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SMART MOVES - Scientist or Showman?

Viticulturist Richard Smart has a lot to say to TIM ATKIN, in the February 1999 issue of Britain's Decanter magazine, on his role as flying vine doctor, and, of course, about those who criticise him as a mere populariser

On a recent visit to the southern hemisphere the American viticulturist Scott Henry stopped in a rural store in Broke, New South Wales. Henry introduced himself and asked for directions. 'That's not a name,' said the woman behind the counter, that's a grapevine trellising system.' For a grape grower, even one with his own canopy model, such moments of recognition are rarer than great vintages in England. If winemakers are the lead singers of the booze business, viticulturists are the talented but slightly resentful drummers, rarely acknowledged by the press or wine drinking public.

Viticulture has very few stars. Even Scott Henry is better-known in Australia and New Zealand than he is on the west coast of America. A few people may have heard of Prue Henschke, Steve Smith, Nelson Shaulis, Alain Carbonneau, Albert Winkler, Denis Doubals and Helmut Becker, but they're not exactly the Rolling Stones. The only viticulturist with anything approaching and international reputation is Richard Smart: academic, consultant, evangelist, polemicist, and author of the seminal Sunlight into Wine. The 52-year old Smart travels as much as any flying winemaker, amassing air miles and clients on his trips between Australia, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Smart is clearly irritated by the fame of the cellar-based winemakers. 'There are two types of winemaker,' he says, those who work in the vineyard and those who work in the cellar. Everyone acknowledges that wine quality is determined in the vineyard, but very few people talk about the work of the viticulturists. Maybe we should abolish the term 'winemaker' and use 'oenologist' instead. If not, I think it's time the real winemakers stood up for themselves.'

Smart himself is not exactly diffident: I've never seen a bloke hand out so many business cards. He's a self-confidant and sometimes abrasive Aussie, who is supremely sure of his, er, ground and not afraid to be controversial. He has always questioned the common European belief that struggling or low-yielding wines provide the best quality grapes and are essential for making good wine. In Sunlight, he writes: 'Changing the canopy so that the grape clusters and leaves are better exposed to the sun has been shown to improve wine quality and yield [my italics].'

Smart is currently working on a new edition of Sunlight into Wine, a book which upset traditionalists, especially in parts of the Old World, when it came out in 1991. So have his views changed or developed since then? 'No, not in the slightest,' he says. 'If anything, they've been reinforced by what I've seen since.' What about some of the criticism he's received in Australia? A prophet is never followed in his own land. Australians aren't as technologically switched on as they think they are.'

In the mouths of some men, such comments would sound arrogant. But Richard Smart has spent 30 years of his life studying grape vines - and as a serious scientist - so let's forgive him a toot on his own trumpet. There's also a side of him that relishes an argument. 'Dick takes the opposite point of view to everyone else, almost on principle,' says the Australian wine writer James Halliday. Smart himself concedes that 'there's nothing worse than being in a roomful of people who agree with you, whether it be on the subject of religion, politics or wine.'

Smart graduated with a BSc from Sydney University in Agricultural Science in 1966. He went on to study the effects of sunlight in vineyards at Macquarie University, where he earned an MSc, and Cornell University in America, where he worked with his mentor, Professor Nelson Shaulis, and obtained his PhD. Next he held a number of posts in teaching and viticultural research, first with the New South Wales department of Agriculture, then as a Senior Research fellow at Roseworthy Agricultural College and finally at the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

In his time as an academic, Smart trained some of the New World's leading viticulturists. Nevertheless, he says that 'most of my students wanted to be winemakers so they could earn more money and get their names in the papers. I could never really understand this. Except for sparkling and fortified wines, all the action is out in the vineyard. Viticulture is much more creative than winemaking, which is basically about conservation.' This doesn't mean that Smart has no truck with the stuff in the bottle. 'I think you have to taste, drink and enjoy wine to be a good viticulturist,' he says. 'That's how you pick up on new trends.' Having spent a few evenings in his company, I can vouch for his interest in the product.

Smart discovered one trend entirely by chance. Working as a government scientist in New Zealand, he was required to do a bit of 'users pay consultancy' for wineries. 'I noticed something strange,' he recalls. 'Until then, I'd been giving people advice for nothing and most of the time they ignored it. Once I started charging for my advice, they were much keener to listen. Yet I wasn't telling them anything new.'

Smart gave up teaching and research in 1991 and became a full-time consultant instead. 'I've had a much bigger impact on the world of wine than I could have achieved as an academic.' He says without false modesty. Smart's current client list rune to more than 200 wineries and vineyards, with contented proprietors in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, South Africa, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Israel, Hungary, England, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Japan and China. He is probably best-known for his work in Chile, Spain, New Zealand and Argentina, but nearly half of his clients are still in Australia, the place where he made his reputation.

Why do wineries call for the self-styled 'flying vine doctor'? 'It's an ego thing for some, but most want to make and sell better wine. I have a reasonable turnover of clients, because to some extent what I do is problem focused - a bit like a real doctor whose work is done when the patient recovers his health - bit I'm also involved with things like strategic planning and quality assurance.' Whatever the reason, Smart is a very busy man at the moment. Japan one week; Argentina or Spain the next.

Smart attributes his success to the fact that: 'I'm a scientist with a good technical background who's travelled enough not to be judgmental about people.' Smart's ideas on canopy management are not always received, however. 'I'm often brought in by proprietors, and sometimes winemakers and viticulturists resent my presence and don't want to listen to my views.' At one celebrated seminar in Spain a few years ago, Smart was giving a lecture to a group of local grape growers. After half an hour, he could see he was wasting his time, so he took out a boomerang and showed them how to use that instead. 'My experience is that viticultural problems are often as much psychological as technical. People don't want to admit they've been screwing it up for 50 years. Cold, hard science is often forgotten,'

Smart's ideas are often criticised, sometimes by people who misunderstand them and sometimes by people, such as the Australian Prue Henschke, who are celebrated viticulturists in their own right. 'Richard's theories aren't universally applicable, and they've changed over the years. His recommended yields wouldn't work in a lot of our vineyards, where we convinced wine quality is related to lower yields. Time and again, we find that three tons per acre is the crucial point between medium and good quality.'

In France, Smart is seen as being 'anti-terrior' and, with his views about quality and quantity, a critic of the appellation system. He defends himself thus: 'I approach the subject with a New World bias, but I'm very much aware of how much the Old World can teach us about terroir and the role of viticulture in wine quality. Vineyards are not uniform; the effects of terroir are real.'

Smart is no great fan of appellations, though. 'They're a device invented by Europeans to make New World neighbours squabble,' he smiles. 'I'm pretty cynical about them. Europe's restrictive laws are the New World's greatest advantage.' On the question of higher yields, he is unrepentant but careful to qualify his public position. 'Some varieties, especially Pinot Noir and Merlot are yield sensitive, but for most other vines I believe I can take a high-vigour shaded canopy and improve both yield and quality. The vital thing is to have a balanced vine, for yields not to be too low or excessively high, which unbalances the vine and can reduce wine quality.'

Smart is sometimes charged with inflexibility when he sets up a vineyard, adopting a one-size-suits-all approach. 'I give the same basic message all over the world,' he says, 'but I would never recommend the same system. I have a raft of different options and I apply them to the variety, site, producer and price point.' Smart concedes that his ideas are best suited to medium and high vigour sites with big grapevine canopies. 'My work is mostly in the New World, where the majority of the vineyards have high vigour. Chateau Haut-Brion doesn't need someone like me because it's naturally a low-vigour site.'

Smart likes to shock and cajole. I've watched him lecture to two groups of people in the last six months - one a group of students and English winemakers at Plumpton Agriculture College, the second a professional gathering at a technical conference in Seattle - and he was brilliant on both occasions. Dresses in a tatty leather jacket and a colourful shirt, he looks like a bedraggled Richard Branson. But boy can the guy lecture: witty, intelligent and relentlessly provocative. Bang. "We should drop this nebulous notion of quality and think in terms of price points and varieties in our vineyards,' he told the open-mouthed Seattle conference-goers. Boom. 'Old vines can often make better wines then middle-aged and young ones, but not necessarily young vines. Old vines and very young vines have naturally open canopies.'

In my view, Smart talks a lot of good sense. Who else but Smart would tell representatives from the English wine industry that 'sparkling wine will put England on the map as a quality producer' or that 'you won't have decent vineyards in this country until people see that you can make a buck out of viticulture'? Smart is a keen student of economics. 'in technology,' runs his slogan, 'there is profitability'. He is a supreme utilitarian, If you can grow the same quality grapes more cheaply in Argentina or La Mancha, he argues, why produce them in California or the Barossa Valley?

Smart believes in technology and has little time for people who plant vineyards without proper advice or research. 'In the future, the people who use modern technology will have a commercial advantage, The clever winemakers realise that terroir is important, but they're also using every means at their disposal - clones, soil amelioration, rootstocks, pest and disease control, trellising systems, cover crops and irrigation - to give them more flexibility.' Who are these people? 'The most open minded producers are in New Zealand, South America and Australia; South Africa and much of Europe are at the back of the pack.' If Smart were to plant a vineyard with his own money, he would do it in La Mancha, using irrigation and cheap land to grow Syrah, Petit Verdot and Tempranillo

If Smarts views on technology make him sound like someone who has no respect for hands-on tradition, they shouldn't. (His favourite wine, you might be surprised to learn, is not Aussie Shiraz, but Manzanilla Sherry) 'Look at the kamikaze approach we've taken to pruning in many Australian vineyards,' he says, 'the machines are really clumsy. It's not always true that machines do the job better. Minimising costs won't always maximise profits.' He's also been extremely outspoken about the way the Australian wine industry is developing. 'We're failing into the trap Europe fell into 30 years ago by starting to believe our own press releases.'

How original is Smart? Is he just a showman, or has he made a significant contribution to viticultural science? 'I've done some of the important research into high vigour vineyards and canopy management,' he says, 'but I was guided by and have worked a lot with people like Nelson Shaulis and Alain Carbonneau.' He is clearly a respected scientist, but he's also a great populariser of ideas. By his own admission, Smart is redundant in a truly great, low vigour vineyard; there is no call for his expertise amongst the proprietors of classed growth Bordeaux or grands crus burgundies. But in many parts of the New and Old Worlds, Smart has made a difference to the way grapes are grown; and done so for the better.

The British-based winemaking consultant Kym Milne MW says: 'Dick has shown a lot of people that they can increase their yields by 10-15% and make the same, or even better quality wine. In purely economic terms, that's a huge improvement.' What does all this cost the client? About US$1,000 plus expenses will buy you a day of Smart's time. 'People say I'm expensive,' he says, 'but mistakes are a lot more expensive than I am'. And what do they get for their money? Advice and the benefit of 30 years' world-wide experience. 'I've only been to one vineyard, in Victoria, where I didn't want to change anything,' he says. And did he waive his fee? 'You must be joking, mate.'

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This profile of Dr. Richard Smart was published in the Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal in November 1996

Richard Smart - Consultant Viticulturist

After more than 30 years in international viticultural research and practice Dr Richard Smart has been awarded one of academe's highest honours: a Doctorate of Science from Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In this interview the acerbic 'Flying Viticulturist' recalls his early influences, some of the challenges he has dealt with in his notable career and his vision of the future.

Young Richard Smart grew up in semi-rural Richmond, NSW but there was no hint that he would pursue an agricultural career, let alone become involved in viticulture. Neither his parents nor he were terribly interested in the land and it wasn't until his enrolment in agricultural science at Sydney University that he developed this interest and passion.

'Typical of many young school leavers I didn't know what to do in tertiary study. It was a two-week "holiday" at the Department of Agriculture at Yanco Research Station which encouraged me to study agriculture under a traineeship. Most of my course was spent on pasture agronomy my only introduction to viticulture was with a lecture one out of ten on horticulture from the late Graham Gregory of the NSW Department of Agriculture. He was the Viticultural Specialist with the Department and although he didn't get a chance to teach us much about the science he certainly fired my enthusiasm, which led to my career in viticulture.'

Richard recalls well Graham's advice to him one day in 1965. The wine industry had three attractions: it was a gregarious hospitality industry which was based on close friendships and meeting new and interesting people; grapes were a fascinating crop to work with (and they made an even more interesting product) and the industry allowed you to travel to some of the most beautiful places in the world.

'On the basis of that excellent advice shared with a bottle of Penfolds 1961 Kalimna Bin 28 at Graham's home I applied for a vacancy at the Griffith Viticultural Research Station of the Department of Agriculture.

'I was appointed to the role of viticultural research officer at Griffith in 1966 and although I initially knew nothing about grapes I immediately enjoyed the contact with the people of the wine industry, especially "Scotty" Ireland of McWilliams Wines at Yenda. I soon recognised the worth of Graham Gregory's advice - it was a very social industry.'

One of Richard's first memories was the evaluation of the 'new' varieties recently imported into Griffith by McWilliams: Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

'Griffith had been primarily a Shiraz and Semillon region and the use of these new varieties represented a major change which flowed into the red and white table wine boom which started in the late 1960s. It was really the beginning of the new Australian wine industry,' Richard recalls.

Richard became interested in vine management. His research into irrigation, root physiology and pruning led him to investigate the role of sunlight in vineyards, a topic which would become a lifelong study.

He worked with Dr Paul Kreidemann, a scientist at CSIRO Merbein, as well as with CSIR© Griffith scientists. In 1968 he commenced studying for his Master of Science at Macquarie University on the topic of sunlight interception in vineyards.

During this time he asked himself a question which has taken a lifetime to answer: 'Do non-irrigated vines make better wine because of less yield or perhaps because their canopies are less dense and leaves and fruit are better exposed to sunlight ?'

In 1970 he won a scholarship to study irrigation techniques in Israel, where drip irrigation had been developed. ,

'There was more drip irrigation in Australia than anywhere else in the world in the 1960s but Israel had developed the technology of the low-pressure emitter. I went there to learn about irrigation systems, filtration and water flow measurement,

and then went on to tour the US and European industry for the first time.'

During this tour Richard visited some of the people who have had the greatest influence on his career: people like Professor Nelson Shaulis from Cornell University in New York State who he identifies as his 'greatest scientific inspiration'.

'I'd had a plan to study for my PhD at the University of California, Davis, but when I visited Cornell, Nelson Shaulis encouraged me to change my mind and study at his university. I came back to Australia and investigated the possibilities and was fortunate to win an Auscott scholarship which allowed me, my wife Bernice and our three-month-old daughter Rachel to move to upstate New York in Autumn 1971.

'I spent three-and-a-half years at Cornell completing my PhD on canopy management. Shaulis was the father of canopy management and had already published his classic work on the Geneva Double Curtain system and how shading of canopies affected yield.

'However, most of his work had been done on varieties used for grape juice. There had been very little research on winegrapes.'

Richard describes this as an exciting time when ideas about canopy management and vineyard mechanisation were still very much in the melting pot. He was rubbing shoulders with some of the world's up and coming viticultural scientists. Dr Alain Carbonneau, who is now Professor of Viticulture at Montpellier, Dr Mark Kliewer, previously at the University of California, and Dr Cesare Intrieri from the University of Bologna were all disciples who made the pilgrimage to meet with Shaulis at Cornell during the 1970s.

Jointly they extended Shaulis's ideas on canopy management to winegrapes. Carbonneau showed that yield and quality could be increased in Bordeaux vineyards using canopy management practices and Intrieri stimulated a massive conversion to Geneva Double Curtain canopies in Italy.

Nevertheless the ideas were slow to be adopted elsewhere and when Richard returned to Australia in 1975 he found there was little knowledge of canopy management practices.

'The Australian industry had been heavily influenced by practices in California. Unfortunately New York State was on the wrong side of the Rockies and there was little impact of Eastern viticulture on the West Coast of the USA. Consequently the ideas languished.'

On his return to Australia he was appointed Lecturer at Roseworthy Agricultural College, the major wine industry teaching institution in Australia since the 1930s.

'This was an interesting period at Roseworthy. The College had recently admitted its first female students and the course had been upgraded to a three-year Bachelor of Science in response to the demands of industry. The college had a new Director, Dr Don Williams, and there were some excellent new staff such as Peter Dry, Bryce Rankine, David Bruer, Patrick Iland, Andrew Ewart and others to collaborate with on curriculum development, teaching and research.

'Some of the industry's most celebrated winemakers and viticulturists graduated during that time: Daryl Groom, Peter Bright, Trevor Drayton, David Baverstock, Mike Farmilo, Michael Peterkin, Joe Grilli, Kevin Judd, Kym Milne, Kate Radburnd, Michael Brajkovich, Stephen George, Peter Douglas,... too many to mention without unfairly forgetting some. They are all near the peak of their careers now.'

Richard and his family operated a small vineyard property at Williamstown in the Barossa. During this time his interest in commercial application of viticultural science was sharpened.

During this period Richard detected a change in the industry, away from the fascination with oenological technology and towards a greater emphasis on viticulture.

'Viticulture had always been seen as a poor cousin to wine-making but the pendulum started to swing at Roseworthy and Charles Sturt University so that by the early 1980s the industry was realising the importance of vineyards and grapes on wine quality.'

This realisation was helped by the establishment of the small-scale winemaking facilities at Roseworthy where small parcels of grapes could be made into wine and analysed.

It was at this small winery (now the Grape and Wine Research Unit) that Richard resumed his canopy management studies and propelled himself onto the world scene.

His practical winemaking trials using shaded versus non-shaded fruit from Angle Vale (near Adelaide) produced clear quality differences which he summarised in a paper he presented at a UC, Davis symposium.

'It was clear from the winemaking trial that the shaded wine had a higher pH and less colour, with poorer overall quality. It was the clearest demonstration to date of the relationship between shading and wine quality and the first such trial in Australia.'

Despite this significant breakthrough which rivalled the work Carbonneau was doing in Bordeaux, Richard was frustrated by the lack of time he could devote to research at Roseworthy due to teaching and administrative commitments. For a time he was

Dean of the Faculty of Oenology and was heavily involved in administration.

In 1982 he resigned from Roseworthy and took up a position as National Viticultural Research Scientist based at the Ruakura Agricultural Centre at Hamilton, New Zealand.

'This was a great opportunity to be involved in the development of an infant industry. Although I was interested mainly in shading and canopy problems, when I arrived my first year was spent dealing with phylloxera in Gisborne. This led to an interest in ampelography, clones and rootstocks. There was a desperate lack of correctly-named, virus-free rootstocks and improved varieties. One of my first jobs was to establish a vine improvement program with clonal selection and rootstock trials.'

This work, however, only kept him from his canopy management research for a short time.

'This was my big chance to confirm the work I had started in Australia. We used micro-vinification facilities provided by DSIR and started undertaking trials on canopy management and different trellis designs.

'I learnt about the Scott Henry trellis from Oregon and popularised it in New Zealand, and also developed my own trellis systems, the Te Kauwhata Two Tier (TK2T) and the Ruakura Twin Two Tier (RT2T) in the early 1980s.

'It was a dynamic time when I evaluated all that was known about trellis types through trials and tasting, and this work formed the research basis for my book Sunlight into Wine.'

The book, published in 1991, became an international bestseller amongst the viticultural community and is now a benchmark on the subject of canopy management. The book has won an OIV special commendation. Richard plans to publish a second edition next year in four languages.

By 1990 Richard was travelling abroad three or four times a year, lecturing at seminars and conferences and also advising private and corporate grapegrowers on canopy management and other viticultural management issues.

He was charging for his time on behalf of the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture, a result of the 1980s cost-cutting initiated under Prime Minister David Lange.

'Fee for service became the buzzword in the New Zealand public service much earlier than Australia. As government advisers, we were encouraged to make up the difference from budget cuts by charging for our time. This extended to international consulting trips, a concept I supported totally. Why should the New Zealand taxpayer pay my salary to travel somewhere else in the world and give away knowledge at seminars learned from New Zealand taxpayer-funded research? So I sold the information and brought foreign exchange into New Zealand.'

While conducting government consultancy work, Richard noticed an interesting trend: people who paid for a service were more inclined to value the information and treat it with respect. And there was no shortage of grapegrowers in Europe, North and South America and South Africa with an interest in canopy management.

In 1990 he returned to Australia and briefly took up a research and development position in NSW, but soon decided to pursue consultancy. In 1991 he started his own business, Smart Viticultural Services, with wife Bernice as partner.

'After 25 years as a government employee it was a pretty nervous period, but I soon established a strong client base in Australia and New Zealand and other places where I had worked. I now have over 200 clients around the world and find it enormously rewarding - if a little tiring.'

Like the flying winemakers, Richard Smart sees a lot of the inside of 747s. He has set up a contact office network around the globe with bases in New Zealand, California, Bordeaux, Chile and South Africa and when he is not jetting from one vineyard to another he is telecommuting. His business card reads the 'Flying Vine-Doctor'.

'Much of my work is done by fax and more recently by e-mail. Mobile phones have also been a boon. Using a notebook computer with modem allows me to maintain contact with clients from anywhere in the world.

'There will always be the need to visit the vineyard so travel is a necessary part of the job and more than 70% of my time is still spent away from my office in Port Macquarie.'

Richard's clients range from small, family, boutique wineries in New Zealand to the biggest wine company and the biggest vineyard in the world. He is also becoming increasingly involved in regional development with projects looming in Russia, Bulgaria and Chile.

'I am usually asked to consult to wineries which also have their own vineyards. They are interested in manipulating wine quality in the vineyard and they quite rightly see canopy management as a way to do that.'

His work takes him to many countries in the world, including, at present: Argentina, England, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay and USA. He is currently discussing projects in Brazil, Bulgaria, Greece and Russia.

In the last few years he has become more involved in writing. He was Viticulture Editor and the third largest contributor to Jancis Robinson's seminal work The Oxford Companion to Wine published in 1994. The book has won every major international English language wine journalism prize.

'I enjoy teaching and have been involved in seminars in many countries in recent years. I am in the process of negotiating a visiting research and teaching role at a number of universities in Australia, New Zealand and Chile.

'It is one of my regrets that I'm not more involved in education and research in Australia. I guess I'm too outspoken for many academics. Some people seem to enjoy my forthright style and others don't. Certainly my ideas are controversial and by offering alternative explanations one always creates difficulties and professional jealousies. I suppose that is why I am seen as a 'stirrer'. 'Historically, however, I am in good company.

'But it is still disappointing when one can't have more input into a developing industry and the development of our future viticulturists.'

He senses his academic isolation more keenly in Australia than elsewhere. 'My offers to contribute to industry bodies and the GWRDC, the Australian Council for Viticulture and the CRC for Viticulture, have not been taken up.'

Richard believes Australia's biggest problem is that it fails to understand why it has been successful. 'Perhaps this lack of retrospection is not surprising for an industry that forgot to celebrate its 200th birthday. It's all very well to believe technology has helped the industry, but you must understand which technology, where it originated and why.'

'I am concerned that the Australian industry might become more complacent because it believes it has an unassailable technological advantage. My vision is not all rosy. I have seen three periods of grape surplus in my short career, all of which would be likely to prove smaller than that which would result from a significant loss of export markets.

'I visit many other viticultural regions around the world which covet the market share gained by Australia. Unless the world wine market grows, I am not sure that other countries will be prepared to forfeit their market share in the future to allow for Australia's proposed growth.

'So far as I can see, we have no particular resource advantage in Australia, nor in technology. We are, fortunately, free of the restrictive legislation common in Europe, but other countries in both the Old World and the New World are rapidly adopting modern technology--often at a faster rate than Australia.'

'I think there needs to be a revision of research priorities in Australia and I would like to be involved in helping set new targets. I can offer an interesting contemporary international perspective.'

Richard is also anxious about what he perceives as a lack of practical and applied education in Australian teaching institutions. 'While I agree we need to reinforce our technical excellence to maintain our competitive edge, we may be so involved in hi-tech research in the next 20 years that we may lose our export business in the process. Most vineyard problems are readily identifiable and can be solved with existing technology we just need to spend more resources practicing what we know.'

Future plans

With perhaps 15 years to work left in the industry Richard has no plans to let up or slow down. He aims to establish himself as one of the world's leading viticultural consultants. 'I now need to consolidate my business. I am looking for more and larger clients internationally so that I can become more involved in strategic planning. I also want to diversify my business: vineyard tours and educational events like "College in a Coach", which I am conducting this November, are also useful. I want to do more writing I have four books floating around in my head.

'I am also interested in innovative vineyard products. Over the years I have helped develop or promote some successful products like post extenders and foliage wire clips and I am always on the lookout.'

Modern advances in communication mean that he expects to do more work from his home office. 'I can anticipate the day when my clients will be able to communicate with me in real time. They will be using a video camera in their vineyard while I am in my home office sitting at my desktop computer and suggesting where they point the camera. For this reason I am interested in modem computing developments and computer magazines are now my preferred leisure reading.'

He is understandably excited about his Doctorate in Science from Stellenbosch. 'I guess a D.Sc. is the ultimate degree and I see it as some reward for all those years of research on canopy management. My quest for knowledge has come a long way since I first started inquiring about the difference between canopies on irrigated and non-irrigated vines at Griffith. But I don't plan to stop my inquiries - not for a long time.'

Taken from Wine Industry Journal Vol 10 No 4 November 1995

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This is what the prestigious US magazine "Wine Spectator"
(May 31, 1994) said in a feature article

Richard Smart and the New World Revolution
in viticulture

Have you noticed that Monterey Cabernet Sauvignon has recently become less vegetal and more fruity? New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc less grassy and melony? Long Island Chardonnay less austere? It's no accident. A fair share of the credit can be traced to the work of Dr. Richard Smart, Australia's peripatetic proponent of the New World revolution in viticulture.

Smart, 48, a viticultural scientist with two university degrees from his home country and a doctorate from Cornell University in New York, has spent the past 25 years figuring out how to coax the best quality grapes from fickle vinifera vines. Apparently, a lot of people think he knows what he's doing and are prepared to pay him up to $900 a day (plus expenses) to find out how to do it themselves. Smart's 150 clients include Australians such as Penfolds and California producers such as Stags Leap Wine Cellars and Simi Winery. The entire roster includes names from Europe to South Africa.

Innumerable others have benefited from the more than 250 papers and articles he has published, in addition to his co-authored book, Sunlight to Wine: A Handbook for Winegrape Canopy Management (Winetitles, 1991). It has become a step-by-step guide used by wineries throughout the world.

A viticultural Crocodile Dundee, the wiry, sandy-haired Smart troubleshoots his way across the globe, tackling vineyard nightmares and finding solutions to the vicissitudes of soil and climate. Last year he spent a total of seven months on the road. "The last time I got home from overseas," the scientist quips, "my dog Harvey attacked me." Smart and his wife Bernice run Smart Viticultural Services from a home office in New South Wales, Australia. But with contact offices in Bordeaux, New Zealand, Chile, and Healdsburg, Calif., and an itinerary that reads like a concert tour schedule, Smart may have to consider finding a new pet--something less ferocious.

Richard Smart's formative years unfolded in the mid-1970s, when he was pursuing a doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Nelson Shaulis, professor of viticulture at Cornell. Shaulis' groundbreaking viticultural studies from the late 1960s detail the effects of sunlight on grapes. But because he worked with Concord grapes, much of the world of fine wine ignored his results. Smart learned the principles of sunlight management from Shaulis, and has spent his professional life adapting them to the needs of vinifera vines, developing new vine training, or trellising, methods for an industry that has planted Old World varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay in places far from Bordeaux and Burgundy.

The centerpiece of Smart's work is "canopy management." A grapevine's canopy consists of the leaves and shoots that rise above the grape clusters. Sugars that make a grape taste sweet are produced in a vine's leaves during photosynthesis and transferred to the grape. A vine that is too leafy or vigorous, however, will shade its fruit and some of its own leaves, inhibiting photosynthesis and ripening. Additionally, a vine without enough leaves will likewise produce unripe, undernourished grapes. But a well-managed canopy allows a grape vine to achieve a healthy state of equilibrium, which ultimately produces good wine.

"The traditional French view," Smart says, "is that you can only get great wines from low-yielding or straggling vines. This is not necessarily so. In my early travels, I found that a common feature of the best vineyards throughout the world was that the leaves and grapes were well exposed to the sun. The vines generally had low to moderate vigor and small yields."

In Bordeaux, where Smart spent four months analyzing vineyards in 1980, light, porous soils have been rendered nutrient poor from centuries of use. They tend to produce smaller, less leafy vines than younger, richer soils in New World wine regions. Smart wondered if a vine needed to be struggling or low-yielding to make high quality wine or if it was simply necessary for the leaves and grape clusters to be well exposed to the sun. He now believes that sunlight is the key.

Smart contends that if a vine is properly balanced, yields can be increased without sacrificing quality. Not all grapevines can be trained the same way to achieve maximum light exposure and, in rich soils, vines may grow rapidly out of control with traditional trellising techniques. Tiny, severely pruned grapevines in high-vigor sites express their growth potential by sprouting a mass of lateral shoots, leaves, and hard-to-ripen secondary grape clusters, thereby creating a bushy, shady canopy in the fruit zone--a vintner's nightmare. One way to take advantage of their biomass is to divide the leaf canopy into two or more curtains.

Smart and others (most notably France's Alain Carbonneau, another protege of Nelson Shaulis) have devised and promoted new trellising systems to better adapt new and existing vineyards to their surroundings. Divided canopies create more buds per vine, translating into more grape clusters and potentially higher yields.

The new canopies go by names such as Lyre, a U-shaped system, and Scott Henry, a system in which shoots are trained to grow both upward and downward on a narrow, vertical trellis, named for its inventor in Oregon. These methods effectively double a vine's leaf-surface area, maximizing light exposure. As a result, photosynthesis is more efficient.

"I see many a New World vine that's got so many leaves you can't see the fruit," Smart reflects, "I've got to make that canopy function like Chateau Haut-Brion - and it can. Will it ever be as good as Haut-Brion?" he asks rhetorically. "Well, canopy management by itself is not enough. You need a certain soil or climate that allows water stress at the right time. But it makes that vineyard a hell of a lot better than it was before."

Smart the viticulturist is also an enologist whose love of wine is evident in both his personal and professional life. As Dean of Enology at Roseworthy College in South Australia, he ran an experimental winery for three years in the early 1980s, producing 150 to 200 different wines annually. He also found time to make two 60-gallon barrels each year with his neighbor for home consumption.

"At home we drink wine daily," Smart says. "Shiraz is among my favorites. I enjoy cool-climate styles like that of Paringa Estate of Morningside Peninsula, as well as full-bodied wines like Penfolds, from warmer areas. Among whites, I really like Sauvignon Blanc, and the Marlborough, New Zealand style is my favorite." "Of course, I like Old World wines too," he snaps back when prodded about his apparent bias. "They have set a certain standard for us haven't they?"

Smart's cellar reflects his travels, though he has no idea how many bottles it contains. "Geographically, it's a bit like a stamp collection, but harder to move around," he explains. "It's full of oddities like English and Florida wine. But some of my kinder clients are anxious to share with me the spoils of their success (arising from my advice), so I have quite a good collection of award-winning wines."

Zelma Long, president and CEO of Simi Winery, in Healdsburg, has known Richard Smart since 1981. "From my perspective, canopy management is a concept that's about 10 years old," she says. "Anyone who's not thinking this way is behind the times. I really give Richard credit for bringing the concept to California, and it's my opinion that it's made a real difference, especially in California Cabernet Sauvignon."

In 1982 Simi Winery planted a 100-acre vineyard in the Alexander Valley. "Looking at the data," Long says, "it seemed crazy not to try what Richard recommended." Two years later, a 5-acre block with high vigor was retrofitted to a divided canopy. It now yields an average 5 tons of grapes per acre, while a neighboring block, with the same soil type, rootstock and grape is grown on standard California trellising and yields only 3 tons per acre. "The divided canopy is the right trellis for this site," she says, "and the fruit has been a consistent component in our reserve Cabernet Sauvignon."

Still some winemakers were making pretty good Cabernet Sauvignon in the 1970s. Among them is Warren Winiarski, of Stags Leap Wine Cellars. Winiarski believes there is always room for improvement, however, and retains Smart’s services occasionally. "Richard's work was certainly a very powerful influence in identifying problems we've had in our vineyards," the Napa Valley icon says. "He, more than anyone, helped me find out why things were happening the way they were."

The stigma associated with high yields has often discouraged fine-wine makers from so much as investigating this option. Eduardo Chadwick, president of the Chilean wineries, Errazuriz and Caliterra, says that Smart helped him overcome this prejudice. "In the past we were ashamed of having a large production," he says. "Now that old idea has passed."

Apparently Chadwick is doing something right. In the last few years, Wine Spectator has named three Errazuriz wines as Best Buys. Out of 15 wines reviewed, 14 received scores ranging from 82 to 88. And only one wine was priced higher than $10. While savings from lower costs for labor and land in Chile are certainly passed along to the consumer, Chadwick feels that the biggest gain for wine buyers will come from high quality yields running up to 6 tons per acre.

Smart's recently expanded operations in South America have led him to place that continent at the top of his list of high-potential, emerging fine wine regions, thanks to its extraordinary range of climates and soils. Carlos Pulenta, president of Argentina's Trapiche Wineries and Vineyards, first heard Smart speak at the World Vinifera Conference in Seattle last year. He was impressed, brought Smart's book back home and hired him. "Now that Richard has come to see us," Pulenta says, "we expect to have not only better quality, but higher yields."

Back on Smart's home turf in Australia, the new methods of canopy management have also taken root. Penfolds, for example, has used a scoring system devised by Smart to analyze and isolate the best quality vines for the company's premier Grange Hermitage. David Hohnen, founder and managing director of Cape Mentelle in Australia and Cloudy Bay in New Zealand, is also a convert to Smart tactics, having hired the vineyard expert in 1987.

Smart himself feels that his greatest success to date has been with Hohnen's vineyards. "We've had the time to develop an effective working team of management, winemakers, viticulturists, and growers," he says. "When I arrived, things were well managed, but only on a regional, commercial level," he explains. "With my help, they’ve surpassed the old standard, and now stand out from the crowd."

Cape Mantelle’s 1990 Margaret River Chardonnnay scored 91 in a Wine Spectator tasting, and recent Sauvignon Blancs from Cloudy Bay are often regarded as the new wave style for the variety. Even the French see something here. In 1990, Veuve Cliquot became the majority stockholder in both of Hohnen’s operations.

The two vineyards, particularly Cloudy Bay, use Scott Henry trellising. "We get a better leaf to bunch ratio, more sunlight, and better ripening," Hohnen says. Cloudy Bay augments yields from its own 80 acres by purchasing additional grapes from six other growers, four of whom have converted to Scott Henry systems.

Yet not all of Smart's clients are busy retrofitting their vines to divided canopies. Although many growers swear by them, others say divided canopies are simply jury-rigging. They "fix" an existing vineyard in a way that is much more economical than tearing it out and replanting, but the training systems are not always ideal. Installation and management can be expensive and labor-intensive, and for systems like the Lyre, machine harvesting is still several years away.

With the purchase of new land - and the harsh reality of phylloxera in California - many growers, including some of Smart's clients, are planting new vineyards with smaller, closely spaced vines that have single canopies, giving a nod to French tradition. "They all do the same thing," Hohnen says, meaning that all good training systems have the same objectives: growing high quality fruit in a way that is economically feasible. Armed with a better understanding of how their vines function, vintners can now fine tune their vineyards using the best of both worlds, old and new.

Even those who have had success with experimental plots of divided-canopy vines may still opt for more traditional systems. "My inclination is to stay with close-spaced, single canopies because they are more easily managed," says Simi's Long. "A lot of Richard's work was done on already established vineyards. But starting from scratch, a single canopy is a simpler farming system."
Not long ago, a statement like this would have ruffled the feathers of the somewhat strident professor. Today he seems to be mellowing. "I protested mightily when it was simply fashionable to do close-spacing, and people were using it incorrectly," Smart says. But David Hohnen thinks that Smart's transition from the public to the private sector has changed him. Three years ago, Smart left his position as National Viticultural Scientist for New Zealand's Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to start his own consulting company. "His work has become more accessible to us since he left the comfort of academia," says the Australian vintner. "He's blended good, hard, practical experience with a bit of science." (Smart might say, "a lot of science.") Hohnen feels Smart is more open now, listens more and better understands the real needs of growers. "When he first came here, Richard wouldn't entertain the idea of close-spacing vines," Hohnen explains. "Now, when I tell him I'm going to do it, he says, 'fine.' He's come 180 degrees on that one."

Smart seemingly admits as much in reflecting on his personal evolution: "In the past, I've underestimated how important the people part of the equation is. My training is in technology. But as I get older, I realize there's as much psychology as technology in my job. It's no good saying to someone, 'Trust me.' Now, I spend less time trying to convince people and more time trying to get them to convince themselves."

Perhaps the key to the future is flexibility in an increasingly competitive and expanding wine world. According to Smart, the New World (meaning anything other than the established fine wine regions of Europe) stands to profit greatly from its ability to pick and choose what, where and how it wants to grow grapes; the Old World severely limits its options with appellation systems.

"The Old World vintners who are hanging by the appellation tend to believe their own press releases," Smart chuckles. "The young guys are saying, 'Stuff the appellation! I'm going to plant Cabernet and Chardonnay and label it as such. Why should I plant Grenache?'" "It comes back to the basic philosophy of why consumers buy a bottle of wine," Smart continues, launching into a discourse on market strategy. "The consumer in London is confronted with a bottle of red wine from France for, say, 5 quid and it's not very good. They get a bottle of Cabernet or Shiraz from Australia for the same price and say, 'Cost for cost, I'll pick the Australian one any time.' We do low cost viticulture well in Australia," he says.

"The Old World approach is to lob its energy into what's written on the label, with all the bloody laws and legislation that prop up the appellation controllee." The professor is now on a roll. "You must earn terroir," he says forcefully. "New World growers are defining quality by what they do, not who they are or where they come from."

Certainly some Europeans have read the handwriting on the wall. An increasing number of vintners prefer to label their high-end products as "table wine" rather than conform to the rules of their various appellations. Even the stodgy old Champenois seem to be making a gesture to the New World revolution. Escaping the confines of their self-imposed limitations in France, they have invested heavily in California, Australia and elsewhere.

In the Anderson Valley of California, Roederer Estate has trained half of its 340-acre vineyard to a divided-canopy, Lyre system, something commercially illegal in Champagne. But according to Michel Salgues, winemaker and vice president at Roederer Estate, three heavy hitters back home--Mumm, Roederer and Moet--are jointly experimenting in Champagne with a miniscule 25 acres of Lyre trellising. Maybe a second French Revolution is at hand.

In any case, Dr. Richard Smart has seen the (sun)light and continues to spread his vision with missionary zeal. Vintners are listening, and wine lovers throughout the world can taste the difference he has made.