NZ Fellow: Dr Richard Smart

More than 55 years later, he has counselled countless students, growers and organisations around the world on vine physiology and canopy management, including his time as the New Zealand Government’s National Viticultural Scientist, from 1982 to 1990.

In late January, New Zealand Winegrowers (NZW) named Richard as a 2025 Fellow, recognising the long-term impact of his work. “Richard’s ability to transpose vine physiology to practice has made a great contribution,” says viticulture science stalwart Dr Mike Trought, who is a friend and fellow Fellow. “New Zealand’s wine industry needs to recognise the very significant contribution that he has made to our understanding of quality grape production.” Richard is “very much a visionary”, Mike adds. “Using his international experience to debate the issues facing the wine industry.”

There have been myriad research projects, qualifications and publications during the past six decades of Richard’s work, including two doctorates, hundreds of peer-reviewed science and technical articles, and the publication of the highly acclaimed handbook Sunlight into Wine. There have also been accolades aplenty, including New Zealand Wine Industry Personality of the Year (1989), Honorary Life Membership of the New Zealand Society for Viticulture and Oenology (1990), and being inducted into the New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame (2007). Other awards from around the world reflect Richard’s influence, and in 2005 he was one of Decanter magazine’s 50 Most Powerful Names in Wine.

Richard, who has continued his work throughout a long battle with cancer, says his biggest achievement has been “to work with proprietors with open minds that were driven by profit motives and not some half-baked industry myths and beliefs”. He found one of those minds in Delegat founder Jim Delegat, who met Richard in the 1970s, when the viticulturist was Head of the Department of Viticulture at Roseworthy Agricultural College in Australia. When Richard became New Zealand’s National Viticultural Scientist, overseeing viticultural technical development throughout the country, he was “extremely approachable” and helped guide a cool climate approach to viticulture, says Jim, who was made a NZW Fellow in 2023. “Richard offered growers a better understanding of optimising the long-term productive life of a vine, and of the opportunities that existed in our unique cool climate environment”. The close working relationship that began then continues today, and for the past 20 years Delegat has been a “real flag bearer” of Richard’s work, using his insights and knowledge to guide major vineyard expansions. This includes implementing a “balanced vine approach” and the Scott Henry canopy system, in order to exploit Marlborough’s maritime-influenced climate, says Jim, who counts Richard a personal friend and a profound viticultural influence.

A growing career

Richard’s viticulture career came via Agricultural Science studies at Sydney University in the 1960s, specialising in agronomy. But vineyards intrigued him, with their bare soil interspersed with vine foliage, and he progressed into a Master of Science from Macquarie University, researching irrigation and sunlight use by vineyards. His research was presented at the 1970 International Horticultural Congress in Tel Aviv, Israel, with his master’s awarded the following year, leading to PhD studies at Cornell University in the United States, under Nelson Shaulis, Professor of Viticulture at Geneva Experiment Station.

By 1975 Richard was teaching viticulture and undertaking research at South Australia’s Roseworthy Agricultural College, in a period of “active involvement” with European and American colleagues in canopy management and trellis design. He grew his interest in climate effects on wine quality, leading to an interest in cool climate viticulture, and also owned and operated a family vineyard at Williamstown, in the Barossa Valley.

Richard and his family moved to New Zealand in 1982 for his position at the Ruakura Research Station in Hamilton. It was a highly productive period for research, and important for the developing New Zealand grape and wine sector, Richard says, reflecting on a research programme based on vine improvement, including studies of virus and other diseases as well as a significant importation programme, which was all fully catalogued in a National Grapevine Register. The research was internationally recognised in canopy management, involving introduction of new horizontally and vertically divided grapevine canopies and further promoting the canopy management guidelines of Nelson Shaulis, who Richard has previously called “the acknowledged Godfather of modern canopy management research”.

Mike notes that Richard forged an invaluable link between the grape, wine and canopy management research done in North America in the 1940s and 1950s and the nascent industry in New Zealand. The subsequent research improved efficiency, quality, and consumer acceptance of wine, he adds.

While working in New Zealand, Richard founded the New Zealand Society for Viticulture and Oenology and was Chairman for the Second International Conference on Cool Climate Viticulture and Oenology, held in Auckland in 1988. The conference, with more than 400 predominantly international delegates, was pivotal in promoting the new wine style Sauvignon Blanc to the world.

He also wrote Sunlight into Wine with agricultural engineer Mike Robinson, who was also working with New Zealand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The book, published in 1991, gained international acclaim, including a prize from the OIV, and is still in use today. “Proper canopy management can be the most important determinant of yield and quality carried out in both the vineyard and the winery,” Richard says. “Yet in most New Zealand vineyards this is not the case.” His biggest regret from that period was that he did not include clonal selection for Sauvignon Blanc in the research programme. “It would have been of great benefit to the industry.”

In 1990, Richard returned to Australia and established the Smart Viticulture consulting firm, with clients in 30 countries around the world, from Western and Eastern Europe to South America and South Africa, along with developing countries like China.

Richard, who has seen plenty of changes in the past 60 years, says New Zealand wine’s “golden years” lasted until the early 21st century, including the period of formation of NZW. Only a “few lucky” wine producing countries are likely to see such times again, and “New Zealand should be one of them”, he says. “Although a distant producer, New Zealand has an excellent quality reputation and is environmentally aware.”

Speaking at his induction, an online event held on 22 January, Richard said working as New Zealand’s Viticultural Scientist was the professional highlight of his life, thanks in large part to the research accomplished and published during that time. “This was because I was able to work with such an impressive team of coworkers spread throughout the country.” Richard said he felt “immense gratitude” for the opportunities, and the “exceptional individuals” he has worked with. “To New Zealand Winegrowers, thank you for this incredible honour. It is a privilege to be recognised by an industry I hold so dear.”