IWC Lifetime Achievement 2012 - Dr Richard Smart

It would be tempting to imagine that the winner of our Lifetime Achievement started growing cress on a wet flannel rather earlier than most kids. Or maybe it was radishes in the back garden. His whole life has been about better ways to grow things, pursued with scientific rigour and a disregard for fashionable practices if the science doesn't stack up.

His first degree came at the age of 21, from Sydney University, in Agricultural Science. Three more degrees followed, at universities in Australia, the USA and South Africa. An M.Sc., then a Ph.D., finally a Doctor of Agricultural Science.

But our winner is very far from an ivory-tower academic. He may have co-authored a book, written 3 theses, 11 chapters in other books, 27 research papers, 76 papers at scientific conferences, 11 written reports and innumerable columns in wine industry publications in Australia and the USA, but he's a practical man at heart, happiest out in a vineyard.

And this is why he is in such demand as a consultant. His subject is viticulture, and he has long been an evangelist for the importance of what happens in the vineyard, before the grapes get to the cellar. In fact, it could well be our winner who coined the phrase, 'wine is made in the vineyard' before it was the ubiquitous maxim it is today. His particular area of expertise is canopy management, and his book, 'Sunlight into Wine', explains how to use canopy management to improve grape, and wine, quality.

For many years our winner has been the viticultural equivalent of Michel Rolland, jetting all over the world to help establish vineyards, and advise established growers how they could improve. Some refer to him as 'The Flying Vine Doctor'.

He has taught extensively as well, sharing his knowledge of how vines behave with students at universities in Australia and the USA.

He is still working as a viticultural consultant, and is always ready with a controversial opinion (the nonsense of biodynamic viticulture, for instance). And for what he has achieved in a lifetime's work among vines, and the improvements in viticulture he has championed, we are proud to name him the 2012 winner of the IWC Lifetime Achievement Award. He is Dr Richard Smart.