Shaw + Smith | MMAD
Masterclass
One Master of Wine, two iconic vineyards… a masterclass not to be missed!
Taste 12 Wines Current & Museum Releases from Australian Producers Shaw + Smith and MMAD including:
2025 Halliday Wine Companion Top Rated Shiraz & Top Rated Grenache & Blends
Wednesday 26 February
Hosted by Michael Hill Smith MW Joint CEO
Masterclass: 5.00-6.30pm, Wines with Kate Lamont nibbles | $85
{Michael Hill Smith} First Australian and first non-UK Trade to become an MW in 1988. Winner of the inaugural Madame Bollinger Tasting Medal. Co-founder Shaw+Smith (Adelaide Hills) Tolpuddle Vineyard (Tasmania) and MMAD Vineyard (Blewitt Springs) Wine Consultant Singapore Airlines. Joint Chair Decanter World Wine Awards and past Vice-Chair Decanter Asian Wine Awards. Order of Australia (AM) for contribution to the Australian Wine Industry 2008.
(Institute of Masters of Wine)
Shaw + Smith
Shaw + Smith was established in 1989 by cousins Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw. They make wines exclusively from the Adelaide Hills, from varieties that suit the cooler climate: Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. Shaw + Smith own two vineyards, in Lenswood and Balhannah. Balhannah is also home to the winery where the Tasting Room is open daily.
Growing the best possible grapes, managing vineyards sustainably, and valuing vine health, soil health, and low yields are central to the Shaw + Smith approach. In the pursuit of quality, all grapes continue to be hand-picked, and the wines are fermented, aged and bottled on site at Balhannah. The wines are vibrant, medium bodied expressions of their varieties that reflect their sites and region.
Shaw + Smith’s first vintage was in 1990, and the early vintages were made at Wirra Wirra and Petaluma. In 1999 they purchased a property at Balhannah, where they planted vines, and built the winery and tasting room in time for the 2000 vintage. In 2012 they purchased an established 20-hectare vineyard in Lenswood. As the business has grown Michael and Martin have built a formidable team to continue the evolution of Shaw + Smith, including Master of Wine David LeMire, Senior Winemaker Adam Wadewitz, Business Manager Grant Lovelock and Group Viticulturist Murray Leake.
Shawandsmith.com
Such is the evolution of refinement, precision and beauty in the wines of Shaw + Smith that I (Tony) had to resist the temptation to nominate every wine they make for our Awards judging. This is a brand that epitomises the best of what the Hills can do, taking it to new heights with new plantings in Piccadilly and single-vineyard releases from Lenswood. Chardonnay, shiraz, pinot noir and, of course, sauvignon blanc share the limelight, with a cracking riesling ascending through the ranks. Its future is in capable hands with the talented David LeMire and Winemaker of the Year nominee Adam Wadewitz stepping into managerial roles. This company is the number-one ambassador for the Adelaide Hills and was an unsung hero behind the scenes in supporting the community following the bushfires last year.
Tony Love & Tyson Stelzer, Halliday Wine Companion
MMAD
MMAD Vineyard is the venture of 2 masters of wine and 2 highly regarded winemakers with many years of fine wine experience. The label is derived from the first letter of each of their names: Martin Shaw, Michael Hill Smith, Adam Wadewitz and David LeMire. The first 2 founded and own the Adelaide Hills-based Shaw + Smith in '89, while Adam and David are now co-CEOs at Shaw + Smith, Adam chief winemaker and David head of sales and marketing. In early ’21 they found an outstanding Blewitt Springs property with 3ha of '39-planted grenache, 5.4ha of shiraz, the oldest planted in '41, and 3ha of chenin blanc, the oldest planted in '64. Their aim is to continuously improve soil and vine health while promoting plant and insect diversity. As they say, 'The vineyard pre-dates us and will outlive us, and we have a great opportunity to help it thrive during our time farming it.'
James Halliday, Wine Companion
The fine Maslin sands in Blewitt Springs, along with the raised elevation that exposes the vines to fresh south-westerlies from the Gulf St Vincent, give an aromatic character that is as distinctive as it is enticing.
Below the sand, and the element that drew the MMAD partners to this vineyard above all else is a layer of ironstone that adds both structure and complexity to the wine. This is rare earth, and the old vines are a precious resource and part of our viticultural history that we are grateful to have the chance to work with.
MMAD Vineyard has Grenache that was all planted in 1939, as well as Shiraz and Chenin Blanc, the oldest of which were planted in 1941 and 1964 respectively.
mmadvineyard.com
The Wine List
On Arrival
Shaw + Smith Sauvignon Blanc 2024, Our Price $29
The nose is fresh and vibrant, with refined aromas of lychees, orange blossoms, cut grass, candied limes and flint. The palate is light- to medium-bodied with precise acidity, a generous mouthfeel and notes of green apple skin, grapefruit pith and lemon peel. Fresh with generous complexity.
93 Points James Suckling (October 2024)
Shaw + Smith Riesling 2024, Our Price $34
Pale, almost water-white colour, with a spicy/nettley and yeast-estery bouquet which is immediately appealing and inviting. There are notes of musk sticks and pear-filled Danish pastry too. The palate follows on from there and is soft and rounded, with lovely subtle acidity, with the result that the wine is very approachable already, in its extreme youth. There could be a tickle of sweetness helping that balance. Delicious wine.
95 Points Huon Hooke, The Real Review (October 2024)
Shaw + Smith ‘M3' Chardonnay 2022, Our Price $54
Very light, bright colour; the nose slightly fusty with dried-flower heads, dried herbs and a little toasted almond. A subtle trace of butter shortbread; a wheaty/Weetbix overtone. Good depth of flavour, soft and properly dry, with a savoury follow-through, accessible now but also promising to reward a little cellar time.
93 Points Huon Hooke, The Real Review (March 2023)
Shaw + Smith 'Lenswood' Vineyard Chardonnay 2023, Our Price $89
Shaw + Smith 'Lenswood' Vineyard Chardonnay 2022, Our Price $89
An exceptional vintage for white wines. A lower pH, inherent freshness and phenolic bite, the artillery that delivers the impressive structural latticework necessary for further development. Really classy. Subdued aromas of cinnamon, sesame, quince, ginger and toasted hazelnut, with the barest hint of fruit. Better this way. The mid-weighted palate is pliant, nicely chewy and multilayered. The finish is exceptionally long, although I look forward to tasting again in another six or eight years after things unravel and meld. Stunning chardonnay, aligned with top-tier Chassagne and certainly among the finest tasted in recent memory. Drinkable now, but best from 2027.
97 Points Ned Godwin MW, Halliday Wine Companion (March 2024)
Shaw + Smith Pinot Noir 2023, Our Price $54
Medium red-purple colour, bright and youthful. Sweet raspberry, red cherry and floral aromatics, good intensity and a solid backing of firm but measured tannins supplying backbone and adding to length. A pretty serious pinot noir, with impact and persistence, that would reward a little extra time in bottle.
94 Points Huon Hooke, The Real Review (July 2024)
MMAD Vineyard Grenache 2022, Our Price $68
Top Rated Grenache & Blends, Halliday Wine Companion 2025
This is ballistically good. I doubt that I’ll taste anything much better from these shores over the next 12 months. The first thing you notice is the plushness, which is always welcome, but it’s the the finish that takes things to eleven. Wow, really, this wine has a show-stopping finish on it. It’s blessed with red and blue berry flavours, cedarwood, roasted spice and earth, but itemising the flavours of this wine kind of misses the point. It’s like focussing on the colour of a tidal wave. The complete and utter command of the final flourish of flavour and tannin here feels, as you swallow, like a high water mark. I’m sold, totally sold, on this wine.
97 Points Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front (February 2024)
Shaw + Smith Shiraz 2022, Our Price $54
Deep, dark red-purple with black tints, the bouquet quite whole-bunchy with humus, spice and root vegetable aromas, the palate intense and concentrated with sustained flavour and finely balanced powdery tannins that run long to an extended finish. A powerful yet elegant shiraz drinking well now but with a long life in front of it.
95 Points Huon Hooke, The Real Review (September 2024)
Shaw + Smith 'Museum' Shiraz 2015, Our Price $75
From central and southern (the latter warmer) parts of the Adelaide Hills, hand-picked, part destemmed, part whole bunch, open-fermented with gentle plunging. The colour is bright, the bouquet full of red fruits, darker fruit notes and delicious pepper and spice nuances. These characters flow through to the medium-bodied palate of Shaw + Smith's most consistently outstanding wine, the '15 vintage making it seem so easy.
97 Points James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion (July 2021)
MAAD Vineyard Shiraz 2022, Our Price $68
Top Rated Shiraz/Syrah, Halliday Wine Companion 2025
This is a seriously impressive release, showcasing winemaker Adam Wadewitz’s learnings from the first vintage and the bounty of full viticultural control. The old-vine fruit could easily handle about one-third whole bunch, a Wadewitz favourite. And that impact is profoundly positive, weaving in spicy, smoky notes and complexing tannins to provide exceptional tension without greenness. Red and blue fruits, violet and dusky red florals, coal dust, anise, cacao and roasted coffee bean. Intensity on the palate at moderate alcohol and no heavy mid-palate sweetness nor new oak. Rather, it is poised throughout, with fruit intensity seamlessly meshed into a silky, supple but aptly assertive structure, a ferrous nori/kelp mineral note underpinning. For a site purchased prizing grenache, this is a revelation.
97 Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion (February 2024)
Shaw + Smith Balhannah' Vineyard Shiraz 2022, Our Price $89
Shaw + Smith 'Balhannah' Vineyard Shiraz 2020, Our Price $89
Medium-deep colour with a tint of purple and a sousbois, forest-floor bouquet, possibly whole-bunch influenced, with assorted spices including black pepper, and the palate is full bodied and rich, generous, ample and ripe with generosity and texture that appeals. Long finish and a resonant, fleshy mouth-feel. A compelling mix of cool grown spices and superripe abundance of flavour and body.
96 Points Huon Hooke, The Real Review (March 2023)