TOUR OF SPAIN
14 –29 July 2001

A 13 day guided tour of Spanish wine regions with
Richard Smart and Joaquin Galvez

• Visit traditional and modern wineries and vineyards. 

• Meet the most famous producers of the Spanish wine industry. 

• Travel to Jerez, La Mancha, Madrid, Rueda, Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Priorato and Penedes.  

• Enjoy regional wines and cuisine (lunch included each day plus five group dinners in leading restaurants)

• Play tourist in Seville, Toledo, Madrid, Bilbao (Guggenheim Museum),
  La Guardia and Barcelona

AUD$7,895 ex Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth;
AUD$5,150 land content only (US$2,830); 

The cost of the tour includes 13 nights twin share accommodation in 3-4 star hotels with breakfast, five group dinners featuring regional cuisine and wines, 11 lunches, luxury coach, expert guides and translation, Joaquin Galvez and Richard Smart as tour leaders

Itinerary

JOAQUIN GALVEZ

Joaquin is a respected Spanish wine authority in the final stages of preparation for his MW examination. Born in Chile, he has had extensive experience with Spanish wine regions, and knows most producers personally. He has worked in wineries in Spain and abroad. He conducts wine courses across the country and internationally, and acts as a wine judge both in Spain and abroad.

Joaquin is a wine writer, contributing articles to both Spanish and international journals. He also makes and sells his own wine "Don Pella". Joaquin has an excellent palate, and an outstanding ability to describe wines. He is fluent in English and has a ready wit.

WINETITLES
Winetitles is Australia’s pre-eminent specialist multi-media publisher to the international grape and wine industries. It produces the Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal, The Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory, Australian Viticulture, and Vintage, the official wine yearbook. It also publishes a comprehensive range of books on viticulture (including Dr Richard Smart’s Sunlight into Wine), winemaking and wine appreciation.

Winebiz, the website development and Internet consultancy division, administers 70 wine-related websites, including the award-winning Australian Wine Online, Australia’s largest and most comprehensive wine industry website.

College in a Coach
Yarra Valley October 1999

Dr Richard Smart taught viticulture at Roseworthy College for six years. In this time he learned a good deal about the effectiveness of education. These ideas were combined into planning of College in a Coach, with the aim of providing an intensive, yet time and cost effective learning experience. This course is designed for people who want knowledge, and not formal academic qualifications. These are the fourth and fifth College in a Coach, the first being held in the Yarra Valley in November, 1995, the second in the Hunter Valley in November 1996 and the third in Mudgee in October 1997. There has been a follow up to the first two courses, held in Rutherglen in May, 1997.

The syllabus is designed around "need to know" subjects, essential for properly managing a vineyard. There will be five teaching sessions a day for the first two days and four sessions for the final day. These sessions will be a combination of tours and illustrated lectures with several speakers.

College in a Coach will use highly recommended text books, which can be purchased prior to the commencement of the course. Each student will be provided with a comprehensive, specially prepared manual which will be used to accompany all lectures.

A certificate of attendance will be issued at completion of the course.

Dr Richard Smart
"The flying vine-doctor"

Richard Smart seems to have spent a lot of time at school, when he has not been in vineyards. He has Australian degrees B.Sc Agr(Hons) and M.Sc(Hons), and a Ph.D from Cornell University in the USA where he studied with the famous Professor Nelson Shaulis. He recently completed a D.Sc at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and is one of very few viticulturists in the world with this qualification.

While best known for canopy management, Richard's knowledge of viticulture is extensive, including site selection, rootstocks, clones and varieties, pruning, trellising, irrigation and nutrition. He now works as an international viticultural consultant with clients in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, South Africa, Europe and Israel.

Richard Smart is well known for his engaging lecturing style, and his ability to develop basic viticultural principles from plant science. He likes to see his students smile!

Steve Sadlier

Steve Sadlier operates a vineyard management consultancy in the Yarra Valley called Vine Advice, with about 20 clients. Steve is a viticulture graduate from Charles Sturt University in 1993, and was for eight years vineyard manager for Yarra Ridge. There he managed ten full time staff and 80 ha of vineyards in four sites. During this time Steve developed a reputation as one of the most progressive and accomplished vineyard managers in Australia.

Steve will assist Richard by organising and accompanying local vineyard visits, and by participating in question and answer sessions.

ITALY STUDY TOUR

The seminars will be followed up by a two week tour of Italy to take place in 22 May to 6 June 1999, following the London Wine Trade Fair. This tour will be escorted by Dr Smart, Alberto Antonini and Federico Curtaz. The tour will visit the major grape growing regions of Italy, including Piedmont, Tuscany, Umbria and Sicily, concentrating on varieties discussed at the seminars.

The tour will visit among the most famous vineyards and wineries, and will also feature regional cuisine. There will be opportunities for tourism in Florence, Siena and Pisa. The tour will begin in Milan and finish in Rome. 

COST
All day seminar, lunch with wine, Seminar Proceedings, and tasting of Italian wines: $215.00

PROSPECTS FOR ITALIAN VARIETIES IN AUSTRALIA

There are emerging worldwide signs of growing consumer interest in new grape varieties, stated sometimes as "A B C ... Anything But Chardonnay (or Cabernet)". And no wonder, as all expanding wine regions of the world seem to be planting the half dozen or so "international varieties", which are French in origin. Australia is no exception.

Many wine commentators pick Italian varieties as those to next become popular with wine consumers worldwide. Italy boasts many fine grape varieties, and wines from these are becoming well known and increasingly sought after, with the best wines on allocation at over USD 50 per bottle. There is a corresponding and growing global interest in the light, tasty and proven healthy Italian cuisine.

Australia has limited experience with Italian varieties, some of which are not even available in Australia, let alone the best improved clones! Smart Viticulture has therefore arranged this seminar series and tour, to help the Australian industry to quickly embrace this new opportunity. Can Australia repeat the international success with Shiraz using say Sangiovese or Nebbiolo?

We have chosen nine varieties of most potential promise to Australia to showcase, including seven reds and two whites. Nebbiolo is the famous variety of Piedmont, producing the much sought-after and expensive red wines from Barolo and Barbaresco. Sangiovese is the equally important red variety of Tuscany, making the famous Chianti Classico wine, well known around the world. Pinot Grigio from Friuli is already becoming a new and trendy white variety in cooler regions of the New World. Dolcetto and Barbera are also well known at present. We have decided to include the lesser known reds Lagrein and Sagrantino, because their popularity is expanding, and they produce fruity wines of vibrant colour with sweet tannins. We have also included the stunning Shiraz-style red Nero d' Avola from Sicily, and the fruity white Vermentino, both suited to hotter climates. 

SYRAH DISCOVERY TOUR

31 JANUARY to 13 FEBRUARY 1999

An educational tour for grape and wine producers, wine merchants, wine writers and wine enthusiasts interested in Australian Syrah (Shiraz) Personally arranged and escorted by International viticultural consultant Dr Richard Smart
"the flying vine –doctor"

About Shiraz in Australia

The French variety Syrah seems to have found another home in Australia, where it is called Shiraz. Where else in the world might you find this variety made into a wide range of still wine styles (including blends with Cabernet Sauvignon) and price points, into fortified wines, and even into a sparkling red wine! Australia is home to one of the world’s great Shiraz wines, called Grange Hermitage, which has been voted by Wine Spectator as "Wine of the Year". The Syrah variety was introduced to Australia early in the country’s history, and has subsequently been planted in all wine regions over a great range of climates. Australia has helped this variety to become better known internationally, and the Shiraz variety has become synonymous with Australian wine. Many other New World countries are copying Australia’s success, and so large scale plantings of Syrah are now taking place in Argentina, USA, Chile, and South Africa, and elsewhere in Europe.

About the "Shiraz Discovery" Tour

The timing and nature of the tour have been designed to offer the best exposure to this premium variety. The tour will take place in February, after the height of the Australian summer, and just before harvest in some regions. Tour members will be able to see vines with ripening fruit, and appreciate the multitude of training systems and the wide range of yields and climates.

The tour will encompass a range of regions and climates, to allow understanding of how the wine style changes dramatically with temperature conditions. The tour will emphasise vineyard practices with Shiraz, including new developments of vineyard irrigation, mechanisation and canopy management. Both large and small vineyards will be visited, in hot to cool climates.

The tour will also visit the very best known and not so well known Shiraz winemakers, who will discuss their winery procedures. The tour also allows for meetings with groups of local producers, and for structured tastings. Tour members will be provided with information about each property and some articles of interest, along with a scorecard to be used in each vineyard visited.

About tour leader Dr Richard Smart

Richard Smart, the "flying vine-doctor" operates an international viticultural consultancy from Australia with clients throughout Europe, the Middle East, North and South America as well as Australasia. Richard is best known for his expertise in canopy management and other methods of manipulating wine quality in the vineyard.

Richard Smart has been involved with the Shiraz variety for over 30 years, since the 1960s when he published the first study of drip irrigation on the variety. He consults widely in Australia, and knows most of the winemakers, vineyard managers and vineyards personally. His wide experience in the Australian wine industry has given him the necessary contacts and knowledge to put together this very special, first of a kind study tour.

About the Regions to be Visited

The tour begins with a structured tasting in Sydney, before visiting the famous Hunter Valley in the north. This is a hot but humid region, and Shiraz wines have a special character, often described as "sweaty saddle". In the Upper Hunter is the famous wine company Rosemount, exporter of Shiraz wines to the USA. The Mudgee region in central NSW is next to be visited. This region is the scene of massive recent expansion, and modern vineyards and wineries will be visited, as well as traditional producers. The region has a unique style of Shiraz wine.

The tour party proceeds next to Rutherglen in Victoria, a hot but continental climate, where Shiraz is made into fortified wine styles, and also full-bodied still wines. Further south in the warm Goulburn Valley, Shiraz wines will be tasted with more spicy character. The coolest region to be visited is the Yarra Valley, again a site of major vineyard expansion.

The tour proceeds westward to Great Western, where some of Australia’s most distinguished Shiraz still wines are made. Also, this is the home of the famous "Sparkling Shiraz" style. From central Victoria the tour proceeds to Coonawarra in the south-east of South Australia, Australia’s best known cool climate region for Shiraz still wines. Here you will visit the most famous vineyards and wineries, and witness large scale corporate viticulture, also to be seen at Padthaway. To the north, the Langhorne Creek and nearby McLaren Vale regions have emerging reputations for Shiraz quality, some would argue as Australia’s best.

The next region to be visited is the hot Riverland area, where lower price point Shiraz wines are made for export from high-yielding, minimal-pruned vineyards. Wineries of huge capacity are used to process large volumes of Shiraz fruit.

The last visit is to the famed Barossa Valley, home of the famed Penfolds Grange Hermitage. Here more traditional vineyards will be seen, along with some recent expansions in the cooler Adelaide Hills.

Itinerary

College in a Coach
Margaret River Oct 98
Presented by Dr Richard Smart
"The flying vine-doctor"

Guest Lecturer, Philip May
Philip May graduated from Roseworthy Agricultural College, S.A. in 1983 with a Diploma of Agricultural Science specialising in viticulture. He managed vineyards in four Australian wine regions prior to moving to Western Australia in 1991. Since that time he has been responsible for the operations and further development of the Smithbrook vineyard in Pemberton.

Philip is well known for his achievements in the wine industry-especially in relation to the development and operations of large-scale, premium quality vineyards. The vineyard management practices he has adopted have earned him considerable recognition-particularly in the area of world best practices and benchmarking. In 1997 Philip commenced his own viticultural consultancy and continues to have ongoing management responsibilities at Smithbrook.