OVER the past 29 years Hunter-based viticulturist Liz Riley has won a place in the top echelons of Australian wine and last month added to that standing by winning the 2020 Graham Gregory Award.
The award honours the late former deputy director-general of NSW Agriculture and a leading show judge and wine authority.
Presented retrospectively at the annual NSW Wine Awards it recognises outstanding contributions to the NSW wine industry.
Liz, a WA-raised Roseworthy College bachelor of applied wine science graduate, is the first woman to win the Gregory prize.
She has owned and operated the Vitibit viticultural consultancy since 2000 and is married to Hunter Scarborough Wines winemaker Jeremy Scarborough and the couple have two children, Callum and Hannah.
After her Roseworthy graduation Liz in 1993 joined the Southcorp national viticultural team and in 1997 she won a Nuffield Farming scholarship to study sustainable agrochemical use in viticulture in Europe and North America.
Since establishing the Vitibit consultancy in 2000 she has managed vineyards in Queensland's Granite Belt, the NSW Hilltops and Orange areas and in Tasmania, but her primary focus has been on Hunter vineyards, including the Scarborough vines.
In 2008 Liz was the inaugural winner of Australian Small Winemakers' Show viticulturist of the year award and in 2011 she was Hunter Wine Awards' viticulturist of the year. Also in 2011 she was appointed a special qualifications director of the Australian Wine Research Institute and she chairs the NSW Wine Industry's Research and Development Committee.
In 2017 Liz was judged the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology viticulturist of the year.
TYRRELL'S TRIUMPH
CAPPING off a year in which it won best semillon trophies at five of the six Australian capital city wine shows, the Tyrrell's family wine company last month saw its 2013 Vat 1 Winemaker's Selection Hunter Valley Semillon judged the best wine of the 2021 KPMG Sydney Wine Show, as well as winning the best white wine, best mature white and best semillon trophies.
The champion win is not available now but is scheduled for release at $150 in 2024.
The best semillon title in Adelaide Wine Show was won by the 2013 Vat 1 Winemaker's Selection Semillon, in Melbourne the Tyrrell's 2017 Single Vineyard Belford Semillon trophied and in Hobart and Perth the 2017 Vat 1 Winemaker's Selection Semillon was top semillon.
