Following footsteps

As a young boy, Scott spent many days exploring his family’s winery and vineyard on his rusty old bike, enchanted by the buzz of activity and intriguing equipment – tanks, pumps, crushers and presses. His great-grandparents lived right next door and he was a regular visitor. (To this day he’s inspired by his great-grandfather, who gave him his most valued piece of advice: always greet people by giving them a firm handshake and looking them in the eye.) When Scott was 14, he started working in the cellar, where he was the only one small enough to fit through the openings in the tanks to clean them out.

Over the next five years or so, Scott took on all kinds of jobs in the family vineyard and winery, and at 19 he set off overseas to work a harvest in France’s Bordeaux. This inspired him to formalise his knowledge, so he returned home and completed a Bachelor of Science and a Postgraduate degree in Oenology. The next few years were spent making wine in regions throughout France and California. But Scott’s dream had long been to work in the high-profile family business, and in 2000 he joined the team at McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant winery in the Hunter Valley.

Made in the vineyard

Mount Pleasant was established by famed winemaker Maurice O’Shea in 1921 and bought by McWilliam’s in 1941. Its four vineyards contain some of the oldest vines in the Hunter Valley. Scott relished the challenge of making wine for this historic brand and fell in love with the region, where he still lives today. 

He’s a sixth-generation McWilliam’s winemaker, a member of the board of directors and a Family Ambassador, which sees him travelling across Australia and around the world to share McWilliam’s stories and educate wine lovers. On any given day, he might be inspecting vines and grapes in the vineyard, making wine in the cellar, showing wines in a wine tasting or sniffing, sipping and judging his way through a wine show. 

As a winemaker, Scott’s work starts in the vineyard. “My wine philosophy is to let the vineyard sing,” he says. “In short, this means working out what works best and where, with reference to grapes, their varieties and the microclimates they grow in. It also means a minimal approach to the winemaking to be able to properly accentuate what the vineyard has given us. I believe that 80% of a wine is made before the grapes are even picked, and the decision when to pick the grapes is one of the most important winemaking decisions throughout the whole process.”

Sharing wine with the world

Having travelled the world’s wine regions, Scott believes the future of Australian wine lies in creating wine experiences tailored to consumers – anticipating what people want and creating an experience that lasts longer than the time it takes to finish the bottle. He’s a passionate advocate for Australian wine overseas and has seen firsthand the growing excitement for Australian wine in countries such as the US and China. He’s also championing some of New South Wales’ exciting young cool-climate regions, including Hilltops and Tumbarumba. 

Scott’s a rising star in Australia’s wine community and has been selected for the Winemaker’s Federation of Australia Future Leaders program. He sees himself as a custodian of a piece of wine history, and he’s passionate about protecting his family traditions while innovating to make better wines and share them with more people.

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