The Shaw + Smith winery was founded in 1989 by Australia's first Master of Wine Michael Hill-Smith and his cousin Martin Shaw. In typical Australian style, this all happened over a long lunch. 

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Producing wines in the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia and starting with only one varietal - Sauvignon Blanc - Shaw + Smith began a slow rise to prominence, one which has resulted in the style of wine produced by Shaw + Smith arguably becoming the benchmark for Sauvignon Blanc in Australia.

 

Following on from their success with Sauvignon Blanc, they turned to the humble Chardonnay grape a few years later and with that the M3 Chardonnay was born, it too, becoming somewhat of a benchmark style of what high quality cool climate Australian Chardonnay can look and taste like.

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From there Shaw + Smith later turned to Shiraz and Pinot Noir and have lately begun to experiment with Riesling, a style of which has evolved over the years but is only released in vintages that live up to the winemaker's expectations.

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In 2012 and with the acquisition of 2 vineyards - in Balhannah (Shiraz, starting with the 2013 vintage) and Lenswood (Chardonnay, starting with the 2014 vintage) - 2 further wines were added to the Shaw + Smith bow, a single vineyard Chardonnay and Shiraz.

 

The latest addition to the suite of wines produced by Shaw + Smith comes in the form of a single vineyard Pinot Noir also produced at the Lenswood vineyard with the 2016 vintage being the first release of this wine.

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