Winemaker Philip Shaw is the recipient of the Roseworthy Campus Association Award of Merit.
Philip obtained two qualifications from Roseworthy – a Roseworthy Diploma in Agriculture in 1968 and a Roseworthy Diploma in Oenology in 1970.
Following his Oenology graduation, Philip was awarded the Rudi Buring Scholarship, enabling him to study large-scale wine operations in California.
Philip joined Lindemans at Corowa as head of production and then moved to Mildura to build the Karadoc Winery, to become the largest winery in Australia.
In 1980 after eight years at Mildura, where he was general manager, Philip transferred to Lindemans head office in Sydney, where he had responsibility for winery development and production for all the company’s wineries.
In 1982 Philip left Lindemans for Rosemount Estate Wines where, as head winemaker, he facilitated the growth of the company’s production of 20,000 cases in 1982 to 5.5 million cases in 2000.
When Rosemont and Southcorp Wines merged in 2001, the value of Rosemount had increased from just $4 million in 1982 to $1.4 billion.
Philip considers the merger occurred at the time of the peak of the Australian wine industry.
Due to the merger Philip became Southcorp Wines head of production.
Philip twice received the London International Wine and Spirit Competition’s International Winemaker of the Year Award, in 1986 and in 2000.
In 1991 Philip was the Qantas Gourmet Traveller wine magazine’s Australian Winemaker of the Year, and in 2000 was awarded the Graham Gregory Trophy for his outstanding contribution to the Australian wine industry.
In the late 1980s Philip had established his own vineyard, Koomooloo, at Orange in NSW and in 2004, following his resignation from Southcorp the previous year, with grapes mainly sourced from his Koomooloo vineyard, Philip established Philip Shaw Wines.
In 2015 Philip passed the management of Philip Shaw Wines to his sons, Damian and Daniel, and started a new wine brand, Hoosegg.
The focus was on using grapes from selected sites in the Koomooloo vineyard, making small batches of wine of exceptional quality.
“Such is Philip’s dedication to making wine of exceptional quality it is said that he personally plucks, pinches and polishes every grape that goes into Hoosegg wine,” says Andrew Eastick, president of the Roseworthy Campus Association.
Philip will be presented with his Award of Merit medallion and certificate at the Association’s annual dinner on Friday 16 October at the Feathers Hotel at Burnside, in the company of many of his fellow Roseworthy graduates.