequent but moderate alcohol consumption. This has heightened his awareness of alcohol exposure as a health risk factor for wine professionals. Further there is growing awareness of this issue among wine consumers which will lead to likely further contraction of the global wine industry.
These three issues will be addressed in turn, citing action taken.
Smart became aware of GTD while farming his vineyard in the Barossa Valley in the late 1970’s, and his subsequent international travels demonstrated the worldwide nature of the spreading problem. He attended many and addressed several specialist conferences on the subject. His first two warnings to the Australian grape sector were published in 2015 firstly proposing GTD management using timely trunk renewal, and secondly criticizing new nursery industry standards for not mentioning GTD issues. Further warnings were published in 2018 regarding the implications for Australia’s protection against spread of phylloxera with poor nursey practices. International concern was raised in the USA by a local article suggesting that GTD was being mistaken for winter injury in cooler Eastern USA, and in New Zealand by advising grape growers of the extreme sensitivity of the variety Sauvignon Blanc to GTD. Smart and colleagues published in the scientific Journal IVES Technical Review in 2023 a procedure for avoiding GTD infection of rootstock mother vines, the source of diseased grafted vines.
Smart has been among the first in the international wine professional community to raise awareness of the potential impact of global warming and climate change on the climate-sensitive wine industry. His presentation on this subject at the 1989 OIV International Conference at Luxembourg in 1989 was pivotal, followed by international seminars in Barcelona in 2006 and 2008 on this subject. Smart also wrote to six Australian industry organizations in 2006 sharing his concerns, although no response was received. Smart urged the organizers to include a session on climate change at the 13th Australian Wine Industry Conference in Adelaide and helped arrange the program at which Smart also presented. This was followed by a detailed analysis in the Wine Industry Journal in 2009.
Following the move back to Australia in 2019, Smart became an active proponent of raising industry awareness of the issue. An article written in 2019 for general readership in the “Canopy” magazine was headed by the title “Are wineries environmental vandals”. The answer was yes, due to release of fermentation CO2 into the atmosphere from fermentation and sparging. There followed action increased industry awareness, an article in the Grapegrower and Winemaker in May 2019 warning of implications, and a letter to Wine Australia concerning planning for 2020-25 Strategic Planning. Popular articles for wine consumers by journalists Bob Campbell and Max Allen were also published in 2019, and Smart published a similar article in Jancis Robinsons international column with the title “Carbon footprints, wine and the consumer”.
Smart presented a paper entitled “ Have the best Bordeaux wines been drunk already? A reflection on the transient nature of terroir, using case study Australia” at the XIIIth Terroir Congress, Adelaide, 2020. This paper emphasised the role of climate in terroir definition, and so as climate was changing, then so would terroir and the implications for wine quality change. A significan paper in 2022 by Smart and Cameron in the Wine and Viticulture Journal discussed practical ways in which the Australian wine industry might reduce its carbon footprint, emphasising the desirability to move away from inefficient glass bottles. An article with a similar theme was published by Smart in the Californian Wine Business Monthly magazine in 2022. An article by Dry and Smart in the same magazine reviewed the choice of grape varieties for a warmer future suitable for improved quality. Smart encouraged the Australian Society of Oenology and Viticulture to conduct a CO23 Climate Mitigation Conference in June 2023, which attracted 320 attendees at multi-regional sites and on line.
This patricular theme is yet to be played out, at this tme. Smart has prepared for publication in the Australian and New Zealand Grapegroer and Winemaker August 2024 edition an article entitled “Is winemaking a risky career”. This article is sure to be contentious, raising as it does the implications of winemakers practice of frequent wine tasting and the risks of oral cancer. The article cites increasing medical evidence for this association and its recent promotion by bodies such as the World Health Organization. More recently a large study in Korea demonstrated that more frequent exposure alcohol increased risk of gastro-intestinal cancer. Further, the article emphasised the importance of the carcinogen acetaldehyde formed in the mouth from alcohol metabolism due to oral microflora.
The article questions the employers’ responsibility in this scenario to winemaker employees. The larger implication is the possible effect on wine consumers in the face of their increasing health scrutiny, which may cause continued shrinkage of the global wine sector. This is an important and developing field of medical research.
