Shaw + Smith

History

Shaw + Smith was founded in 1989 by Martin Shaw and Michael Hill Smith, the latter becoming Australia's first Master of Wine. The two cousins established the operation at a time when the Adelaide Hills was still finding its identity as a serious cool-climate region, and their early focus on Sauvignon Blanc did much to define what that variety could look like in South Australia. The winery was among the first in the region to treat the Hills not as a source of blending fruit but as a distinct appellation worth building a label around.

The business has remained privately held and family-connected, without the corporate ownership changes that have reshaped many Australian producers of similar scale. Martin Shaw handles winemaking while Michael Hill Smith has maintained a public profile in the broader Australian wine trade. Their M3 Vineyard Chardonnay, introduced in the 1990s, became a reference point for the style in the Hills and established the producer's reputation beyond Sauvignon Blanc.

Vineyards

Shaw + Smith sources from multiple sites in the Adelaide Hills, with the M3 Vineyard and the Lenswood Vineyard serving as the two named estate sources visible across their Chardonnay range. The Adelaide Hills sits at elevations broadly between 400 and 700 metres, which moderates the South Australian heat and extends the growing season considerably relative to warmer regions nearby. Lenswood is one of the cooler and higher sub-zones within the Hills, and the single-vineyard Chardonnay from that site tends to reflect a leaner, more structured profile than the M3. Soils across the Hills are variable but generally clay-loam over weathered rock, with good drainage on the sloped sites both vineyards occupy. Specific farming certifications are not prominently documented, and the operation appears to follow sustainable conventional practices without formal organic or biodynamic certification.

Winemaking

Shaw + Smith's Chardonnays are made in a restrained, Burgundy-aware style without being imitative. Barrel fermentation in French oak is standard for the Chardonnay range, with M3 typically seeing a proportion of new oak and the Lenswood bottling handled to emphasise site definition over winemaking input. The M3 has always been the more approachable of the two on release, while the Lenswood tends to need more time. Both are unfined or lightly handled, and malo-lactic fermentation is managed selectively rather than applied universally. The Sauvignon Blanc, which put the label on the map, is made in a tank-fermented style, cool and clean without the reductive or heavily aromatic approaches that mark some Australian examples. The Shiraz, a newer focus for the producer, draws on cooler Hills fruit and aims for a spice-driven, medium-bodied style that sits closer to northern Rhone in reference than to Barossa. Across all wines the house style favours precision and restraint over extraction or obvious oak.