From nuturing the grapes for great NSW wineries like Scarborough Wine to promoting the role of viticulturists on social media, Liz Riley is a true ambassador.
Liz Riley is no stranger to accolades or awards for her work as one of Australia’s leading viticulturists. Her career is built on a propensity for mindful innovation. That is, she is prepared to push the progression of not just viticulture in a deliberately conscientious way. Where places like Silicon Valley hold to mantras like ‘move fast and break things’, in the vineyards of wine regions, like the Hunter Valley – where Riley has made the most significant impact on her industry – the preference is to ‘move slowly and don’t break anything’ (which is not the same thing as, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’).
Riley is more than prepared to change with the seasons and grow right alongside the vines for which she has cared for, for almost 30 years. Observing, first, new innovations as they appear, then incorporating proven versions of them into her viticultural protocols. Such is the nature of viticulture and the advance of science over time.
Originally from Western Australia, Riley is an Roseworthy College (now Adelaide University) graduate, where, in the heady Southcorp days, she joined the viticultural team in 1993. Now, Riley operates her own viticultural consultancy company, Vitibit.
“We’re emotionally invested in our vineyards. They’re like extra children in our lives. You worry about them and try to guide them through the rough patches, and you love it when they turn out to be a resilient, enduring source of beautiful fruit.”
Since 2000, she has helped manage some of the best viticultural sites in the Hunter Valley, including the note-worthy Roxburgh Vineyard (renamed Olgilvie View in 2009), which was made famous in the 1980s and ’90s for its quality chardonnay. Riley and Vitibit provide vineyard management consultancy, advice for soil and grapevine management and nutrition, pest and disease scouting and mitigation techniques, even training and mentoring, among other things.
Vitibit also operates within other regions in NSW, such as Hilltops and Orange, parts of the Canberra District, the Granite Belt and Tasmania, on occasion. Riley is an integral member of the Scarborough Wine family business, having married Ian and Merralea Scarborough’s son Jerome, who makes fabulous wine from the fantastic fruit that Riley grows and manages throughout the year. Here she has been instrumental in nurturing the Scarborough vineyards, introducing the concept of sustainable viticulture, putting things in place for the next generation and ensuring a steady supply of high-quality grapes for Scarborough and the family to continue making fantastic wine now and into the future.
In 1997, Riley was awarded the Nuffield Farming scholarship to study sustainable agrochemical use in viticulture in Europe and North America. In 2008 she was the inaugural winner of the viticulturist award at the Australian Small Winemakers Show, before winning Viticulturist of the Year at the fifth annual Hunter Valley Legends Awards in 2011.
That same year, Riley was appointed to the board of directors of the Australian Wine and Research Institute, and was a finalist in the inaugural Australian Women in Wine Awards in 2015. In 2017, Riley was judged Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology Viticulturist of the Year. More recently she won a place in the top echelons of Australian wine, winning the 2020 Graham Gregory Award for outstanding contributions to the NSW industry.
So it makes more than enough sense that Riley now receives the WINE magazine Viticulturist of the Year award, joining a 25-year long history of many other esteemed winners.
“It’s amazing to be recognised by the WINE magazine, and I’m extremely humbled to be in the company of past recipients, who are all legendary and have made a significant contribution to the evolution of viticulture and wine in Australia,” says Riley.
Often viticulturists are the relatively unsung heroes of the wine industry, despite their fundamental role in the making of wine. That is changing, however – particularly with social media accounts, including
@viticulture_australia, where Riley is a keen contributor.
“We’re emotionally invested in our vineyards. They’re like extra children in our lives. You worry about them and try to guide them through the rough patches, and you love it when they turn out to be a resilient, enduring source of beautiful fruit.”
With women like Liz Riley at the forefront of viticulture in Australia, the future of our world-class vineyards is assured.
Photography by Chris Elfes
