Louisa Rose has only worked two jobs in her life. The first was at her family’s Yarra Valley vineyard. The second was at Hill-Smith Family Estates, where she still is today. More than 30 years on, and after having watched the Australian wine landscape evolve significantly, she proudly says that, if given the chance, she would do it all again.
For Louisa, wine was her calling from long before she was legally allowed to drink it. But, entering uni at 17 years old at the same time as a vine pull scheme kicked off in South Australia, she studied mathematics and physics before transitioning to Roseworthy – a renowned ag school now part of Adelaide University.
In her second year, she got a vintage job with the Hill-Smith Family at Yalumba.
“That was the time the industry was just starting to grow again,” she tells Drinks Trade. “Australia was starting to export wines to the UK and other countries around the world. Then there was an assistant winemaker role available which I applied for and was given. And that’s it. I’m still here.”
When asked what advice she would give, in hindsight, to a younger version of herself, Louisa says two things: to take the opportunities that present themselves and to believe in your own worth. These are the same pieces of advice she would share with other aspiring young women in wine. They are also two things she is proud of having done.
“Maybe it’s a female thing perhaps more than a male thing, but women often think ‘I’m not ready for that’ and let opportunities go by when they really are ready for them.
“If you take the support that’s offered from friends and workmates, then the sky’s the limit. To be successful you don’t need to do it all on your own.”
This is of course an insight into a winemaker whose colleagues and workplace have become a second family. She recognises Robert Hill-Smith as one of her first mentors, and describes her own career and the growth of HSFE over the past three decades as “absolutely linked.”
This goes both ways. Jessica Hill-Smith, Robert’s daughter and sixth generation descendant of Samuel Smith, was very quick to put Louisa Rose’s name forward as a candidate for this feature.
This mutual support has put her at the forefront of a number of long-term projects that have helped shape Australian wine into what it is today. This includes championing screwcaps more than 10 years before they started to catch on. However, when asked to name just one contribution, she mentions a grape variety instead.
Now a wine-household name, there were only around 11 hectares of viognier planted globally before her and the Hill-Smith family’s efforts.
“In ‘92. I’m absolutely sure I’d never tasted a viognier or heard about the variety while I was at Roseworthy – it was still that unknown and that rare – so that’s an overnight success in about 30 years with Viognier,” she said.
She also mentions helping to develop Pewsey Vale Vineyard in its modern sense, which, despite stepping into a new role as Head of Sustainability and Brand Ambassador in 2023, she still makes the wines for today.
It is this new hat, and her new work around ensuring a sustainable wine industry for the future, that she hopes will be her legacy in years and decades to come:
“We have to work harder than other agricultural industries because we’re a luxury product. People don’t have to drink wine to survive, but they do need to eat, they do need to have water to drink and I would hate to see the future of wine be just for the elite.”
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This feature can also be found as part a Women in Drinks profile series in Drinks Trade Autumn issue 98, which will be published in March
Dining and Cooking